DBC: Mere Christianity I

This is the quiz for the Darkstream Book Club: Mere Christianity I. If you want to join the discussion tonight, you can do so here.

1. The contents of Mere Christianity were first presented where?

  • a) on television
  • b) in the newspaper
  • c) on the radio
  • d) in a book
2. Which is not a name for one of the original three published parts of Mere Christianity?
  • a) The Three Faces of God
  • b) The Case for Christianity
  • c) Christian Behavior
  • d) Beyond Personality
3. What four Christian denominations does CS Lewis specifically say you will not learn to become from reading the book?
  • a) Anglican, Baptist, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic
  • b) Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic
  • c) Episcopalian, Evangelical, Lutheran, Roman Catholic
  • d) Calvinist, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Christian Science
4. In what sense does CS Lewis use the word “Christian”?
  • a) One whose soul is saved by grace.
  • b) One who believes with his heart that Jesus Christ is Lord.
  • c) One who accepts the common doctrines of Christianity.
  • d) One who has been baptized as an adult.
5. To what does CS Lewis liken his book?
  • a) To a home
  • b) To a room
  • c) To a church
  • d) To a hall

So much for invading Venezuela

To be clear, I don’t believe that the Russians have put nukes in Venezuela. They don’t need to:

RUSSIA has secretly installed nuclear missiles in Venezuela a US politician has sensationally claimed in a chilling echo of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Republican congressman Mario Diaz-Balart said he believes Vladimir Putin’s hidden nukes are now a direct threat to the “national security” of the United States. He made his astonishing allegations hours after Venezuela was pushed to the brink of civil war when opposition leader Juan Guaido called for rival Nicolas Maduro to be ousted from office.

Diaz-Balart told Fox News if Maduro stays in power it could be “an open door for the Russians and for the Chinese and for others to increase their activity against our national security interest.”

Journalist Tucker Carlson then asked: “Are you suggesting they are going to invade?”

“The closest we ever came to nuclear war was because the Russians put missiles, right, nuclear missiles in Cuba,” replied Diaz-Balart.

“Are you saying the Russians will put nuclear missiles in Venezuela?” Carlson asked.

“What I am suggesting is that they are already there,” answered Diaz-Balart, without offering any evidence to back up his claim.

But if there are already nukes in Venezuela, then that will bring a speedy end to all of Pompeo’s idiotic posturing. And given the way in which US missiles have gradually crept eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union, the US doesn’t have any ground for complaint if any nation in the Western Hemisphere decides it wants to take up a Russian or Chinese offer to install a few nuclear missiles as insurance against ill-considered US imperialism.

Brother Esau

The Orthosphere delves into the intrinsic falsity of the “Judeo-Christian” meme that is being used to attack everything from American history to Western Civilization and Christianity itself:

The notion that Western civilization rests on a Judeo-Christian basis is very largely an invention of the 1940s, when Jews felt a sudden and unprecedented desire to join the Western club and lock arms with their Christian “brothers.” Although a palpable oxymoron, the phrase prospered in the years that followed, and is now well established as one of the hardier weeds in the unlovely garden of American political cant.

Obviously, there can be no such thing as Judeo-Christian values when Jews specifically reject the highest Christian value, which is Christ.

We might go so far as to call Judeo-Christian values a canard, and say that this canard serves mainly to de-divinize Christ, and thus dissolve Christianity into a purely ethical system. Curiously, the solvent power of this canard is somehow neutralized when it comes to doctrines that are distinctly Jewish. I would add that the canard also serves to reconcile Christians to the fact that they nowadays receive so much of their moral, political and theological instruction from strongly self-identified Jews.  Curiously, the respect that Jews feel for the teaching authority of strongly self-identified Christians remains as low as ever.

What this suggests is that modern Judeo-Christianity is Christianity made acceptable to Jews.  It does not seem to involve reciprocal modifications to Judaism.  Indeed, the basic Judeo-Christian condominium would seem to be that Christians shall say only nice things about Jews, while Jews shall go on gifting Christians with their withering criticism.

Now that Jews and Christians are brothers, we see that the Christians are brother Esau.

There is considerably more there. Read the whole thing. To be blunt, it would be more accurate to describe “Judeo-Christianity” as “Luciferianity”. There is a fundamental difference to being “in the world, but not of it” and “healing the world”. It is literally the most fundamental precept of Christianity to accept that the world is fallen, is ruled by spiritual evil, and cannot be healed.

To insist otherwise is to deny the necessity for the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. Which, of course, is precisely why the Ben Shapiros and Dennis Pragers and San Francisco Chronicle‘s of the world are now attempting to sell this literally Satanic concept to an increasingly clueless and demoralized West.

Leave Jordy alone!

The YouTube community is rising to the defense of the beleaguered Jordan Peterson:

 Hi Darkstream,

Your video Voxday Darkstream 04.25.2018 The Problem with Jordan Peterson was flagged to us by the YouTube community. Upon review, we have placed restrictions on how the video will be shown. Please note that your video will continue to be available on YouTube.

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Your video will be shown after a warning message. In addition, certain features such as comments, sharing, thumbs up, and suggested videos have been disabled. Your video is also ineligible for monetization. 

The end of the Heisei era

The Emperor of Japan abdicates the Crysanthemum Throne:

Emperor Akihito abdicated the Japanese throne Tuesday, becoming the country’s first ruler in 200 years to step down from the role. Akihito, 85, spent Tuesday morning holding traditional private ceremonies at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in which he symbolically announced his intention to abdicate to Amaterasu, the sun goddess.

That was followed by a more formal state occasion attended where he gave a televised speech, thanking people for their support during his 30-year reign, before ending with a solemn bow.

Akihito’s rule officially ends at midnight when his eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito, will ascend to the Chrysanthemum Throne. The process will be officially recognised with a ceremony on Wednesday morning.

The move also spells the end of the Heisei imperial era and the start of the Reiwa era – meaning beautful harmony – which will last until the end of Naruhito’s reign.

I was in Japan for the end of the Showa era, as well as the peak of what later came to be known, a little ironically, as the Heisei Boom. My entire time there was colored by the Showa Emperor’s death watch, as every night on the news, a graphic would appear showing how much blood had been infused that day, and in total, which was more than a little comical despite the fact that it was a literal matter of life and death.

As a student of Japanese history, it’s more than a little interesting to me to observe that this is the first imperial abdication in two centuries. During the Heian period, emperors used to abdicate in their thirties, in order to prevent them from challenging the power of the Shogun. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if this is the first step towards a return to rule by shogun in Japan?

It’s always Year Zero

SJWs never hesitate to rewrite history, even when they are celebrating it:

Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson will be excluded from the game’s 10 year anniversary plans by Microsoft. Persson, who created Minecraft and sold it to Microsoft to the tune of $2.5 billion in 2014, will not be invited to the game’s 10 year anniversary according to a Microsoft spokesperson.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Variety, “His comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of ‘Minecraft.” The spokesperson did indicate that Persson has not been involved with the game since he sold it in 2014.

The 10 year anniversary plans are said to take place at Minecraft studio Mojang in Stockholm. The company describes the event will look at the “past, present and exciting future of the decade-old franchise.”

I’m surprised they even acknowledged that the game has been around for ten years. In another ten years, Bill Gates will have invented it, along with the Internet.

The difference between Alpha and Delta

This is a very, very important concept. Women and Gammas tend to be unaware of the distinction:

“I’m gonna give you a great quote that Ozzie Newsome said to me at the Senior Bowl,” [Oakland General Manager Mike] Mayock said. “I’ve known Ozzie forever. He congratulated me on the job. I said, ‘Do you have any advice?’ He said, ‘Mike, having an opinion is a hell of a lot easier than having to make a decision.’ I thought that was so well said back then. And then I really felt the weight of it last night.”

One of the biggest challenges facing any Bravo or Delta promoted to a leadership position is understanding that it is no longer sufficient to have an opinion. Having an opinion is easy, since there are no negative consequences associated with it even when one is completely wrong. But leadership necessarily requires making decisions… and being responsible for the consequences of those decisions.

It’s always amusing to see how rapidly even the most-opinionated people retreat from their opinions when they are informed that their advice will be scrupulously followed, but they will be held responsible for the consequences.

UPDATE: a question is asked.

Who do Gammas promote? Do Gammas tend to promote other Gammas in an organization? Or is it a mix of Alphas, Betas, Deltas, etc., just as long as the Gammas get to boss them around? 

Gammas promote women. It’s always Gammas arguing for MOAR WOMEN in STEM, MOAR WOMEN in gaming, MOAR WOMEN in the chess club. That’s because they are always desperate for more exposure to women.

Ideology is over

The civic internationalism of the mainstream Republicans is causing them to miss the massive window of opportunity being created by the immigration-driven shift to identity politics:

In this scruffy, high-desert town encircled by prairies and potato farms, Sen. Cory Gardner drew shouts of approval last week for his message that Democrats are shoving the country toward socialism.

“That’s not what government is or what it should be,” he told about 200 Alamosa County Republicans at a barbecue fundraiser in a National Guard armory. “We have to stand up and fight. Are you going to join me in this fight?”

For Gardner and other Republicans making the same pitch , including President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the key question is whether it will attract moderate voters, not just their conservative stalwarts. Based on interviews with over three dozen Coloradans last week from Denver’s suburbs south to this town in the flat San Luis Valley, the argument has yet to take root, though the GOP has 18 months to sell it before Election Day 2020.

Few volunteered a drift toward socialism as a major worry, with health care and living costs cited far more frequently. Several said capitalism was too embedded in the U.S. to be truly threatened and Republicans were using socialism to stir unease with Democrats by raising the specter of the old, repressive Soviet Union and today’s chaotic Venezuela.

Indiegogo plays science police

They were already playing thought police, but now they’re branching out into policing science:

The last year has been the worst on record in the US for measles outbreaks since the disease was declared ‘eradicated’ in 2000. Even though vaccination rates across the country are still high, (according to the CDC) there remains some communities where disinformation campaigns which claim that ‘vaccines are dangerous’ (often called ‘anti-vaxx’ campaigns) have led to parents refusing to vaccinate their children. Sadly, this can lead to a deadly outbreak when members of the public are exposed to someone who has picked up the disease, often overseas. Measles is highly contagious and can be fatal, especially amongst children.

And despite President Trump telling Americans to “get their shots”, 45 has previously appeared to link vaccines and autism. Public health experts say there is no link.

At the same time, over half a million children in Britain have been left unprotected against measles in the past decade and Unicef has called for a renewed focus on immunization.

It’s with this background that some tech companies are starting to realize they may have been part of the problem.

Yesterday Crowdfunding site Indiegogo said it would no longer allow anti-vaccine fundraisers or similarly unscientific, so-called “health campaigns”, to use its platform.

The move came after $86,543 was raised for a documentary, called Vaxxed II, based on the false claim that vaccines cause autism. Although the organization behind it, The People’s Truth, will still get their cash, minus the site’s 5{e8a4cc2da20ae907408fc668f824b0c1c953618ed39cb8b4e4c88688f9991565} fee, Indiegogo said it was now planning a new policy to keep similar anti-vaccine projects off its site, a company spokesperson told BuzzFeed News Friday.

The fundraiser did not violate IndieGoGo’s existing policies on untruthful campaigns, but Indiegogo never promoted it on its site, said a company spokesperson. Executive directors of the “documentary”, Polly Tommey and Brian Burrowes, have criticized tech companies’ ‘de-platforming’ of their film as “censorship”.

Indiegogo is the latest in a line of tech companies coming round to the idea of cutting off the oxygen of publicity and cash to such campaigns.

The unmentioned elephant in the room is the I-word. Immigration. That’s the real reason for the increase in measles everywhere, along with the increase in a whole host of other diseases for which there is no vaccination.

The fact that none of these pro-vaccine activists will even mention the word serves to demonstrate that their professed concerns about measles, and their professed concerned about children’s health, is entirely false.