Reflections, Part More and Scattershooting
1/10/08 - 5th Day - After Dinner. I got an Ipod. Not that I had a burning desire for the latest piece of technology, but it happened that I was owed a spot of money, and the fellow had a brand new Ipod that he did not want or need, and so I bartered for it. It is a 30 gig video Ipod. One of the first things I loaded onto it was the Puritan Prayers from the Valley of Vision. If you haven't purchased the Valley of Vision yet, then you are not doing yourself a service. The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan Prayers in print. I bought the leather version which is bound like a Bible, and I keep it in my camping gear and read it anytime I sleep in the bush. Anyway, they have an audio version read by Max McLean which is really great. I uploaded them into my computer as MP3's and then loaded them onto my new Ipod. I like to listen to them in the morning as I start my day. I want to learn to pray, and this is a good way to learn.
I was reflecting in the last post about the War of Northern Aggression, and I had recommended the Warriors of Honor DVD to anyone who wants to have a firm grasp on the real reasons for the war. Though it hints at it, the documentary fails to emphasize that the real reason behind the war was the insatiable greed and covetous of northern industrialism, and their desire to see the south as both a market for northern industrial goods, and as a source of industrial raw materials at cheap prices. The entire myth of a "backwards" south full of inbred, racist, ignorant, crackers was started by an unholy alliance between the industrial/commercial banking powers, and the liberals in yankee pulpits who could not stand that the mantle of conservative Puritanism had departed the north and had rested upon the fiery preachers of the South. It is a fact that the greatest division between north and south was in doctrine, and not in the several opinions of slavery. The north had, since the mid 1770's imbibed first Arminianism and then liberalism, to the point that the yankee "church" had become purely secular and humanist by the mid 1850's. Here is a quote from an article by Steve Wilkins that was recently posted on our BiblicalAgrarianism.com forum:
I have also been commenting on my recent re-reading of Robinson Crusoe. If one is aware and is paying attention, the same themes make themselves evident in this book. First of all the book is basically a long conversion narrative, and I was not surprised to read that Defoe was a great fan of the conversion narrative, as a Puritan and the son of a Puritan dissenter. Second, Crusoe makes a point of emphasizing how worthless money is in a situation where God has separated someone (or some group) from the rest of the wicked society. Crusoe looks at the money that he saved from the sinking ship as more worthless than dust, and utterly useless to him. A tobacco pipe, or a dram or rum, or a small handful of corn and rice seed, however, was priceless to him. This made me think of how quickly we compromise by continuing in buying the world's goods. We convince ourselves that money will always be necessary, and we make decisions based on comfort and ease, rather than on how dependent we become on those things money can buy. I see in the book a condemnation of capitalism (though the idea of "capital" and "capitalism" wasn't created for some time after the book was written). The things of greatest value on a deserted island were more concrete - like a Bible, some goats, tobacco, tools, etc. Crusoe prays for and desires "society" or conversation with like-minded people, but he praises God for the solitude and the separation from covetousness and from the wickedness of the world. Sounds like an advertisement for Biblical Agrarianism to me.
Ok, so back to some scattershooting:
For those of you who like good music, here are some sites to visit and check out. Americanaroots.com is a great site for good roots music. They have tons of free music on that site and I found that I could subscribe to their podcast on Itunes and upload it into my new Ipod. They also have an internet radio station. The same folks that run that site have a new site called Emugga.com, which is similar to Myspace for music groups and artists, but the real roots music folks will be much more satisfied with the amount of attention and play you get from Emugga.
This idiot thinks Ron Paul is the Antichrist. Ron Paul is NOT the Antichrist, but, as I said last week - he does love the Antichrist.
Warning, Sarcasm and Satire to follow...
This pervert pastor was sending obscene text messages to young girls. Now, I have long said that Romanism, Arminianism, and Charismania will always eventually lead to sexual deviancy. My suggestion for the pastor's defense, however, is that he point out that at least he was wanting to molest young girls and not young boys, which would be sick.
EQUAL TIME: Catholic Pedophile Priests, the Effect on Society
EQUAL EQUAL TIME: Remember how the Catholics always belittle the millions and millions of murders by their Popes and Jesuits by claiming that "though there were some 'isolated excesses', the numbers claimed by Protestants are all a myth? Here is a Catholic Pedophile defender who claims that the "Pedophile Priest" phenomena is a myth!
A recent romanist commenter pointed out that the 10's of millions killed by the Roman Church had to be a myth, because the population of Europe didn't reach 40 million until XYZ year. Classic dissembling and propaganda. No one has claimed that the Church killed 100 million at the same time, or all in one country, or even all in Europe. What BS! They always admit "some excesses" when they deny the facts of history. Funny that when someone rejects the 6 million Jews killed number put forth by the Holocaust machine, they are called "history revisionists", "haters", and "anti-semites". But if someone denies that 10's of millions of people were killed by the Romanist Church, they can lie all day long and they are not accused of actual history revisionism. Message to the Romanist Agrarian real holocaust denier: Start counting with the millions killed in this hemisphere by the Papist Spanish and move forward from there. Read Robinson Crusoe where Defoe rightly identifies the "Spaniard" as the most hateful, murderous, frightful being in existence. It is pretty sad when cannibals look on your Church as a murderous and godless rabble. Read the G.A. Henty books, books based on actual history and not the made-up history that the Papal Church peddles. Sailors in the 1600's prayed that if they must be captured, they would much rather be enslaved by the Moors, or eaten by savages, then to be captured by the Spanish and maybe turned over to the Inquisition. I wonder what the Jews and other modernists would do if the Germans admitted "some excesses", but denied the Holocaust?
I remain Anti-Antichrist,
Michael Bunker
I was reflecting in the last post about the War of Northern Aggression, and I had recommended the Warriors of Honor DVD to anyone who wants to have a firm grasp on the real reasons for the war. Though it hints at it, the documentary fails to emphasize that the real reason behind the war was the insatiable greed and covetous of northern industrialism, and their desire to see the south as both a market for northern industrial goods, and as a source of industrial raw materials at cheap prices. The entire myth of a "backwards" south full of inbred, racist, ignorant, crackers was started by an unholy alliance between the industrial/commercial banking powers, and the liberals in yankee pulpits who could not stand that the mantle of conservative Puritanism had departed the north and had rested upon the fiery preachers of the South. It is a fact that the greatest division between north and south was in doctrine, and not in the several opinions of slavery. The north had, since the mid 1770's imbibed first Arminianism and then liberalism, to the point that the yankee "church" had become purely secular and humanist by the mid 1850's. Here is a quote from an article by Steve Wilkins that was recently posted on our BiblicalAgrarianism.com forum:
The New England intellectuals made Reason the supreme authority in matters of both faith and life. The Bible was rejected as a book full of errors, myths, and contradictions, while its doctrines of human depravity and God's sovereignty were denounced as the enemies of "progress." The ultimate authority was to be found in man rather than in the Book. Basic doctrines were abandoned. The fall of mankind was myth not fact. Evil was merely the consequence of man's environment or his lack of education, not his nature.The division, then, was between a conservative, agrarian, freedom loving, Calvinistic south, and a liberal, industrial, government loving, Arminian north. These are the divisions that made war inevitable, and it is these divisions that also should make the war perennial. Only by casting off its religion did the south succumb to reconstruction. The documentary would have done well to drive home this point, though it does well at what it does.
Salvation was the job of social reform, not God's grace. "Reform" became the new religion of the north. Ridding the world of "abuses" took the place of evangelism as the means of salvation.
The South, to the contrary, was never congenial to religious skepticism. Even prominent Southerners like Jefferson had little influence. Throughout the nineteenth century, the South grew more and more united in its theological commitment. In Civilization of the Old South, Clement Eaton states that by 1860, "All classes in the South adhered to a conservative faith, a common orthodoxy. The variations between the different forms of Protestantism...were principally in matters of ritual such as baptism and communion...In the beliefs that mattered -- the role of the supernatural in life, the efficacy of prayer, ideas of sin, salvation, and an over-ruling providence -- there was virtually no disagreement."
I have also been commenting on my recent re-reading of Robinson Crusoe. If one is aware and is paying attention, the same themes make themselves evident in this book. First of all the book is basically a long conversion narrative, and I was not surprised to read that Defoe was a great fan of the conversion narrative, as a Puritan and the son of a Puritan dissenter. Second, Crusoe makes a point of emphasizing how worthless money is in a situation where God has separated someone (or some group) from the rest of the wicked society. Crusoe looks at the money that he saved from the sinking ship as more worthless than dust, and utterly useless to him. A tobacco pipe, or a dram or rum, or a small handful of corn and rice seed, however, was priceless to him. This made me think of how quickly we compromise by continuing in buying the world's goods. We convince ourselves that money will always be necessary, and we make decisions based on comfort and ease, rather than on how dependent we become on those things money can buy. I see in the book a condemnation of capitalism (though the idea of "capital" and "capitalism" wasn't created for some time after the book was written). The things of greatest value on a deserted island were more concrete - like a Bible, some goats, tobacco, tools, etc. Crusoe prays for and desires "society" or conversation with like-minded people, but he praises God for the solitude and the separation from covetousness and from the wickedness of the world. Sounds like an advertisement for Biblical Agrarianism to me.
Ok, so back to some scattershooting:
For those of you who like good music, here are some sites to visit and check out. Americanaroots.com is a great site for good roots music. They have tons of free music on that site and I found that I could subscribe to their podcast on Itunes and upload it into my new Ipod. They also have an internet radio station. The same folks that run that site have a new site called Emugga.com, which is similar to Myspace for music groups and artists, but the real roots music folks will be much more satisfied with the amount of attention and play you get from Emugga.
This idiot thinks Ron Paul is the Antichrist. Ron Paul is NOT the Antichrist, but, as I said last week - he does love the Antichrist.
Warning, Sarcasm and Satire to follow...
This pervert pastor was sending obscene text messages to young girls. Now, I have long said that Romanism, Arminianism, and Charismania will always eventually lead to sexual deviancy. My suggestion for the pastor's defense, however, is that he point out that at least he was wanting to molest young girls and not young boys, which would be sick.
EQUAL TIME: Catholic Pedophile Priests, the Effect on Society
EQUAL EQUAL TIME: Remember how the Catholics always belittle the millions and millions of murders by their Popes and Jesuits by claiming that "though there were some 'isolated excesses', the numbers claimed by Protestants are all a myth? Here is a Catholic Pedophile defender who claims that the "Pedophile Priest" phenomena is a myth!
A recent romanist commenter pointed out that the 10's of millions killed by the Roman Church had to be a myth, because the population of Europe didn't reach 40 million until XYZ year. Classic dissembling and propaganda. No one has claimed that the Church killed 100 million at the same time, or all in one country, or even all in Europe. What BS! They always admit "some excesses" when they deny the facts of history. Funny that when someone rejects the 6 million Jews killed number put forth by the Holocaust machine, they are called "history revisionists", "haters", and "anti-semites". But if someone denies that 10's of millions of people were killed by the Romanist Church, they can lie all day long and they are not accused of actual history revisionism. Message to the Romanist Agrarian real holocaust denier: Start counting with the millions killed in this hemisphere by the Papist Spanish and move forward from there. Read Robinson Crusoe where Defoe rightly identifies the "Spaniard" as the most hateful, murderous, frightful being in existence. It is pretty sad when cannibals look on your Church as a murderous and godless rabble. Read the G.A. Henty books, books based on actual history and not the made-up history that the Papal Church peddles. Sailors in the 1600's prayed that if they must be captured, they would much rather be enslaved by the Moors, or eaten by savages, then to be captured by the Spanish and maybe turned over to the Inquisition. I wonder what the Jews and other modernists would do if the Germans admitted "some excesses", but denied the Holocaust?
I remain Anti-Antichrist,
Michael Bunker
posted by Michael Bunker at 1/10/2008 10:20:00 AM
6 Comments:
My favorite writer once said, "History will be wholly false unless it is helped by legend." I am compelled to ponder that at least part of his intention was that all men of good will yearn for truth; truth, as opposed to modern scientific "fact".
Ah, when I but hear Jeanne d'Arc say:
"The men will fight and God will grant them victory",
or conjure the spirit of Lepanto:
"Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince once stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half-attained stall,
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,
The last and lingering troubador to whom the bird has sung,
That once went singing southward when all the world was young,
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,..."
What I'm saying, for what it's worth, is that while I vehemently disagree with your perspective, I do respect and admire your zeal. And if I were given a choice of the stale, scientific, industrialized version of history or yours - I would choose yours every day of the week.
May God bless you and your family.
In Christ,
The Catholic Agrarian,
Steve Thompson.
I am greatly gratified that a sincere love for truth and the desire to spare no labor in the search of it has produced a system whereby facts, truth, and history, need not be mutually exclusive. I am not willing to sacrifice one for the other, or to accept legend to the exclusion of "facts". To call a fact "modern" or "scientific" does nothing to sustain or abandon it as truth or a lie. I reject science that is not true, facts that are not true, and history that is not true. Therefore to reject the stale, industrialized version of history is only admirable if to do so allows and encourages us to embrace truth as it is, as opposed to how we want it to be. The Catholic version of history is comfortable, and it allows men to go on with their lives without those pesky pangs of conscience that would otherwise burden them. However, it might benefit them to know that their freedom to embrace this history or that history is solely founded on the fact that their ancestors were not of the millions brutally murdered by the adherents of the Church of Rome. A peasant historian in China today, who engages himself to defend the purges and follies of Mao would be wise to thank whatever "god" or system he serves that he was not of the millions of lines of heritage wiped off the map by the system he now praises. I am no troubador and I am no knight, but I do appreciate irony no matter where I find it.
Michael
I've often considered starting a blog of my own, but when I realize how difficult it is to respond to posts even in others' blogs, the reality of time just doesn't seems to fit.
To very loosely paraphrase my kids most oft quoted movie, "I do not think I mean what you think I mean." (If you really want to get a flavor of what I mean, I am afraid that you'll have to read another Catholic; G.K. Chesterton.)
One would not reject truth labeled modern, scientific or even "legend". One should reject anything that isn't true, of course - which is why I am compelled to reject (as I previously stated) your version of history (but still admire your fervor and zeal.) You can direct one to the fictional writings (based on 'real history' as you say) of Defoe or Henty, etc., and I could direct to historians such as Warren & Anne Carroll or Regine Pernoud, for example. We could talk about how the Inquisition was the most desired court in all of Europe among the accused, and why. And we could really, really have fun with "10's of millions" murdered by Catholics. I could inquire as to why the true accounts of Catholics fleeing for their lives, and the thousands that lost their lives, at the hands of bloodthirsty protestants in Germany, England, France; and indeed all over the world - including America - always seem to be carefully ommitted from the pristine protestant historical record. We could argue about all kinds of things, and get into a pillow fight over who's historians' history is really, really true. But what's the point? Somehow, I doubt either of us will be convinced.
Tell you what. I'll pray for you, and if you don't mind, pray for me. That way we'll both profit.
God Bless.
Steve Thompson
Steve,
I encourage you to start a blog. You can block all comments, which still provides some catharsis.
I am well acquainted with Chesterton. I quoted him in my first book. He is imminently quotable, though he is often very clever and capable of beautifully saying not much at all, and of memorably and hilariously saying wrong things. Your earlier quote about history is taken from a long ramble and its context should be noted... he is utilizing a tactic that is well known, though most people might not recognize it. He is claiming that cold "scientific" facts may be singly true, but not wholly true without their context and without the other important facts that weren't recorded. This seems like a great point for those out there who are easily corrupted by lawyers and scribes. I cannot fail to mention the irony in you leaving out the context of the quote when speaking to what you call "protestants" What the careful reader may want to note is that he is making the argument that history is meaningless and false without tradition. THE history he is declaring meaningless and false without tradition is THE BIBLE. You see, it is a whole lot easier to falsify the the facts that were not recorded (tradition) than it is to falsify the unfalsifiable record. Some points before I leave you...
1. It is good for you to admit the excesses - especially the 10's of millions murdered. I have never denied the "thousands" who have had to flee their homes. If it were up to me, there would be millions more. Catholics were once barred from voting and owning land in this country. Would that those laws had been maintained.
2. Catholics do not want to own their own documented history, while they want to shove their made up traditions down everyone elses throats. They make hay by lumping everyone who disagrees with them into the pot of "protestantism", while they lump every "church father" who ever wrote, even before the advent of the Romanist apostasy, into the "Catholic" church.
3. The history you call "pristine protestantism" (history is neither pristine nor protestant) surely identifies and excoriates Protestant wrongs and even murders. I don't know of any "protestant" who denies those. Protestants have no mother church who claims infallibility or innerrancy. Catholics don't get it both ways. They don't get to convict everyone who rightly identifies the Papacy as Antichrist as a "protestant" as if some such monolithic entity exists, and then make as their central argument against "protestantism" that their are multitudes of sects and denominations, none united or connected under any single flag or creed. Neither do they, while they decry the independence and disunity of "protestants", get to hang murders and tyrannies by Presbyterian and Anglican "protestants" on the neck of Baptists who also suffered at their hands.
The problem with Catholics is that they are not only ignorant of scripture and of history, but they are fundamentally dishonest... as if God doesn't know their hearts.
Thanks for the compliments though, and I'm glad you read the blog. Stick around, I do enjoy your comments... on occasion.
Michael
The problem with Catholics is that they are not only ignorant of scripture and of history, but they are fundamentally dishonest... as if God doesn't know their hearts.
Funny. Not that I'm trying to be cute, but Catholics perceive (and often talk about) protestants identically.
Steve
Steve,
You seem to think that what people can say, versus what they can prove, are the same thing. Which proves my point. You insist on creating this mythic monolithic "protestantism" which Catholics altogether decry, even though Catholics deny such a monolith (out of the other side of their mouths) to aid in recruiting. There is no such thing as "protestants" - as if they all believe the same things. This is part of the Romanist lie, so the difference between me and you is that I can prove what I say, while you have to build straw men... think about it.
I've proven it just in my discussion with you. I can use Catholic (with is a monolith) arguments to prove my points, and have even pointed to that fundamental dishonesty during this discussion.
You stay on message, even when you deny what Catholics say is the "problem" with protestantism. If you continue to comment long enough, you will soon enough argue on the other side of the issue.
Michael
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