Skip to content

Category: Culture

The best that has been thought and written and why these ideals are difficult to meet.

April 23, 2019 | No comments

A Flood Of Evidence: From God To Noah To Hume To Nobody

Here are remarks on “Enlightenment & Sacrifice — Remarks on Joseph de Maistre” by Thomas Bertonneau, which I urge you to read in full. Bertonneau is reading de Maistre’s Elucidation on Sacrifices, in which is a dialogue, of which the most interesting part for us is this:

Take the Noachic Deluge, one of the topics in the Second Dialogue. Whereas, Maistre gives it to the Count to say, “We know very little about the time before the Flood,” yet “only one consideration is of interest to us.” The Count has in mind that “punishments are always proportional [to crimes] and crimes are always proportional to the knowledge of the guilty — so that the Flood presupposes unheard of crimes and these crimes assume knowledge infinitely1 higher than we possess today.”

This must be so. Consider that Satan does not doubt the existence of God, as we uncivilized people do. Satan’s knowledge of God, of right and wrong, is, as Maistre might have said, infinitely higher than ours. Satan must know that he requires the existence of God for himself to exist, especially since he (Satan) is an entirely immaterial creature. Yet Satan still rebelled. His punishment must be concomitantly proportional.

Eve did not doubt, nor did Adam. Nor did the people in Noah’s time. We doubt, we disbelieve. They knew. Yet still they rebelled. What an astonishing crime! It would be like if you said, “What the Hell”, and went on an elimination spree, cutting the throats of intruders disturbing your peace. You would know, in advance, what punishment you’d get, but it wouldn’t stop you. You’d show authority your back side. You know best.

Yet now we don’t believe, we doubt, we don’t know. It seems to follow our crimes are less, since our knowledge is less. And so too our punishment? Maybe it’s as Nicolas Gomez Davila said: “The modern world will not be punished. It is the punishment.”

This is only a minor observation on how far we have fallen. Read the rest of the essay for more. And then put your mind to the question of how far we have yet to go. What would define a bottom? How about when man declares all of mankind god, and when a first among equals is seen to be the embodiment of this spirit.

(1This use of infinitely was once common. It was not used in a numerical sense, but as of an order incomprehensibly higher. It is always well to speak of infinity as incomprehensible.)

Bertonneau continues:

This theory of lost knowledge links itself to the concept of supernatural enlightenment. Noah and his family, Maistre through the Count argues, must have honored a knowledge that they possessed while everyone else must have flouted the same knowledge so as to bring on themselves a cosmic enormity. In respect of the theory of knowledge, Maistre believes that modern epistemology suffers from a defect. The ancients, Maistre asserts, could see effects in causes. The modern epistemologist, by virtue so to speak of his egoistic limitation, can only “rise painfully from effects to causes”; or, what is even worse, he concerns himself “only with effects.” He therefore misjudges the ancients to the degree that he cannot imagine the spontaneity and fullness of original knowledge. The Count says that, “Plato, speaking of what is most important for man to know, suddenly adds with the penetrating simplicity natural to him: These things are learned easily and perfectly IF SOMEONE TEACHES THEM TO US.” How did the generations after Noah and his family rebuild their world? Was it by a painful beginning from the degree zero? Noah, possessing knowledge, taught it to them; and on that basis they rebuilt their world. Whence gleaned Noah that knowledge? Noah was privy to a primordial revelation. Maistre cites the Greco-Roman myth of the Golden Age, during which men governed themselves morally, and the legend of Manu, the lawgiver of the Hindus, as parallelisms. “Wise antiquity,” Maistre writes, “will tell you that the first men…were marvellous men, and that beings of a superior order deigned to favour them with the most precious communications.”

The lost knowledge was that communicated to man directly from God (or the gods), a reliable and necessary form of induction.

Maistre’s critique of modern epistemologists is sound. We have gone so far, in many case, as to deny knowledge of cause, a disease introduced by Hume and communicated orally ever since. To grasp an effect in a cause is to understand the power and nature of the cause, and these powers and natures are doubted or denied.

We do sometimes rise from effects to causes, but in the wrong way, as with much of statistical analysis, which ascribes occult causes to probability, powers which somehow—nobody knows how—act on parameters of probability models. Readers who got through this paper will understand this critique. (And if you haven’t read it, why not?) Cause is not direct in this way, but wiggles or is fuzzy. It is a bizarre view.

Effects also are perfectly compatible with probability models, which can always be agnostic on cause. But while predictions from these models might be useful, they are not revealing of nature. They are too often just a way to make a buck. It is the weakest form of science.

Noah, presumes Maistre, and conditional on accepting The Flood we have to agree, must have taught his descendants what he knew, what he learned directly from God and his messengers. Noah’s ancestors (the ones not guilty of sodomy, like Ham), in turn would have passed on what they learned, and so on down to us.

This process must have been, from simple observation, like the game of telephone carried on far too long. We have all but forgotten about the transcendent. Even those who remember it find it nearly impossible to live according to that knowledge, surrounded as we all are by scoffers.

This leaves open the possibility of God re-teaching ancient wisdom. But why would He? And if He doesn’t how far removed from Truth do we have to get before God declares and End to all?

April 22, 2019 | 4 Comments

Sing, Ye Gods, Of The Wrath Of Achilles — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

Remember the line ‘Sing, ye gods, of the wrath of Achilles’? First line of the Old Testament. I guess it depends on which Bible you are reading. In this case, I am referring to the Old Testament of the Pagan world, known as The Iliad. The Homeric tale of man and the gods. Followed by The Odyssey, the Pagan New Testament, also as told by Homer.

The reason I mention Paganism is because of a recent post on Briggs that included mention of a piece entitled ‘Old and New Paganism‘ by the Bronze Age Pagan (BAP). It occurred to me that people can’t really understand the New Paganism unless they understand the original version. And that means you have to understand The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Only then will you understand the point that BAP is trying to make. BAP is right, at least in the narrow sense, that there are three versions of Paganism alive today. But two of them don’t matter, because like most things in this fluffy PC world today, they are wimpy ersatz knock-offs of the real thing. Forget howling at the moon out in the sylvan wood. Forget meditating on Olympian glory like Julian the Apostate. Let’s look at the real thing, and see what it was really like. And how it has changed. But most importantly, why it still matters.

Much like the ancient Pagan scriptures noted above, the Jewish/Christian tomes were divided into an old and renewed testimony. Each half of this Bible was driven by an underlying theme. In the first half, the Mosaic thread related a message of God’s justice. A justice which mankind could not (read: ‘would not’) uphold. By their own human choice, of course. Free choice, driven by free will.

Then came The Christ (the Anointed One) who offered those who recognized their own personal failure a new choice. It was the choice of substituting His will for theirs. Freely, of course. None of this Mohammedan ‘free will at the point of a sword’ stuff.

The key to understanding the Son’s offer was that His will was in total conformance with His Father’s. Thy will be done. For those who would gratefully accept The Son’s perfect will (by denying their own fallen will), The Father’s mercy would be shown. That gift, mercy, is the driving theme of the second half of Jewish/Christian scripture. All of this is known and obvious to those who have half a brain (or even less) and who admit the existence of man’s free yet fallen will. That is to say, the vast minority of mankind.

What was the theme of The Iliad? The opening line says it all. Wrath. Open hostility, resulting in open warfare amongst all men. All of which mirrored the actions of the residents of the Olympian Heavens. In the Christian heavens, Lucifer left, and peace reigned. On Mt. Olympus, God left and wrath remained.

At a certain point, if you want to max out, you gotta shift gears. Only overdrive gives you escape velocity. After a decade of open warfare, Troy still stood. The idiot western Greeks had failed in their wrath. (You understand that the Trojans were also Greeks. They had to be, in order to understand each other’s insults. That’s what the entire dialog is about. Insults.)

Now we come to the second volume of the Pagan Bible, The Odyssey. The second half of the Pagan testimony has as it’s underlying theme Deception. You knew The Father of Lies would re-appear. Worked once, why not try it again? After all, ten years of open warfare amongst the Greeks, both West and East, had failed to destroy Troy. Time for a new play, Odysseus. Time for The Horse play.

Nearly everything since then in the anthropocentric world has been driven by this new theme of Deception. I’ve explained it all in my book, The Barbarian Bible. I’ll give you a condensed version here.

It is not for nothing that Odysseus was the grandson of Autolycus, the world’s greatest thief. And his grandson, Odysseus, would become the world’s greatest liar. As anyone in advertising will tell you, if they’re truthful, promise anything, just make the sale! The Odyssey was simply the tale of all the lies he spun on his way home after his greatest exploit. After he sold the greatest lie of the ancient world (after the first one, of course). Care for a free apple, friend? No? Well, how about a Horse? No, seriously, it’s free. Honest, go ahead, take it. It’s yours. All yours. Just open those gates, and roll it in! Go ahead, sucker.

(Yes, I know, the actual fall of Troy was not recounted in either of Homer’s epics, but rather, in Quintus of Smyrna’s book The War at Troy. But the underlying assumption of this Greek lie—that is, the supposed retreat of the western Greeks and how Troy actually fell—is the unspoken foundation of both The Iliad and The Odyssey).

Now the greatest lie you can sell someone outside of the Garden is one that totally disarms him. Leaves him naked. One that says that his mortal enemy has been defeated. They’re gone. And the natural conclusion to this crazy line of thought, of course, is that you are therefore victorious. Carry that a little farther, and you must be one of the gods! Welcome to The New American Century, citizen. Welcome to Mt. Olympus. Here, let me check your coat, sir. This way to the bar.

What’s that mean in our day and age, Priam? It’s Party time! Time to kick back and relax! Enjoy the victory. Even if there’s no dead enemy at your feet. He’s gone, so he must be defeated, right? Because if you can’t see him, he must not exist. Sound familiar, all you materialists?

That lie, that the enemy is forever gone, is what led the Trojans to drop their guard. That was the whole point of the exercise, Komrade. It worked once, beautifully. Why not run that play again? We’re going to see that play again. Soon.

Now that ‘our team’ has retired to the locker room for a premature celebration, the other team has returned. And they are stone-cold sober. But just like at Troy, our team is no longer sober enough to fight. They still think past glory equals future fate. We have bought the lie. We never imagined that our opponent’s old playbook of wrath, of open aggression, would be replaced by the new playbook theme of deception. Our boys have forgotten that coaches always make those crafty half-time adjustments. That’s the whole point of half-time. And coaches.

Here is where our frenemy, the Bronze Age Pagan has also fallen for the lie. BAP is still stuck in the Old Testament of ancient Paganism. He is still enthralled by the wrath that drove the ancient gods and their earthly acolytes. He has failed to see that the gods have shifted gears and that the new theme of deception is the true face of Paganism today. He rightly criticizes the ‘New Age’ Pagans for their wimpy (that is, academic) embrace of the old concept of Paganism. Why? Because BAP rightly understands the old theme of the ferocity that drove the ancient Pagan world. But he still thinks that ferocity is the way to truly connect with the spirits of the past. Yet time never stands still. And neither do the gods. As always, they are well ahead of us.

Know then, my brother, that thing we vaguely remember. Know that, before the coming of The Christ, there was no mercy in the Olympian skies, or upon the fallen earth. Watch the ancient Pagan vaunt his strength over the wounded opponent. Watch as he drives the spear-point home and then strips his victim’s body of its own ungodly armor. Watch and see that no mercy was ever shown to the vanquished. For mercy was an alien concept to them.

Mercy was an alien concept to another group of people as well. It was this same change of testamentary themes in the Judaic world that puzzled the Pharisees. And the Pharisees, who were equally enthralled by the righteous wrath of the elect, were blinded by this offer of mercy to those they despised. Blinded by the offer that came from the One they despised the most.

This embryonic Talmudic world, which had rejected Moses, was the same one that would kill The Christ. They would do so in the most merciless fashion possible. How was this different from the Pagan world of that same day? It wasn’t. Not different at all. It was simply another cruel display of strength. But is was kosher, right? Not a bone was broken. And the sacrificial offering was bled totally dry. That’s all that counted to them.

Yes, cruel strength, and the unmerciful display of that same strength, was the heart of the ancient world, whether Homeric or Pharisaic. It’s not for nothing that this preternatural strength is one of the three marks of demonic possession. A possession seen in the hubristic delight of the ancients, as they dispatched their mortally wounded opponents. No torment was too cruel for their taste. Dragging the dead body of Hector around Troy was the least they could do to show their version of honor. Honor, unto themselves.

BAP and the Pharisees of today are both puzzled and confused by this change in testamentary themes. Pagans of any stripe or spelling, whether enthralled by wrath, rubric or rumination, cannot understand the subtle logic of deceit. As a result, they have been left behind by their god-coaches who have recruited fresher and more nimble players who understand the new playbook. Think of the ‘Enlightenment’. Think of Voltaire. And Hegel. And Nietzsche. And all who have embraced them. Robespierre, Hitler, Lenin, Mao, Lincoln and Roosevelt. All of them.

Together, these new gods of deception have sold us a ‘new and improved’ Paganism. A Paganism that dares not speak its old name. A Paganism re-named, wrapped in the ‘truth of science’. A Paganism with a bland, calm face that bids us to ‘engage in dialogue’ that leads us calmly yet inexorably towards the same position their ancestors proclaimed with ferocity. A new and improved process that leads to more slaughter than the ancients could ever imagine, let alone deliver, to honor their gods, and themselves.

In the ancient world of Paganism, you had to pit your ferocity against perhaps an equally ferocious opponent. After all, there were plenty of team sponsors (the gods) in these original Olympics. An opponent equally armed, perhaps even better. Only by giving yourself completely over to the will of your particular god-coach (that is, by allowing yourself to be possessed, literally) could you hope to overpower your enemy and to dispatch him in the cruelest of ways. All of this was pleasing to the gods. On the seventh day they did not rest.

Today the gods have gone modern. Sure, they still delight in empowering individual acolytes to commit some horrific act that claims some individual’s mortal (and, they hope, immortal) life. Violent street crime is always smiled upon in Mt. Olympus. But why deal in ones and twos when you can industrialize the whole thing? Why engage in activity that requires micro-management when they can empower us with ‘modern science’ to scale up our evil? Why struggle to kill mankind one at a time, when these same gods can convince all of us to commit suicide? There is the key, my brothers. We are being exhorted to commit suicide. Forget about killing your opponent in pursuit of ancient Pagan glory, BAP. Get with the Times, my friend! The London Times, the NY Times, the End Times! The best way to honor the gods is to honor the earth. Honor Gaia by killing yourself for her.

Out with the old, in with the new. The new Pagan world where the god named Science has concluded, infallibly, that abortion is good. That willing chemical sterility is good. That the endless ‘war against terror’ is good too. That in this same brave new world, material satiety pursued to gluttony is also a good to be pursued. C’mon, citizen, let’s visit the concession stand and get some beers. Maybe an Oxycontin too. Why not? A drugged existence is also highly desirable in this new day. Ask the school nurse as she passes out the Ritalin to all those nasty young boys who refuse to behave like girls. In a pinch, if all else fails to eradicate us, for the enjoyment of those in the scientific clouds of Mt. Olympus, there is always the option of a nuclear war.

We are living in a virtual reality that has replaced true life. It is a reality where all of these conclusions and results are mass produced and automated. Now the entire world may enjoy what used to be the province of individual insanity. In our incredible pride, we have bought the lie. We now believe that we can re-make ourselves, in a better way than we began. And that better way is that we should never have been. This is our own new version of man. This is the true new Paganism. The deception of the gods here is this: the new and true modern Pagan doesn’t believe in the gods. The gods of Scientism have taught him that he cannot believe what he cannot see. In imitation of the One God, the gods have hidden themselves from man. Now man believes in neither.

To be a modern Pagan, all you have to do is to imagine that we are all there is. And that we can re-create a better Man. We have. We have molded the clay of the earth and brought him forth. We are breathing our own life into our own creations. They are the fruit of our hand. By their fruits we shall know them. Our Frankensteins are efficiently doing our will. The proof of it is right here before us. They are killing us all, in droves. If only we would see this reality. Yet we have looked upon it, and said it is good.

The deception is complete. So totally complete, because it is now self-deception. We have completely internalized the message of the gods. We think we are creating ‘the new man’. Scoot over, Lenin. It’s our turn now. With our implants and AI and 3-D printers, it’s just a matter of time. A very short time. I promise! If that is true, then we have become the new Creators, no? In which case, we must be gods ourselves. What a satisfying thought. Self-satisfying. Of course.

However, the bad news, which again we vaguely sense, is this; if we have become the new Olympians, then why does this place look just like Hell? There is still one bit of Good News left to us today. At least to us humans. That offer of mercy still stands. And as the TV pitchman always says, this offer is still good. But for a limited time only.

April 20, 2019 | 12 Comments

The Week In Doom —Religion In Flames Edition

Item Notre Dame Burns

“It hurts to watch this,” said Pierre-Eric Trimovillas, 32. “The cathedral is the symbol, the heart of Paris.”

The crowd gasped and cried in horror as the spire fell, Mr. Trimovillas said, adding, “Paris is beheaded.”

The crowds that had gathered were eerily calm, with little shouting or commotion.

Angelique de Almeida, 32, watched through tears. “We are going to lose her, everything is up in flames,” she said. “We lose this, we lose Paris. It is apocalyptic. And this is the Holy Week.”

If there was ever a metaphor—or an omen. France has been burning for quite a while. Does anybody have a count on how many minutes after the fire was first spotted before the media were assuring us it was an accident? (Or otherwise?)

Omen already confirmed: Architects And Historians Wonder: Maybe The New Notre Dame Should Be Less “Overburdened” With Christian Meaning. They even work in a bit of white supremacy in there.

But for some people in France, Notre Dame has also served as a deep-seated symbol of resentment, a monument to a deeply flawed institution and an idealized Christian European France that arguably never existed in the first place. “The building was so overburdened with meaning that its burning feels like an act of liberation,” says Patricio del Real, an architecture historian at Harvard University.

Erika Harlitz-Kern says “Give Notre Dame a Modern Roof the Alt-Right Will Hate: Medieval Europe was a crossroads of global influence, not a mythical all-white past. The new Notre Dame should reflect that.”

Jews are the real victims here. “Notre Dame and the Jews: The flames at Notre Dame Cathedral should remind Jews of the burning by that very same Catholic Church of tens of wagonloads of the Talmud in the Middle Ages.”

We have entered the final phase of the redemption of Israel and of all humanity and it is truly regrettable to see some of our Jewish brothers saddened by this fire when this building represents in all its strength the exile of Israel and the will to replace us.

Final phase? (All Godwin’s Law fans should stick around for his last sentence.) The Times of Israel says “Radical rabbi [Shlomo Aviner] says Notre Dame fire retribution for 13th-century Talmud burning”. Aviner said “Jews should not commit arson against churches, but also that there was no duty to be saddened by the fire”. Arson? “Christianity, he explained, ‘is our number one enemy throughout history…the Holocaust.'”

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency said “The world mourned for Notre Dame. But France still struggles to accept French Jews and Muslims.” “But the price of hog jowls continues to increase in Burma”.

Ben Shaprio tweeted (after previous tweets) “If we wish to uphold the beauty and profundity of the Notre Dame cathedral, that means re-familiarizing ourselves with the philosophy and religious principles that built it.” Bill Kristol responded (thanks to Anon for sending these), in which he said “The terms ‘uphold’ and ‘re-familiarizing’ are doing a lot of ambiguous work here. The plain fact is that one can respect the beauty and profundity of Notre Dame while choosing not to accept its religious principles (the vanquished synagoga?) or any variant of its ‘philosophy.'”

Kristol is it right. This is a battle of different “philosophies”. The people who cheered as the Cathedral burned would agree (here and here).

Why stop at Notre Dame? “College professor bought 1-way ticket to Rome before St. Patrick’s Cathedral arson attempt, police say.…A part-time philosophy professor was charged with attempted arson on Thursday after he entered a historic cathedral with gasoline and lighter fluid, investigators said.”

Item

The original CBS tweet was deleted after causing a furor. [Update: This one is too, alas.] Watch this copy and ask, May we now reason: TV producers incites violence. Therefore, it is okay to punch TV producers. Not convinced? More from the show: “Assassinate President Trump Bomb Device Explosive…Eliminate Mar-A-Lago” and many more.

Item There are now as many Americans who claim no religion as there are evangelicals and Catholics, a survey finds

For the first time “No Religion” has topped a survey of Americans’ religious identity, according to a new analysis by a political scientist. The non-religious edged out Catholics and evangelicals in the long-running General Social Survey.

Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor, found that 23.1% of Americans now claim no religion.

“Religious nones,” as they are called by researchers, are a diverse group made up of atheists, agnostics, the spiritual, and those who are no specific organized religion in particular. A rejection of organized religion is the common thread they share.

The fruits of ecumenicism have ripened.

If you are unwilling to say This is right, and that is wrong you must fall away to those who will.

Item Am I a Satanist? Are you? How Satanism is empowering the trans community

Am I a Satanist? I can see how someone might assume that. I do have that tattoo of the Baphomet pentacle. I’m wearing this upside-down serpent cross pretty much all the time. I’ve gone by the name Satana on a few other websites.

I named myself after Satan and I’m positively draped in demonic iconography. So far, it’s not looking so good.

I am an atheist…

Many trans people have found meaning and resonance with Satan…

When I asked my followers about the appeal of Satanic themes and aesthetics for them as trans people, my mentions erupted. There are so many more trans people who are into this than I expected, and their reasons for embracing the symbolism of Satan reflected some consistent motivations.

Many of them were inspired toward Satanism by the hostility of mainstream and conservative Christianity against queer and trans people.

That’ll show ’em.

Item Jewish Forward Why American Jews Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Put Israel First

The poll sought to determine, among other things, which country American Jews would side with in case of a serious confrontation between Israel and the United States. As such, it was rightly criticized for conjuring up the specter of “dual loyalty” that Jews in America and elsewhere have been accused of by their enemies. There’s certainly no need to provide extra grist for the anti-Semitic mill. Yet it’s also time to stop pretending that the loyalties of some American Jews aren’t divided between Israel and America. Of course they are. There’s just nothing wrong with it — nor is there anything uniquely Jewish about this. You’ll find plenty of similar cases in other places.

The truth is that any American Jew who doesn’t care as much about a Jewish state as he or she does about the United States can’t be very identified with the Jewish people. Suppose vital American and Israeli interests were to clash. What would it mean for a Jew to say: “I don’t give a damn what’s best for Israel. All that matters to me is what’s best for America”? What kind of Jew would that be? How deep could his or her Jewishness be said to go?

It’s not “dual loyalty” to have higher loyalty to another country than your own, and it’s anti-Jewish to suppose it is. This is a couple of years back, but it’s been re-bouncing around, and it pertinent to posts from two weeks ago.

Speaking of dual loyalty, no person ought to be allowed to serve in any Federal elected or otherwise high position if he hold dual citizenship. We should follow Israel, which does not allow this sort of thing. It must be obvious the person cannot be wholly trusted to do with is right for the country in which he lives, if there is any conflict, which there always is, with the other country. Imagine, say, a Somalia-USA dual-citizen Congressman.

Right?

Loyalty to a religion, or to God, is of course another matter. But it does not apply to national politics, since Heaven doesn’t issue passports.

Item Malls are closing

Foot traffic at some of the best shopping centers across the country peaked around August 2018 and has since started to fall, after rebounding for much of last year, according to a new report from data analytics firm Thasos, which uses more than 100 million mobile phones to track when consumers enter and leave certain trade areas.

Don’t worry. They’d never use that information against you.

Item Students, alumni outraged, ‘shaking’ after Vice President Pence invited to give commencement (ellipses after first original)

Vice President Mike Pence is getting pushback from Taylor University students and alumni after the small evangelical Christian school tapped the former Indiana governor to be this year’s commencement speaker…

One Taylor grad said the school, “should be ashamed…I am physically shaking…I feel personally attacked,” but not all alumni agree and Taylor officials said they are standing by their decision.

This is a Christian university inviting a Christian speaker. Sodomy is now a sacrament, and those who deny it are heretics.

Item Two Confederate statues are being replaced in the Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol, with civil-rights activist Daisy Gatson Bates and musician Johnny Cash.

The Civil War never happened, and even if it did, everyone in the south was a racist.

Item Time Magazine Endorses Transgender Claim of ‘Female Penis’

No one should give Time any time.

Item MSNBC Guest: Barr Presser is Nothing But ‘Performative Coonery’

Ladies & Gentlemen, we have a winner in the Best New Compound Noun Contest! Congratulations to MSNBC Guest Elie Mystal.

April 18, 2019 | 7 Comments

Help Wanted — Christians Need Not Apply

So the University of Colorado posted a Help Wanted sign in its windows hoping to nab a new president. Fellow named Mark Kennedy applied.

Did well in the interviews, too. Story goes “the regents unanimously selected the outgoing University of North Dakota president as their only finalist for the position.”

But then some (we imagine) Studies graduate discovered Kennedy was a Christian. Worse, a believing Christian, a fact which Kennedy had failed to disclose.

“I really question whether or not he has the qualifications to lead as exemplary a university as the one in Colorado and whether he has the best interests of students at the forefront,” said this female.

This revelation led a trustee to waver. She tweeted, “Some information about Mark has come to light that is concerning; my colleagues and I will be exploring this further.” Mark? She must know the man well to call him by his first name while kicking him.

“While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, Kennedy voted to restrict abortion rights, voted in support of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and voted to restrict bankruptcy rules.”

The complainant said Kennedy’s consideration “sends a harmful message to the women on campus, and it also sends a harmful message to the gay students.” Even though Kennedy himself said gmarriage is a “settled issue”.

Another report says “Colorado residents bombarded regents with complaints that Kennedy voted against same-sex marriage and a woman’s right to choose.”

Right to choose to kill the lives inside them when those lives are a burden.

Evidence of Kennedy’s evilness was thin, which prompted some to create imaginary evidence, which, as all know, can be even more damaging than real evidence. “@CURegentKroll serious question, wld u be ‘excited 2 have a leader of Mark Kennedy’s caliber’ if he had supported a constitutional amendment 2 deny rights to an ethnic group?”

Kennedy hadn’t so voted, but imagine if he did!

The report also said “Regent Smith told the Boulder Daily Camera that Kennedy’s voting record never came up during a two-hour interview…’I imagine that will be a question when he goes to forums, and I want to see how he responds and in return how the community responds to his responses,’ Smith told the paper.”

This gives the regents a face-saving possibility of dumping Kennedy. “Sorry, old fellow, the screaming mob didn’t like you.”

We met Israel Folau before. Remember him? The Australian Christian rugby player who caused controversy by stating, in public, that he believed Christian teachings on human sexuality.

Folau posted online an image that read (I’m adding punctuation) “WARNING: Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolators. HELL AWAITS YOU. Repent! Only Jesus Saves.”

Now one would think this was cheering news. Sin can be forgiven! Isn’t that nice? (I sure think so, for I am a great sinner in need of much forgiveness.)

Make that ex-rugby player. For Foulau was finally canned for speaking in public about his beliefs. (Thanks again to K.A. Rodgers for the tip.)

One report says “The NRL appears to have ruled out any prospect of Israel Folau returning to the game after ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie said the rugby star had no support from league officialdom.”

“Israel Folau doesn’t pass our inclusiveness culture, which is a policy strongly supported by the ARLC,” Beattie said. Inclusive exclusive of Christian (and Islamic) beliefs, he meant.

Chief executive Todd Greenberg of Folau’s team said “There are young boys and girls who will read that (anti-homosexual posts) and find it hard to deal with because Israel has a large profile. That would not have been his intent, but it is very damaging to some people.”

Rather, it is damaging not to read and heed the advice Folau so generously gave.

The conservative publication Forbes said Rugby Australia has “shown leadership” by firing Folau for speaking about Christian teachings.

Well, this is true. For it takes a leader to “give the sack”.

Forbes said “had been warned a year ago about posting anti-LGBTIQ content and had signed a new contract with Rugby Australia which is thought to contain a clause that specifically prohibits him from expressing such beliefs.” (This turns out not to be true: Rugby Australia bungled Folau contract: report, “Rugby Australia bungled its contract negotiations with Israel Folau by failing to insert social media restraints, according to a Sydney media report.”)

Imagine that. God Himself is, of course, anti-LGBTIQ. God-Jesus-Holy Spirit was quoted as saying “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, because it is an abomination.” And that was only once instance of the Almighty’s “homophobic” stance.

Rugby Australia is doing its level best to make sure kiddies don’t hear that “prehistoric…hateful” message.

Finally(!), did you notice something important about these two stories? Nobody condemned Kennedy or Folau for being thievophobic, nor drunkophobic, adultererophobic, liarophobic, fornicatorophobic, atheistophobbic, nor idolatrophobic. Just “homophobic.” This isn’t because thieving is something you do and homosexual is something you are: there are no such things as homosexuals, for if there “are” homosexuals there are also necrophiliacs, pedophiles, and thieves.

Why the difference?

Bonus Late Doom Bulletin Folau a disservice to Christianity: NZ Catholic Church (Thanks again to K.A. Rogers)

The New Zealand Catholic Church has spoken out against controversial rugby star Israel Folau saying he has done a disservice to the church following his comments against homosexuals…

Following the fallout, New Zealand Catholic Church spokeswoman Dame Lyndsay Freer told the Herald she feels Folau’s words are damaging to the Christian faith and believes he portrays God’s messages in a negative light.

“I feel very sorry for what Israel Folau has done. I don’t think he’s done himself and I don’t think he’s done our Christian faith any great service by saying what he’s said and putting it the way he did,” she said in an exclusive interview with the Herald.

“Because that’s presenting God as a God of punishment and a God of vengeance, not a God of love, and mercy and compassion…

“Pope Francis is big on God being a God of love, not a God of judgement.”

One of the dangers of not reading the Bible is coming to views like this, views which are definite proof we are losing. Worth reminded us that no one spoke of Hell more than Jesus? Nah.