Homo Islamicus versus Homo Ignoramus

Aside from inept Joe Biden and his woke generals who are all overdue for retirement, incarceration or better, what is the base reason for our Afghanistan failures over the past 20-years  - and especially for our inept withdrawal?

Sure, we can cite a number of things:

• We can cite our overly polite rules of engagement with roots in Korea and Vietnam (remember My Lai). We were up against asymmetrical rules of engagement in BOTH places.
• We can cite our deluded mission to “nation build” –to transform a 2,000+ year old tribal culture into a “democracy.”
• We can cite out of touch generals and colonels and Pentagon suits.
• We can cite the greed of the military/industrial complex that profited greatly by perpetuating the conflict.

This could be a really really long list. But what is the overarching reason for our failure?

Here it is:  Our failure to understand “Homo Islamicus.”

“Homo” is “man” as in “mankind” or “human”.  “Islamicus” is the Muslim ideology and culture, including the Islamic economic system.

Together, the words, as described from one source, are…

“The metaphor that explains that Muslims are a specific species or race, with no links to the rest of human beings.”

Source: New Portrayals of the Arab World in TV Series

Some will deem this definition to be excessively harsh or “Islamophobic.” But in the midst of battle it rings true.

The more politically correct definition derives from Islamic economics as distinguished from “homo economicus” or “the economic man.”

Homo economicus is "the human species in its capability to rationally decide, that is, essentially that people [individuals] will act in their own best interest when making decisions."

That represents the Western, non-Islamic mindset.

In contrast, the most important difference between Homo islamicus and Homo economicus is the assumption of altruism. As with other pre-capitalist systems, Islam is preoccupied with the welfare of a community [emphasis added] where every individual behaves altruistically and according to religious norms.

Source: (PDF) Self-Interest, Homo Islamicus and Some Behavioral Assumptions

in Islamic Economics and Finance (researchgate.net)

The Islamic culture operates more like a colony of ants:  collectively, communally, communistically. Western culture  operates more individually, with individual liberties – an emphasis on self-interest versus group interest.

This helps explain why there appears to be a natural alliance between Muslims and Communists/leftists in the United States:  Their common bond of “collectivism.”

It also explains our lack of unity and divergent interests in our engagement in Afghanistan. In essence, we had an “every level of command for itself” mindset.  The suits versus the flag officers, versus the middle ranks, versus the grunts. They each had their own agenda.  The top end to preserve careers and retirement; the bottom end to survive another hard day.

While “ignarus hominum” is the more correct Latin translation of “ignorant human”, I prefer the phrase “homo ignoramus” to contrast with the reason for our many Afghanistan failures:  Our failure to understand and adapt to “homo Islamicus.”

Lesson learned?  We need to have a much better, existential threat-type reason to engage in future foreign wars:  One that unites us – creates natural '”altruism” – to a greater degree than that possessed by the enemy we engage.

Carnage in Kabul–thank you Joe!

Mayhem and carnage at the Kabul airport and vicinity. Many US servicemen killed by Islamic faithful.

There are multiple reasons for our nation’s gross failure in Afghanistan:

• First, we can  thank our White House resident for the thoughtless, ill-conceived manner of our final pullout and denying that he was warned about rapid Taliban advances.  But who knows the truth about whether he was really warned or not? Was this method of withdrawal purposeful or just ineptness?
• Next, our complicit and deeply compromised State Department has been dominated by a combination of Communist and Islamic interests. They see an opportunity for “nation building” behind every Islamic terror group.
• Our intelligence services were gutted under Obama, filled with Islamic sympathizers who fail to distinguish the difference between a Taliban/ISIS jihadi and a Boy Scout.
• Our “rules of engagement” were formed by the media’s reaction to the My Lai “massacre” when Lt. Calley eliminated known Viet Cong in a village.  He was the poster boy for non-engagement with the enemy for the next six decades – up to and including our brutal loss in Afghanistan.

Russia and the Taliban allegedly warned us about these attacks.  Why are foreign entities (including Italy, Russia, others) better informed about pending attacks in Kabul than US intelligence services? And obviously those warnings had no effect.  Why not?

Ironically, US Military leaders in a press conference just this afternoon advised that they “use the Taliban as a tool to assist…they are useful to work with…[we have] common interests…” Really?

We just learned that US officials in Afghanistan provided lists of Americans and Afghan allies that need to get to the airport to the Taliban.  (and read HERE.)  What could possible go wrong with that?

The left in the US is all a-twitter that the Taliban told everyone they are behind the fight against “global warming.” Yes, a dark ages, barbaric culture emits fewer greenhouse gases. The Biden administration has recently praised the Taliban for their interest in curbing “global warming.”  We cant’ make this stuff up.

Along with believing that the Taliban is now our ally, we are told that ISIS-K is the actual bombing perpetrator and the Taliban warned us of the pending attack.  Wonderful. A clever ploy. But we fail to acknowledge the fact that the Taliban and  ISIS play off each other  as good cop/bad cop.  They are both on the same page in promoting “pure Islam.”  The US falls for and falsely promotes the idea that the Taliban has become “moderate.” And our gullible, compromised intelligence services and State Department actually believe this.

At today’s first press conference, by our military, our generals spent 10 minutes describing the high tech equipment they are using at the Kabul airport to keep everyone safe – the very same equipment we relied upon to lose the war.  They are so full of bloviating bullshit.

Personally, I wouldn’t trust the US military brass as far as I could throw them – useless!

And what is the result of our vetting at the Kabul airport?

“The Hungarian Defense Forces’ Top General said in an interview that during and on one of the NATO evacuation flights an afghan evacuee was caught assembling an explosive device.

“Why are we bringing these genocidal savages here and leaving our people behind? We are under siege by the Democrat criminal party.”

The Biden/Harris/Pelosi infiltrators need to be removed from power.  How?  And who can replace them? We have no idea.  They are entrenched via sketchy voting systems.

Several religious denominations are convinced that our nation finds itself in rapid decline due to our unfaithfulness and apostacy.

Whatever the reason, praying for our troops, our nation, and one another is a good first step for those of us who still trust God.

A fool and his nation are soon parted…

Some US churches understand the threat of importing more Muslims to the US, especially from nations with known hoards of Islamic terrorists practicing the purest version of Islam. Sadly, most, like the Catholic church and the many liberal protestant denominations actually act as an agent of our socialist government by accepting taxpayer paid grants to relocate hundreds of thousands of unvetted immigrants in towns across the nation.

The Continuing Church of God devotes a lot of bandwidth to this problem.  Here is a summary of their quote expressing Russian President Putin’s concerns:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday offered his detailed and blunt perspective on what he sees as the lasting negative security fallout to Russia and the region from the rapid collapse of the Afghan national government and ongoing crisis.

“Our Western partners are persistently raising the question of placing refugees in Central Asian countries before obtaining visas to the United States or other countries,” he said before a meeting of officials of the ruling United Russia party. He explained this presents the potential for the spread of terrorism, given anyone can now flow out of the war-torn country “disguised as refugees”.  …

“Who are these refugees? How can we tell? There may be thousands, or even millions,” Putin posed. “The border is a thousand kilometers – they will get on everything, a car, even a donkey, and flee across the steppe.””

No donkeys are needed to bring them to the US.  We will pay to fly them all in.

This raises a serious question about national leadership:  Who is the wiser President?  Biden who [falsely] claims that Afghan refugees will be “thoroughly vetted” or Putin who [correctly] claims that it is not possible to vet refugees from Islamic war zones [even if they possessed ID, which most do not.]

To alter a paraphrase from Michelle Obama:  For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am more ashamed of our country’s fraudulent, alleged president today than I have ever been of any other.

And this doesn't even begin to touch on Biden's atrocity of leaving thousands of Americans behind and billions worth of equipment, and his knee jerk, ill-conceived, thoughtless withdrawal.

Read more of the COG reporting on this issue HERE.

China Afghanistan Taiwan Biden and the US

How will the US's quick and sloppy abandonment of Afghanistan impact China, Taiwan, and the US?  China and Biden are the common denominators.

Here are three likely outcomes:

1) China investment and influence in Afghanistan

2) China emboldened to invade Taiwan 

3) Unvetted Islamic/Afghan hoards likely to be brought into the US

4) A corrupted US national election facilitated by the pandemic

Here are my guesses on each...

Biden’s “its everyone else’s fault” speech

Granted, Biden is not our entire problem.  He is merely a symptom of our nation’s problems – plus the cause of the immediate Kabul debacle he failed to address during his August 16, 2021 speech to the nation.

Biden blamed the Afghan government and military for not taking the baton of self-defense upon the expected US drawdown.

Yes, he said “the buck stops with me.”  Pure lip service – words easy to say.

Biden claimed that removing the capabilities of the US air force and US intelligence apparatus disheartened the Afghan military.

Questions:  Over the past 20 years hadn’t the US provided capable air assets and training to the Afghan military?  Over the past 20 years hadn’t the Afghan military developed its own capable intelligence capabilities?  If not, why not?  If not, why did the US appear to be unaware of their incompetence until last week’s Taliban blitzkrieg? Why did it take the US 20 years – no, why did it take the US actually pulling out – to learn about the Afghan’s unwillingness to fight without big daddy’s presence?

Biden deflected from the question at hand:  It wasn’t about our ultimate and overdue withdrawal.  It was about the ill-planned, sloppy, inhumane, disaster our withdrawal turned out to be.

Biden failed to address the reasons for the utterly embarrassing troop pull out fiasco.  He failed to address the thousands of US workers and Afghan allies who are stuck at various distances from the Kabul airport or how they will be rescued and removed.  It appears he doesn’t know.

He failed to address the blow to US credibility among other nations, both allies and adversaries.Overall Biden tried to make us believe there were only two options:  Remain forever or pull out in the mismanaged fiasco he alone forced upon both the US and Afghanistan allies.

And now, we’re planning on ferrying twenty to thirty thousand Islamic Afghans for immediate citizenship in the US to our cities and countryside towns – the same ones who deceived us about the Afghan government’s capabilities? The same ones who in the end wouldn’t fight the Islamic Taliban (potentially because of their underlying allegiance to them)? Will they be vetted or would that be “Islamophobic?”  More about this HERE.

What this disaster demonstrates to the American people is this:  The Biden administration, and several administrations prior, cannot be trusted with telling the American people the reasons for our military deployments, successes, failures and withdrawals.  Spins, misdirects and lies are all we get.

Biden outright lied last week about the status of Afghan security.  Neither can we trust anything at all that he said in his speech today or in the future.

US failures: Incompetence or Duplicity?

The  utter failure and embarrassing debacle of the US in Afghanistan is a result of either incompetence or duplicity among our leaders.

Incompetence:  How could so many, from our military flag officers (generals down to majors), our intelligence community (CIA, NSA, DIA, among others), our State Department, all the way up to our alleged “President” could have so dismally misunderstood the Afghan government, military, enemy and general population? What could they have possibly been basing their intelligence on?  How many things could they have misunderstood? The Afghan culture?  The Islamic doctrine? The deception of Afghan government officials? The tribal alliances? The willingness of Afghan soldiers to fight?  Allegiances to the Taliban and al Qaeda?

I agree, Joe.  This is not like Saigon.  It’s WORSE!

What could have driven US leaders and advisers to be so wrong for so long?

Duplicity:  There is a strong argument for US leadership duplicity.  To what extent has the US government and media been infiltrated by communists and Islamists.  I have no doubt Obama is one (both a communist and Islamic sympathizer.  Biden is an Obama puppet.  President Bush was a dupe of Islam, believing and telling us Islam is a “religion of peace.” No doubt the State Department is loaded up with like minded tools of communists and Muslims.  The intelligence communities were stripped of accurate training about Islam, Islamic culture, ideology and intentions under the Obama administration.

Many believe there is a strong component within our Federal Government that desires a weakening of the US and strengthening of Islamic and Communist governments.  What else would explain the obvious decisions that humiliate and weaken the United States both at home and abroad?

Our open borders allow COVID and drug cartels to spread to our cities, our ballooning national debt make us more dependent foreign debt holders, off-shoring critical manufacturing capacity strip us of self-sufficiency, and the latest humiliation in Afghanistan based on inexplicably bad foreign policy intelligence and decisions destroyed any credibility we had left.

Unfortunately, the worst case is most likely:  The US is suffering from both duplicity and incompetence among our leaders. 

Can anything else explain how dumb and harmful our decision appear to be?

Many consider these otherwise inexplicable decisions and events to be a consequence of our nation’s fall from grace as a result of our departure from Godly principles and faith – our gross moral lapses which have become legion. We have become a self absorbed, haughty, immoral nation.  We have become over-confident and arrogant to the point where our self-perception has blinded us to the realities we ignore at our peril.

Our self-created debacle in Afghanistan has made this painfully obvious.

The enemy within…

Why we lost the war in Afghanistan…

This

and this…

versus this…

…ooh, I just noticed, is that David Muir of complicit ABC news on the back to the Taliban Toyota?

and this…

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So tell me…who wants their child or grandchild to join any branch of the military to be part of any war designed by our current generals and president?

Afghan retrospective and our future…

Hindsight is 20/20.  Granted.  But here are a lot of woulda shoulda’s…

We should have vacated with our heads held high upon our killing of Osama Bin Laden 10 years ago in 2011 –if we should ever have been there at all. After all, he is the alleged reason we were there in the first place as the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks.

Going back further, why did we support the Islamic Mujahedeen against the Russian invasion designed stabilize the region and defend the borders of its nearby allies with Afghanistan? HERE is a bit of history of Russia’s attempt to assert a sense of order there until the US enjoined (funded and supplied) the equivalent of the Taliban against Russia.

That was our first mistake: Partnering with the Islamic devil in a place we should never have been.

Our second mistake, after we insisted on being there, was our insane “rules of engagement”, or more accurately, our rules of how to demonstrate our ultimate, insane weakness in combat and fuzzified objectives.  “Nation-building?”  Seriously?  Talk about national hubris:  Attempting to change 1,000 years of dark ages violent, tribal culture among a people who hated foreign influence as much as we hated the oppression of the British in the 1770’s. And as far on the other side of the globe as our troops could possibly be.

Train the people who really had no real will to fight against their own people to fight against their own people?  Another huge miscalculation.  No wonder there were so many insider killings of our troops. Dress like allies – kill like enemies.  That is exactly what they did.

The proof of this absurd assumption manifests itself in the performance of the Afghan soldiers we trained over these 20 years. 

From the Wall Street Journal:

After 20 years of war, much of what the U.S. sought to accomplish in Afghanistan crumbled in just one week. The insurgent movement controlled none of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals until it seized the remote city of Zaranj just a week earlier, Aug. 6.

During that advance, Afghan security forces, meant to number 350,000 men, often surrendered without a fight, with soldiers giving up American-bought weaponry and taking advantage of Taliban promises of amnesty.

And finally, our government and media STILL ignorantly insist on believing that Islam is “just another religion” like Japan’s Shinto. We failed to admit their 1,400 year doctrine of hatred toward the infidel, the “people of the book”, Jews and Christians.  Our attempts of westernizing and democratizing their culture and Islamic ideology was a non-starter.

Over 3,500 coalition soldiers were killed. Many times that number have had their bodies, lives and families shattered.

From Wikipedia:

Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan through mid-2019, nearly 2,400 American servicemembers have died.^[159] Additionally, 20,719 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department.^[3]

And how much money did this cost us over these 20 years? 

From US News and World Report:

The U.S. has spent a stunning total of $2.26 trillion on a dizzying array of expenses, according to the Costs of War project.

Where do we go from here and have we learned any lessons?

Number one:  We have lost international credibility and respect. It will take decades, if ever, to gain it back.  I don’t think we know how.

We obviously didn’t learn any lesson from the Vietnam debacle, which suffered from the same mismanagement from the top.  We will have our tail tucked between our legs as we make our hasty and sloppy escape from Kabul, just as we did from Saigon.

We maintain our ignorance and wishful thinking about Islam, its doctrines, culture, and intent, believing it can be partnered with and managed.  Wrong!

Our definition of “victory” was fuzzy and ill-conceived.  “Winning” lost all objectivity.  Winning was redefined into “unwinnable.”  We had a great, capable military, but it’s politicized leadership made it impossible – the “will to win” was destroyed more than the ill-defined enemy.

We have a military/industrial army of federal government lobbyists who buy their way into influencing our woke and easily manipulated politicians to embark on crazy crusades into worldwide places we should never be in. Are our days of being the world’s cop over?  I doubt it.

Even at the very end, our military officials are still lying to us as evidenced by this press conference with Pentagon spokesman John Kirby HERE. Joe Biden has also recently expressed similar otherworldly lying optimism. A Biden interview in July shows how out of touch he is:

"So, the question now is, where do they go from here?" Biden posed in a July 8 press conference, according to Fox News. "The jury is still out, but the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” 

More on lying Joe’s lost mind HERE.

In the meantime, our borders back home remain wide open to Middle Eastern Islamists posing as Mexicans and Guatemalans, all without any ID; drug cartels and violent gang members pumping drugs into our cities; and thousands spreading COVID to every state in the nation courtesy of funding from our duped taxpayers through complicit Pollyanna churches in the name of “compassion.” Estimates range up to one million new illegals will be everywhere in the US by the end of this year – most on welfare paid for by an increasingly out of control federal deficit.

And all the while our leftist politicians in partnership with greedy globalist corporations claim its all for the good (good for their wallets), cancelling any voices that disagree with their insanity.

There is a DVD predicting our “Death of a Nation”, by Dinesh D'Souza which ironically contains similar themes covered by the 1968 book by John Stormer of the same title – another indication of lessons not learned.

I would not be surprised to read a book of history in the not too distant future by the same title chronicling how the death of our nation actually occurred.

What the sensationalist media says about “Fred”…

As rain-event Fred approaches Florida, the sensationalist lying fake media is reporting “Fred to hit Florida over the weekend” – as if a momentous, apocalyptic event is about to occur.  ABC News reported this headline as its video feed showed an image of floods and fires in another part of the world.

They ignore the historical fact that summertime is when it rains in Florida.

But as their likely backroom banter likely muses: “Anything to raise ad revenues.”

Why churches fail to relate current events to Biblical teaching…

Most churches would rather mimic Ann Landers and Dr. Phil than preach and teach what 70% of the Bible is all about.

Be nice, be thankful, be tolerant,  forgive and be forgiven, don’t judge, don’t offend anyone,  be happy, be successful, become rich, blah blah blah.  These are all the hoped for outcomes among the faithful.

However, the majority of the Bible teaches and gives examples about governance:  How to govern ourselves, yes.  But also how we relate to our community, to our leaders, and yes, to our governments at all levels – and ultimately how we are to relate to the highest government, our Great God. 

The Bible even goes so far as to devote the greater part of the Old Testament, which comprises almost 3/4 of the Bible, to the relationship between the people, their nations, and their God.

And yes, Jesus was involved in politics, rubbing elbows and dialoging with some of the high officials among both the religious and political leaders of the day.  Paul did likewise, even traveling to Rome to plead the case for this new Christian faith.

So, shouldn’t todays preaching and teaching apply God’s word to current events? Shouldn’t it apply Biblical, Christian principles to the news of the day and to the words, actions and policies of our national leaders and the leaders and influencers of the nations of the world?

The Bible has a TON to say about the direction our leaders and nations, and its people are taking us relative to God’s purposes.  This most often comes in the form of Biblical history, prophecy and revelation. Relating the Bible to current events naturally leads to the study of Bible prophecy.

Yet these subjects are ignored by the churches.  Why? Why are Dr. Philisms emphasized, and the majority of the Bible ignored?  Is it easier? Is it safer?

Let’s explore a few of the reasons:

Doctrine and mandates of the denominations:  Almost all of the Christian denominations are steeped in so much human-dictated tradition that pastors are not trained or predisposed to devoted time to these matters. They love to spiritualize most everything in the Bible, ignoring God’s intended message. Bible application to current events and Biblical instruction and prophecy didn’t make the cut in terms of preaching/teaching material to be discussed.

Ignorance among church leaders:  The priorities of the denomination plus the priorities of church work and catering to the needs of the flock fully consume church pastors and leaders.  There is little time left to keep track of current events and national and world affairs, never mind determining the Bible teachings related to such things and making the connections for the benefit of the congregations. Bible application to current events needs to be a purposeful high priority but it doesn’t even make the list.

Laziness: Sadly, some pastors are just too lazy or tired to do the hard work of making the connection between Biblical teaching and current events.

Don’t judge/don’t offend: Too much “judging” is involved in speaking God’s truths and warnings. We don’t want to offend anyone by “judging.”  Church leaders fail to grasp the reality that THEY are not doing the judging – God is.  This misconception keeps them from speaking God’s truth and God’s lessons for the world that, yes, involves judging and judgment. Current events and the politics of current events involves “judging.”  Oh, we can’t do that. Retaining members and revenue streams is the highest priority.  Don’t allow God’s lessons to get in the way of these higher priorities.

Past failures of prophecy of false prophets: There is a lingering fear of false prophecies made in the past by those who were excessively detailed, presumptuous, or over-confident.  On the other hand, the Bible gives example of a prophecy made by a true prophet of God that did not materialize because God simply changed his mind due to the (short-lived) repentance of a group of people. (Exodus 32:14)

The myth of separation of Church and state: Too many church leaders believe – or use as their excuse – that they should keep religion away from discussing how we should be governed, which, by the way, involves “the state”, and yes, “politics.” Nothing could be further from the truth.  And if they believe that the tax code keeps them from preaching what needs to be preached, they need to abrogate their exemption status.  How faithful are those who give to their church only because it improves their tax status?

Bible prophecy ties Bible teaching to current events. It especially informs us of how both our personal actions and nation’s policies today impact our future.

For those who are interested, here are a couple of links to sites that provide additional reasons to study Bible prophecy and current events:

Biblical Prophecy | Philadelphia Church of God (pcg.church)

Why Bible Prophecy Matters (prophecynewswatch.com)

Why Local Churches Should Talk about Current Events - REFORMED MARGINS

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As an aside, it is noted that the “Adventists” among Christian denominations are best known for their emphasis of Bible prophecy. While other denominations occasionally touch on prophecy, there are remnants among former Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Catholics who have been attracted to Adventist denominations due to their inclusion of the study of prophecy among their denominational priorities. Among Adventist churches are the numerous “Church of God” denominations, of which there are over a dozen. Among the major ones are the United Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God, and the Continuing Church of God. ‘The Trumpet’ magazine, which discusses current events in a Biblical context (an excellent news source, by the way),  is a publication of the Philadelphia Church of God and is often among magazines seen in office waiting rooms.

The argument for losing our liberty for a bit of safety…

I’ll preface this blog by saying I don’t really believe all of what I’ve written, below.  But I want to lay it out to see if any of it makes any sense to me or to others.  Oops, it DOES make sense to others – otherwise we wouldn’t be losing our liberties.

So here goes…

You’ve all heard the expression, attributed to good ol’ Ben:

Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Oh, contraire – we wisely and gladly give up our “freedoms” and “liberties” for lots and lots of things.  Here are a few:

• The freedom to drive 90 mph in residential neighborhoods
• The freedom to store 500 gallons of gasoline in our suburban garage
• The freedom to punch out the guy who just insulted your wife
• The freedom to jump in front of a bullet train
• The freedom to jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet without a parachute

You get the point. There are lots of freedoms we give up based on what we call “common sense.”  In fact, every one of the millions of laws in the United States (over 30,000 federal laws times 50 states times local and country laws) take away one or more of our liberties.

So, where do we draw the line on what liberties we don’t argue about giving up?

How about the really dumb laws, like the one in Montgomery, AL, where it’s illegal to open an umbrella on a street because it might scare the horses.

How about voting without having to show ID? Why should we have to show ID to vote?  OMG, that takes away “freedoms” from a lot of people – the freedom about not being saddled with having to show an ID.  And so does having to have ID for driving and having a concealed weapon and flying on a plane and crossing the border into another country.

That brings up the topic of the freedom of crossing the border into another country. Why shouldn’t Mexicans and Guatemalans, and Iranians, and Islamic Jihadis have to lose their liberties to cross the Rio Grande into the United States?  That is so unfair – requiring them to give up their liberties just to cross a stinkin’ river.

How about the COVID jab or mask mandates? Should we have the liberty of refusing to do either, refusing the jab and refusing the mask?  How about the liberty of parents to determine if their child will wear a mask at school – even if he already had COVID or the jab? The public schools (the “government”) has the right to take away the liberties of parents to keep their kids maskless in school, just as they have a right to implement a dress code. Dang, we lost our liberties again.

The cartoon at below could refer to the “terrorist” of COVID just as easily. That’s Fauci peering through the doorway.

This all boils down to the “greater good” argument.  At what point is the loss of some small part of our liberties justified by the “greater good?”  Who do we trust to determine the greater good, and how is it determined – what is it based on? Even “science” and “the scientific method” cannot always be relied upon to determine whether an action furthers “the greater good.”  See this article about the perversion and tyranny of science.  Too often reliance on the very narrow perspective and often faulty perspective of science ignores the bigger picture. The “bigger picture” involves what the science of the moment ignores:  Emotional health, the economy, destroying businesses, taking away jobs, loss of income, and gradual cultural adaptation to ill-conceived  authoritarian rule.

So, I guess my takeaway from all of these examples is that taking Ben’s admonition at face value and applying it to everything at all times is foolish.  There are too many exceptions for it to remain a universal truth.

Question everything.

The idiocy of “multiculturalism”

Multiculturalism is the politically correct mandate of our decade.  Its perverted sister is “diversity.” If we don’t embrace the diversity of multiculturalism, we are bigots, haters, and a wide variety of –cists and –phobes.

It’s enlightening to note that the proponents of multiculturalism and diversity fail to define their terms. They prefer their vagueness so they can best use their accusations as a political weapon.  They can accuse others of being a bigot or racist or phobist for just about any reason.

So, what is multiculturalism, really?

Belief that a society should respect and promote all the various cultures of which it is composed."^[1]  This belief promotes the equality of all diverse cultures in society under the code word “diversity.”

What multiculturalists (mostly leftists) do is include race and ethnicity in their definition that adds vagueness and misdirection to the term.

There is a critical distinction between “culture”, “race”, and “ethnicity” that the left ignores. They wrap the terms all together to confuse the issues for their own ends.

“Culture” represents the traditions, beliefs, and preferred actions of a group of people.  There are acceptable and unacceptable behaviors within any ethnic (nationality) and racial (black/white/brown/yellow) group.

There are “mob cultures” within the Italian, Russian, Chinese, and Mexican ethnicities.  Should we embrace that “multiculturalism?”

Antifa and Black Lives Matter activists have their culture of rioting, rebelling, and destroying.  Should we embrace those cultures?  If we don’t, are we bigots and racists.  Hell no.

There is the LGBTQ+++++ culture that opposes traditional morality and family structures and seeks to teach our children the same.  We are forced to embrace that.

There is the Islamic jihadi culture of violence, terror and intimidation.  Embrace that culture?  No!

What is being marginalized and cancelled is the white, European, Christian culture.  These are the cultures that formed our nation, brought relative prosperity to all the races and newfound freedom to all who yearned for it.

It’s really weird how the “multiculturalists” promote their doctrine for the cultures that further their leftist/socialist/anarchist/or communist cause – Antifa, BLM, radicals, shoplifters, drug addicts, perverts, and rioters – but rant against the cultures that promote law and order, morality, prosperity, creativity, and hard work.

So the next time you hear someone promote “multiculturalism”, ask them which cultures should be included in that term.

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Below is an article on multiculturalism that inspired this blog, presented by The American Council of Christian Churches (accc4truth.org)

Multiculturalism

• BY AMERICAN COUNCIL OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
• POSTED ON NOVEMBER 9, 2018

American Council of Christian Churches
77^th Annual Convention, October 23-25, 2018
Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, NJ
Resolution on Multiculturalism

In the attempt to combat racism, many people have swung the philosophical pendulum and embraced multiculturalism. According to the syllogism of this ideology, all ethnicities are equally good, and culture is inherently connected to ethnicity. All cultures are then deduced to be equally good. Since all cultures are equally good, multiculturalists claim that all cultures must be tolerated and/or affirmed. Anyone therefore who criticizes a culture not his own must be labeled as an elitist, racist, ethnocentrist, paternalist, or microaggressor, and anyone who claims to depart from the intrinsic culture of his ethnicity must be treated as an inauthentic traitor.

As with many unbiblical philosophies, there is a grain of truth in multiculturalism, but its errors are dangerous.[1] Many of these errors can be traced to multiculturalism’s faulty minor premise, which it shares oddly with racist ideology.[2] Semantically, ethnicity and culture are not synonymous.[3] Ethnicity is simply a group of people who have a common ancestor. This ancestor could be traced as far back as one of Noah’s three sons (Gen. 10), or he could be one of their descendants. Culture, on the other hand, is a group’s way of life stemming from their shared beliefs and values. The term could be used to describe the basic way of life of humanity in general, or the particular way of life of any smaller group.

Even though the two terms are not synonymous, multiculturalists still insist that they are inextricably linked. Yet, there is no scientific evidence for unique ethnic, cultural genes regulating people’s beliefs and values. There is no scriptural support for such a thing either.[4] Therefore, instead of combatting racial division, multiculturalists actually foster it by (1) requiring people to rigidly adhere to ethnic biological proclivities which do not exist and (2) prohibiting people from legitimately appreciating, appropriating, and/or condemning different cultures.

The Bible furthermore states that because all men ultimately descend from Adam (Acts 17:26), they are “made after the similitude of God” (James 3:9b) and inherit a sin nature.[5] No man is created more in God’s image than another, and no man inherits a more depraved sin nature than another. In that sense, all men are equal.

Left to this universal depravity, every imagination of the thoughts of men’s hearts would be only evil continually, and the earth would be filled with violence (Gen. 6:5, 11). However, God at various times has granted common and saving grace unto men to restrain them from being as wicked as they could be.[6] It is of God’s sovereign good pleasure when, where, and in what proportion those unmerited gifts will be given.[7] Some multiculturalists might claim that God always distributes those gifts equally, but Scripture and history have proven otherwise. While no person or society this side of eternity entirely escapes the corruption of sin (2 Chron. 6:36a), some have been “more righteous” than others,[8] and to contradict such a truth as multiculturalists do is prideful and unbiblical.[9]

Therefore, the American Council of Christian Churches at its 77^th annual convention, October 23-25, 2018, at the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, NJ, resolves to denounce the philosophy of multiculturalism while maintaining a biblical position against racism.[10] We encourage believers not to marvel at the illegitimate name-calling which the world heaps upon them when taking such a stand, for so it did before to the prophets and our Lord.[11] Rather, “rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven” (Matt. 5:12). Furthermore, we admonish all Christians to “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). By an unflinching, loving witness, men “may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16b).

[1] Multiculturalists, whether secular or evangelical, often do not see or admit that their beliefs are built on a mixture of other faulty philosophies: postmodernism, Marxism, Darwinism, humanism, Rousseau’s noble savage idea, aesthetic relativism, critical race theory, intersectionality, liberation theology, ethnic Gnosticism, nuda Scriptura, Pelagianism, antinomianism, unbiblical ecumenism, and/or neo-Kuyperian postmillennialism.

[2] Racism’s syllogism is as follows: some cultures are inferior to others, culture is inherently linked to ethnicity, therefore, some ethnicities are inferior to others.

[3] Multiculturalists often leave culture and ethnicity un- or ill-defined in order to quickly proceed to race-carding and other forms of name-calling.

[4] There is no biblical or scientific evidence for unique generational, cultural genes either.

[5] Ps. 51:5, Eph. 2:3b, Rom. 3:10-11, Rom. 5:19, Rom. 7:18a.

[6] Luke 6:31-34, Acts 14:16-17, Rom. 2:14-15, Eph. 2:8-10.

[7] Jer. 3:14, Matt. 5:45, Matt. 24:40-41, John 3:8, 1 Cor. 1:26, Heb. 1:1.

[8] Gen. 38:26, 1 Sam. 24:17, 1 Kings 2:32, Ez. 16:49-52, Hab. 1:13. While some cultures are overall better or worse than others, there is at various times and places a diversity of good/indifferent cultural expressions which can and should be utilized wisely (Romans 14, 1 Cor. 9:19-23). But until the New Creation, there is and will be a greater prevalence of bad cultural expressions on this earth (Matt. 7:13-14), and these expressions must be condemned whenever and wherever they are found (Ex. 20:1-17, Deut. 12:30, Jer. 10:2-5, Rom. 1:21-32, 2 Cor. 4:2, Gal. 5:19-21, Eph. 2:1-3, 2 Thess. 5:22, 1 John 2:15-17). Professing believers who ignore this often do so at the peril of syncretizing Christianity with paganism (Ex. 32, 1 Kings 12:26-33, 2 Kings 17:24-41), as can be seen today in the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) industry, the theistic evolution movement, the “LGBT Christian” movement, and some missions efforts. See also these resources: John Makujina, Measuring the Music: Another Look at the Contemporary Christian Music Debate, 3^rd ed. (Religious Affections Ministries, 2016); Ken Myers, All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes: Christians and Popular Culture (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1989); T. David Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing Co., 2010); David de Bruyn, “Jesus So Totally Rocks,” Towards Conservative Christianity Blog (March 2, 2010): http://conservativechristianity.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/jesus-so-totally-rocks/; the 2014 ACCC “Resolution on Young Earth Creationism,” the 2014 ACCC “Resolution Concerning Marriage and Sexual Morality,” the 2017 ACCC “Resolution on Same-Sex Attraction”; Scott Aniol, et. al., “Missions and Music” 17-part series, Religious Affections Ministries Blog (December 29, 2010 – January 28, 2011): http://religiousaffections.org/articles/articles-on-culture/missions-music/; and Seth Meyers, “When Hurting Helps” 5-part series, Son of Carey Blog (October 16 – November 3, 2014): http://sonofcarey.com/?p=2051.

[9] By calling all cultures equally good, multiculturalists essentially are saying that evil does not exist, or that “everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them” (Mal. 2:17, cf. Prov. 17:15).

[10] See the 2017 ACCC “Resolution on Racism.”

[11] Matt. 5:11-12, Luke 6:22-23, John 15:18-21, 2 Tim. 3:12, 1 John 3:13.