Our Very Being Must Be Called Into Question

The Bible is the "Christ Document", the definitive "Word" [the Christ re-definition: signature of love = God's verification]; the COG Inc.'s semantics of confusion vs. God's Wisdom from Above [the straight and narrow (narrowing the field, the focus; still waters, not a raging sea foaming out its shame); God's love = our Being, God's wisdom = our Doing (application of the love)] -- God is relational, the God Family is relationship(s), and God's Holy Bible is "content relationships" *together* being a "single logical document", the representative Word of God [many parts and writers, working together] !! - God's "signature of love" is His servants "key of trust", His query method is also love and humility - the collective mind of humanity will become as "one" together with God, as His Family: AGAPE MIND, no longer imprisoned by our fears, and our selfish thoughts in response !!

Any evocation is a resultant, is dependent upon our approach !! - while the various NGO's and "resistance" groups express the [physical] immune system [reaction] of the Social Body, we, as radical Christians, must express the conscience [spiritual], God's very consciousness: OUR VERY BEING [and Doing] MUST BE CALLED INTO QUESTION, A DEEP, PENETRATING EXAMINATION, BY MERCY AND TRUTH !! - we must understand who we are and what we have become, and ask repentance of God: we must ask for His forgiveness, and we must forgive each other [we are *all* complicit]; WE MUST *REPAIR* THE BREACH AND *RESTORE* THE PATHS TO DWELL IN, *IN* LOVE !! - every man and every woman has a [sacred] voice that must be heard, his or her story; an independent media vs. the corporate voice, the voice of Mammon; God speaks to every one of us individually, we should follow His example [the signature of God and His truth is agape love] !!

Our Very Being Must Be Called Into Question

The International Forcaster

Two Years Of Failure In Directing The Economy

by Bob Chapman

Posted: December 19 2009 article link

... Americans opened their markets to products of Communist China’s slave labor and China became the world’s biggest exporter. Via free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing, transnational conglomerates have stolen America’s destiny and handed it to China. This is what corporatist fascism is all about. ...

... Very simply, the US government is bankrupt. They can either default or lay the burden on future generations. The immediate answer is for government to cut spending on such trivialities, such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Allow the citizens to live in penury and poverty. These are the people who helped build America into what it is and they are to be cast aside as the Fed rescues its owners, the bankers, who deliberately caused the problem in the first place. ...

... Today’s speculation reflects the lack of trust, confidence and lack of fiscal and monetary discipline. The theme is we had better make it while we can, because there may be no tomorrow. As a result the probability of a steep market correction is strong. What we are involved in economically and financially is not a common correction, it is a correction in a bear market and few, even professionals, see this. This happened in the early 1930s and by the end of 1940 we still had not exited depression. We had to arrange a war to extricate ourselves. ...

... Few, except for Ron Paul and his fellow sound money adherents, are asking where the trillions of dollars of Fed and government money has been spent, or who got it, and what was the collateral on the loans and how was it priced? The recipients for the most part were the same culprits who caused all the problems in the first place. ...

... What has occurred in the US could not have happened by ineptness or chance. It has been done by design. There is no such thing as coincidence.

The International Forecaster home page

The International Forcaster

Institutionalized Mammon Is What We Have Become

The corporate creed is greed, greed in the guise of National Interest, National Security [profit warriors]; "refugee" and "immigrant" are economic designations [money classifications; evil prejudice] - Isa 28:9 "Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? [them that are] weaned from the milk, [and] drawn from the breasts ..."; we must remove ourselves from our carnal "mother" [COG (Church of God) Inc., harlots, false prophets] and the corporate [COG (Continuity of Government), Beast]; our minds have been pulled down into "media" confusion, the polluted discourse of Mammon - politics is the "business" of government [corporate pimps; private trust] not stewardship government [public trust] - our attempt to fight iniquity while maintaining the excess is a contradiction !! - as long as Mammon's life-blood [its money] keeps us alive, we are part of its body, its being !! - institutionalized Mammon is what we have become: it is "the" dominant force in our world [kosmos]; it is the worship [form; veneration (psychology)], weaponization, and power of evil; corporatized money as primary consideration/arbiter !!

Institutionalized Mammon Is What We Have Become

Mac Slavo: What is Money When the System Collapses?

What is Money When the System Collapses?

Author: Mac Slavo article link

December 29th, 2009

In disaster situations, the value of money as we know it now changes, especially if we are dealing with a hyperinflationary collapse of the system’s core currency. This article discusses money as a commodity in an event where the traditional currency (US Dollar) is no longer valuable. ...

If your physical cash has not been converted into tangible assets, this would be the time to do so. Acquiring as much food, fuel, clothing and toiletry items as possible would be the ideal way to spend remaining cash before it completely collapses to zero, as it did in the Wiemar inflation in 1930’s Germany, or Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation in recent years. ...

Rise of the Preppers

Author: Mac Slavo article link

December 29th, 2009

Preppers, by definition, are not just preparing for a TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) scenario, but rather, are prepared for any far-from-equilibrium situation like a hurricane, earthquake, terror attack, chemical spill, evacuation, or other unforeseen event. Of course, prepping as a hobby may eventually lead to research and skills development to handle even the worst types of possibilities, including hyperinflationary collapse of our economic system, political instability and wide-spread civil unrest, all of which have the potential to lead to monetary collapse and food supply disruptions. ...

Don’t get us wrong, emergency responders like police, fire and medical teams do their very best in the situations described above, but when you’re dealing with millions of unprepared people whose only thought at the time is to survive and “get out,” the situation can deteriorate quite rapidly. Preppers understand this, and have not just reserve food, water and fuel, but secondary and tertiary evacuation routes, multiple “bug-out” destinations where they can go if something happens, and are mentally, physically and psychologically prepared to handle the stress.

If everyone prepared in advance of the unknown, it would likely be much easier for the entire population to make it through an event unscathed. ...

SHTF Plan home page

SHTF Plan: Gerald Celente - Top Trends of 2010 article link

Trends Research Institute home page

Mac Slavo: What is Money When the System Collapses?

Mac Slavo: Hyperinflationary Depression

Hyperinflationary Depression

No Way of Avoiding Financial Armageddon

Author: Mac Slavo - December 15th, 2009 article link

John Williams: Shadow Stats quotes:

The U.S. economic and systemic solvency crises of the last two years are just precursors to a Great Collapse: a hyperinflationary great depression. Such will reflect a complete collapse in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar, a collapse in the normal stream of U.S. commercial and economic activity, a collapse in the U.S. financial system as we know it, and a likely realignment of the U.S. political environment. The current U.S. financial markets, financial system and economy remain highly unstable and vulnerable to unexpected shocks. The Federal Reserve is dedicated to preventing deflation, to debasing the U.S. dollar. The results of those efforts are being seen in tentative selling pressures against the U.S. currency and in the rallying price of gold.

The intensifying economic and solvency crises, and the responses to both by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve in the last two years, have exacerbated the government’s solvency issues and moved forward my timing estimation for the hyperinflation to the next five years, from the 2010 to 2018 timing range estimated in the prior report. The U.S. government and Federal Reserve already have committed the system to this course through the easy politics of a bottomless pocketbook, the servicing of big-moneyed special interests, gross mismanagement, and a deliberate and ongoing effort to debase the U.S. currency. Accordingly, risks are particularly high of the hyperinflation crisis breaking within the next year.

The U.S. has no way of avoiding a financial Armageddon. Bankrupt sovereign states most commonly use the currency printing press as a solution to not having enough money to cover obligations. The alternative would be for the U.S. to renege on its existing debt and obligations, a solution for modern sovereign states rarely seen outside of governments overthrown in revolution, and a solution with no happier ending than simply printing the needed money. With the creation of massive amounts of new fiat dollars (not backed by gold or silver) will come the eventual destruction of the value of the U.S. dollar and related dollar-denominated paper assets.

SHTF Plan home page

John Williams: Shadow Stats home page

SurvivalBlog home page

The Daily Web Log for Prepared Individuals Living in Uncertain Times

Mac Slavo: Hyperinflationary Depression

A Statement On Prosperity Teaching

Christianity Today

A Statement On Prosperity Teaching article link

From the Lausanne Theology Working Group, Africa Chapter

at its consultations in Akropong, Ghana, 8-9 October, 2008 and 1-4 September 2009

... we reject as unbiblical the notion that God's miraculous power can be treated as automatic, or at the disposal of human techniques, or manipulated by human words, actions or rituals.

... we reject the unbiblical notion that spiritual welfare can be measured in terms of material welfare, or that wealth is always a sign of God's blessing (since it can be obtained by oppression, deceit or corruption), or that poverty or illness or early death, is always a sign of God's curse, or lack of faith, or human curses (since the Bible explicitly denies that it is always so).

... we reject as dangerously contradictory to the sovereign grace of God, the notion that success in life is entirely due to our own striving, wrestling, negotiation, or cleverness. We reject those elements of Prosperity Teaching that are virtually identical to 'positive thinking' and other kinds of 'self-help' techniques.

We are also grieved to observe that Prosperity Teaching has stressed individual wealth and success, without the need for community accountability, and has thus actually damaged a traditional feature of African society, which was commitment to care within the extended family and wider social community. ...

... we do not believe that Prosperity Teaching provides a helpful or biblical response to the poverty of the people among whom it flourishes. And we observe that much of this teaching has come from North American sources where people are not materially poor in the same way. ...

... we are distressed that much use of the Bible is seriously distorted, selective, and manipulative. We call for a more careful exegesis of texts, and a more holistic biblical hermeneutic, and we denounce the way that many texts are twisted out of context and used in ways that contradict some very plain Bible teaching.

And especially, we deplore the fact that in many churches where Prosperity Teaching is dominant, the Bible is rarely preached in any careful or explanatory way, and the way of salvation, including repentance from sin and saving faith in Christ for forgiveness of sin, and the hope of eternal life, is misrepresented and substituted with material wellbeing. ...

... numerical growth or mega-statistics may not necessarily demonstrate the truth of the message that accompanies it, or the belief system behind it. Popularity is no proof of truth; and people can be deceived in great numbers.

... we observe equally that many people have been duped by such teaching into false faith and false expectations, and when these are not satisfied, they 'give up on God', or lose their faith altogether and leave the church. This is tragic, and must be very grievous to God.

... there are aspects of the lifestyle and behaviour of many preachers of Prosperity Teaching that we find deplorable, unethical, and frankly idolatrous (to the god of Mammon), and in some of these respects we may be called upon to identify and reject such things as the marks of false prophets, according to the standards of the Bible. ...

Christianity Today home page

A Statement On Prosperity Teaching

Radar Magazine: The Last Roundup 1

The Last Roundup

For decades the federal government has been developing a highly classified plan that would override the Constitution in the event of a terrorist attack. Is it also compiling a secret enemies list of citizens who could face detention under martial law?

By Christopher Ketcham

05/05/08 "Radar Magazine"

Information Clearing House article link

Few Americans - professional journalists included - know anything about so-called Continuity of Government (COG) programs, so it's no surprise that the president's passing reference received almost no attention. COG resides in a nebulous legal realm, encompassing national emergency plans that would trigger the takeover of the country by extra-constitutional forces and effectively suspend the republic. In short, it's a road map for martial law.

... According to a senior government official who served with high-level security clearances in five administrations, "There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived 'enemies of the state' almost instantaneously." He and other sources tell Radar that the database is sometimes referred to by the code name Main Core. One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention. ...

It is, of course, appropriate for any government to plan for the worst. But when COG plans are shrouded in extreme secrecy, effectively unregulated by Congress or the courts, and married to an overreaching surveillance state - as seems to be the case with Main Core - even sober observers must weigh whether the protections put in place by the federal government are becoming more dangerous to America than any outside threat. ...

"The more data you have on a particular target, the better [the software] can predict what the target will do, where the target will go, who it will turn to for help," he says. "Main Core is the table of contents for all the illegal information that the U.S. government has [compiled] on specific targets." An intelligence expert who has been briefed by high-level contacts in the Department of Homeland Security confirms that a database of this sort exists, but adds that "it is less a mega-database than a way to search numerous other agency databases at the same time."

Radar Magazine: The Last Roundup 1

Radar Magazine: The Last Roundup 2

A host of publicly disclosed programs, sources say, now supply data to Main Core. Most notable are the NSA domestic surveillance programs, initiated in the wake of 9/11, typically referred to in press reports as "warrantless wiretapping." In March, a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal shed further light onto the extraordinarily invasive scope of the NSA efforts: According to the Journal, the government can now electronically monitor "huge volumes of records of domestic e-mails and Internet searches, as well as bank transfers, credit card transactions, travel, and telephone records." Authorities employ "sophisticated software programs" to sift through the data, searching for "suspicious patterns." In effect, the program is a mass catalog of the private lives of Americans. And it's notable that the article hints at the possibility of programs like Main Core. "The [NSA] effort also ties into data from an ad-hoc collection of so-called black programs whose existence is undisclosed," the Journal reported, quoting unnamed officials. "Many of the programs in various agencies began years before the 9/11 attacks but have since been given greater reach."

The following information seems to be fair game for collection without a warrant: the e-mail addresses you send to and receive from, and the subject lines of those messages; the phone numbers you dial, the numbers that dial in to your line, and the durations of the calls; the Internet sites you visit and the keywords in your Web searches; the destinations of the airline tickets you buy; the amounts and locations of your ATM withdrawals; and the goods and services you purchase on credit cards. All of this information is archived on government supercomputers and, according to sources, also fed into the Main Core database.

Main Core also allegedly draws on four smaller databases that, in turn, cull from federal, state, and local "intelligence" reports; print and broadcast media; financial records; "commercial databases"; and unidentified "private sector entities." Additional information comes from a database known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, which generates watch lists from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for use by airlines, law enforcement, and border posts. According to the Washington Post, the Terrorist Identities list has quadrupled in size between 2003 and 2007 to include about 435,000 names. The FBI's Terrorist Screening Center border crossing list, which listed 755,000 persons as of fall 2007, grows by 200,000 names a year. A former NSA officer tells Radar that the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, using an electronic-funds transfer surveillance program, also contributes data to Main Core, as does a Pentagon program that was created in 2002 to monitor anti-war protestors and environmental activists such as Greenpeace.

If previous FEMA and FBI lists are any indication, the Main Core database includes dissidents and activists of various stripes, political and tax protestors, lawyers and professors, publishers and journalists, gun owners, illegal aliens, foreign nationals, and a great many other harmless, average people. ...

World News Daily: Information Clearing House home page

Infinite Unknown home page

Infinite Unknown: Main Core article link

The Last Roundup, by Christopher Ketcham, appeared in the May/June 2008 issue of Radar Magazine

Wikipedia: Radar Magazine article link

Radar Magazine: The Last Roundup 2

The Business Insider

Oh, Crap, History Is Repeating Itself

by Martin Wolf article link

History is sort of repeating itself, says the FT's Martin Wolf. The 'Noughties' of the 20th Century marked the end of a global super-power and led to wars, depressions, and hell...

“History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes,” as Mark Twain is supposed to have said. The noughties of the 21st century now have the same fin de regime feeling as those of a century ago.

Then the US, Germany, Russia and Japan were on the rise; now it is China and India. Then it was the Boer war; now it is the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then it was an arms race between Germany and the UK; now it is the military build-up in China. Then the protectionism of the US undermined liberal trade; now conflicts between the US and China undermine our ability to tackle climate change. Then the US was isolationist; now China and other rising powers demand untrammelled sovereignty...

Financial Times article link

The Business Insider

Matt Savinar: Peak Oil

Life After the Oil Crash home page

Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists, physicists, bankers, and investors in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil." ...

The coming oil shocks won't be so short lived. They represent the onset of "a new, permanent condition". Once the decline gets under way, production will drop (conservatively) by 3% per year, every year. War, terrorism, extreme weather and other "above ground" geopolitical factors will likely push the effective decline rate past 10% per year, thus cutting the total supply by 50% in 7 years. ...

It's not just transportation and agriculture that are entirely dependent on abundant, cheap oil. Modern medicine, water distribution, and national defense are each entirely powered by oil and petroleum derived chemicals. ... In addition to transportation, food, water, and modern medicine, mass quantities of oil are required for all plastics, all computers and all high-tech devices. ...

When considering the role of oil in the production of modern technology, remember that most alternative systems of energy — including solar panels/solar-nanotechnology, windmills, hydrogen fuel cells, biodiesel production facilities, nuclear power plants, etc. all rely on sophisticated technology and energy-intensive forms of metallurgy. In fact, all electrical devices make use of silver, copper, aluminum and platinum, each of which is discovered, extracted, and fashioned using oil or natural gas powered machinery. ...

The relationship between the supply of oil and natural gas and the workings of the global financial system is arguably the key issue to dealing with Peak Oil as robost and smoothly function global capital markets must exist in order to power an orderly (or semi-orderly) transition process. In fact this relationship is far more important than alternative sources of energy, energy conservation, or the development of new energy technologies, all of which are discussed in detail on page two of this site. In short, the global financial system is entirely dependent on a constantly increasing supply of oil and natural gas. ...

Life After the Oil Crash page two page three

Deal With Reality or Reality Will Deal With You

Matt Savinar: Peak Oil

Darkness Covers Another Flame of Hope

It is no accident that the power of Mammon has used the very day the Christian world celebrates the birth of the "Light of the World" to snuff out an example of that very Light - this is the back-handed demeaning slap Christ spoke about - the weak and desperate Chinese Oligarchy must be challenged and confronted as the bully it is - we must turn the other cheek so that they are forced now to close their fist if they want to continue, we must stand up to them - the demeaning of one human being is the diminishment of us all - let us hope that the flame being snuffed out catches on in the hearts of the great Chinese people and sets the wildfires of liberty and hope against this SAGE backed-and-supported repressive Regime and possibly place an Emperor on the Throne of China, an "Emperor of the People" to stand in common-cause with the peoples of the world - the so-called Communist Party must be undermined and collapsed, the Chinese people must say "NO" and withdraw all support, and we in the West can do our part - we must be selective in our purchases of goods Made in China; we must investigate the companies and demand that our Leaders demand an accounting of this our Trading Partner - Almighty God must take precedence over the almighty dollar -- "we the people" must rescind our fraudulent National Debts (owned by the private-State, the SAGE, the enslavement of our futures) and-in-turn rescind the Debt Holdings of this brutal Dictatorship and set their people and ourselves free !! - the courage and conviction of Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia are beyond most of us in comprehension and ability; WE MUST KEEP THEM IN MIND AND WE MUST REMIND THE WORLD ON A CONTINUOUS BASIS - HIS CONVICTION FOR HIS CONVICTION IS A CRIME AGAINST US ALL !!

Chinese dissident's jailing draws international anger

BBC Friday, 25 December 2009 article link

There has been widespread condemnation of the jailing by China of leading dissident, Liu Xiaobo, for subversion. ...

China's Communist Party leaders appear to be sending a message to anyone else who might want to challenge their total grip on power: don't. Chinese people have been given many freedoms since reforms were first begun 30 years ago, but this sentence shows that they have only very limited political rights.

BBC News front page

Darkness Covers Another Flame of Hope

Our Rightful Inheritance 1

God and His Church is not [imposed] containment; God is openness to others [freedom, communion, relationship], strength, *equitable roles*, a *full sharing* of what God has shared with us, a sharing of God's presence and His [blessings] gifts, including healing -- a fear of intrusion does not, and should not, intrude upon God's welcome [the fear should not exist, overriding the Spirit; the result is actualization of intrusion in the guise of protection (by those who assume power) for/against those called (the Elect), and God's guests (those being led); it leads to self-fulfillment; a barrier even against God; reined in, curbed] -- the WAY, the 10C, the signs of God are *life-signs* [indications of true life; liberty]; if God is withheld, the body will wither and die -- we are warned in the Bible to beware, to give heed, to keep watch against vain deceit, and even to mark and avoid the teachings of certain people who insist on creating division, but there is nowhere a command for total exclusion of any within God's community -- total exclusion applies to the world's systemic; God's warriors seek that from which others flee, there is NO fear of anything [God is with us]; we confront society -- the politics of exclusion within the Christian community is of man NOT God !! - it is CONTENTION against God's community; the truth of God must overwhelm the falsehoods !!

Our Rightful Inheritance 1

Our Rightful Inheritance 2

"... by His stripes are ye healed," God has promised to heal us of our iniquities, our spiritual sins, as well as, our physical sins - illness of spirit and body were healed by Christ's sacrifice, the penalty has been borne and paid - Christ was beaten, whipped, His flesh torn away [fig. His pound of flesh] by the system - a right way of life will restore us, *heal* us, a way of righteousness, equity - we must claim our rightful inheritance with *all* its benefits !! -- suffering is pain coupled with despair, hopelessness - pain [physical; psychological] takes on an alter-ego, a separate personality that determines what we do, that impacts our lives; chronic pain is almost a third person, a possession, a being possessed - we must allow God to change the circumstances through faith and the application of knowledge [wisdom; the power of God] in the physical and spiritual - God will get to the cause(s), the root of the problem and will exorcise it !! - the incapacity caused by the pain, the suffering, gives way to a new capacity [the ability to contain, absorb, or receive and hold; ability; power; qualification] from God; the *quality of being*, the capability, the potentiality of God's Family opens to us, as God's *gift* !!

Our Rightful Inheritance 2

Our Rightful Inheritance 3

It is God's *presence* that brings the healing, our relationship with Him; the absence of God, by our choice, allows the deterioration [our daily lives, the application of God's word, the social Gospel] !! -- the world, the pride of life, is worshipping Satan [he has the world and its glory to give]; living within the false, the world's ways, is NOT worshipping God in truth !! -- SIN involves man's *relationship* to his Maker -- worship is the acknowledging of God in *all* His ways IN *all* our ways, we become one with God [*one presence*], His will, His way of life, becomes ours [the application of intelligent design] -- God provides the *healing* that is necessary, by OUR presence !!

Our Rightful Inheritance 3

Our Rightful Inheritance 4

The Church of God community: a *relationship* with God among men, an example, a *working* witness [a living witness] -- the corporate [by a recognition of their form, influence and effect] has to be rejected, including their products, their money and means - there is no such thing as ethical funds; shareholders [claiming the *divine right* of capital] are opposed to equity, they claim profit for perpetuity as right, they are slave-holders in effect, with a claim on the rights and labor of workers, with no real input whatever; it is ** wealth discrimination ** and opposed to the Kingdom of God -- the choice is either for the hard right or the easy wrong -- the price for freedom was Christ's sacrifice - we must be *stewards* NOT consumers [including the COG, hearers only; the Gospel as product is NOT doing the Gospel (doers of the word); a hierarchical form-structure is NOT a *ministry of the brethren*, good stewards of the Spirit of God] -- the want, the need of belief [most are just trying to heal the hurt; the emotion] must be paired with knowledge, intelligence, and active faith, joined as *wisdom*, the application of God's Word, the *power* of God !!

Our Rightful Inheritance 4

We Must Unlock the Authority from Within

Our interaction, our behavior with the external world is now at a crisis stage; our penetration into the very process of life [deep intrusion into processes that we at best, at present, can only guess at] requires an increased intelligence, a new level of sensibility, an exquisite sensitivity, and it begins with a new level of intelligence vs. social stratification, the mental template, the hierarchical lock that has been the primary cause of the appalling record of man, past and present, with its profound long-term consequences; we must change, adjust our behavior for the future or there will be no future for humanity; the root of all the evil is Mammon, the catalyst to rush headlong without weighing the consequences, or the impulse to tip-the-balances - we must unlock the authority from within, the inherent value, the cognition within each of us and release the false usurper spirit [the destroyer of wisdom, the Faith of the Fallen] and accept the communitarian Faith of God, a free gift, an enhancement to our human spirit: God's way of peace, justice, equality, of livelihood and means of life.

God will restore our souls as we apply the communitarian Gospel, as we live within the Family, the community of God !! -- Isaiah 25:7 God will *swallow up*, He will end the SAGE systemic, the impudent [without thought of the consequences; lacking in judgment or caution] countenance [the look on a persons face that shows one's nature or feelings; sanction], the fear, the heaviness of the covering, wrapped tightly, above, over, upon, and against every nation, every people [TARP an appropriate acronym]; and their league, the molten image, that is fused, overspread against all nations.

[The Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly referred to as TARP, is a program of the United States government to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector. It is the largest component of the government's measures in 2008 to address the subprime mortgage crisis (source Wikipedia)].

We Must Unlock the Authority from Within

Indymedia: The Peoples Protocol on Climate Change

Indymedia: The Peoples Protocol on Climate Change article link

The Peoples Protocol on Climate Change is an initiative of the Peoples Movement on Climate Change (PMCC), a grassroots-based movement promoting the peoples agenda for climate action and social transformation, to fight for solutions that secure justice and democratic rights of the people, and challenge the collusion of profiteers led by powerful elites and corporate interests.

12th November 2009:

For a People's Protocol and a People's Movement on Climate Change

Injustice lies at the root of the climate crisis. A tiny minority of the world's population based in the advanced capitalist countries in the North is primarily responsible for accelerating climate change that is already inflicting more death, destruction and suffering to millions of the world's poor and disadvantaged.

In their relentless pursuit of profits, Northern corporations have burned vast and increasing amounts of fossil fuels and destroyed forests to feed energy and inputs into production, dumping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at levels that is now warming the planet and disrupting the climate. The global economic system involves the appropriation and lopsided use by a powerful global elite of the planet's shared resources, and the disempowerment and dispossession of the majority of the world's people. This basic social process is behind two centuries of profit-oriented capitalist growth. It bequeathed increasing prosperity and power to the Global North and private corporations through the over-exploitation of natural resources, and forced poverty, colonialism, and underdevelopment upon millions of people, who now suffer the hardest impacts of climate change despite having no responsibility for it. In the last 30 years, under the banner of free market globalization, and with the help of the IMF, World Bank, and WTO, Northern-based transnational corporations have expanded their power over Southern economies and resources, and intensified their pollution of the atmosphere and destruction of the environment. ...

We need a people's movement to advance our solutions. Solving the climate crisis requires far-reaching social transformation. Unequal patterns of power behind such injustices as poverty, hunger, exploitation, and colonialism are the same ones that have caused ecological destruction and climate change. And as with other injustices, the climate crisis and its roots can only be dealt with through political struggles by the people. We need a grassroots-based people's movement on climate change to promote the people's agenda on climate action and social transformation, fight for solutions that secure justice and democratic rights for the people, and challenge efforts from powerful elite and corporate interests that seek to divert and undermine our movement.

independent media center (indymedia) home page

BBC: Why did Copenhagen fail to deliver a climate deal? article link

Tuesday, 22 December 2009

About 45,000 travelled to the UN climate summit in Copenhagen - the vast majority convinced of the need for a new global agreement on climate change.

So why did the summit end without one - and without agreement that something significantly stronger should emerge next year?

Our environment correspondent Richard Black looks at eight reasons that might have played a part.

1. KEY GOVERNMENTS DO NOT WANT A GLOBAL DEAL

2. THE US POLITICAL SYSTEM

3. BAD TIMING

4. THE HOST GOVERNMENT

5. THE WEATHER

6. 24-HOUR NEWS CULTURE

7. EU POLITICS

8. CAMPAIGNERS GOT THEIR STRATEGIES WRONG

BBC News front page

Indymedia: The Peoples Protocol on Climate Change

Winter Solstice: The Conception of Christ

Winter Solstice: Mary impregnated by the Holy Spirit most likely at this time, Christ was "conceived" at the time of the winter solstice when the night and darkness are longest; Christ is the "light" of the world; His birth was at the time of the fall Feasts of Trumpets/Tabernacles (His Ministry began at this time on His 30th Birthday AD27). Dec 21 is the day of the conception of the Family of God.

In and through community [the Kingdom of God] lies the salvation of the world. We must learn the basic principles of community in our own individual lives and personal spheres of influence. Spiritual healing is a process of becoming whole or holy, conversion is an ongoing process of becoming *increasingly conscious*. We have to awaken to the awareness of how *dead we have become* to fit into the "reality" of this world, this SAGE construct. We must be reminded that the hope of the Gospel cannot be fully eradicated by the repressive present. Breakthrough moments of love remind us that a society based on materialism and narcissistic self-interest is not our only possibility !! It is now time for resurrection [of a like figure; type], for waking the dead consciousness within us and slowly and reassuringly bringing it back to life, reconnecting to the fullness of our possibilities as beings created in the image of the divine. We must be reminded that we are really not alone at all, and that the real task is to recognize each other, see through our various masks, and have confidence that there is enough love, that we are enough, and that *together*, in relationship, we can go for our highest visions again. [based partially on Tikkun and Shared Vision magazines]

Winter Solstice: The Conception of Christ

James Quinn: Brave New World 2009

BRAVE NEW WORLD 2009 article link

by James Quinn

December 14, 2009

Aldous Huxley wrote the dystopian novel Brave New World in 1931 at the inauguration of the last Crisis period in America. Dystopia is the often futuristic vision of a society in which conditions of life are miserable and characterized by poverty, oppression, war, violence, disease, pollution, nuclear fallout and/or the abridgement of human rights, resulting in widespread unhappiness, suffering, and other kinds of pain. The novel was his response to the writings of H.G. Wells (Men Like Gods) and George Bernard Shaw which glorified socialism and a one World State. Orwell’s 1984, written in 1948, is the other famous dystopian novel of the era. Huxley had visited America during the Roaring 20’s and his experience provided the character for the novel. He was outraged by America’s out of control materialistic egocentric society. He witnessed youthful superficiality, commercialization, sexual promiscuity, and a self centered culture. ...

At the very pinnacle of society sit Alpha Double-Pluses, who serve as the future scientists and top administrators of the world. People in different castes are conditioned to be happy in their own way – they do not feel resentment towards other castes, but rather feel a slight contempt for people not members of their own caste. The upper castes are intelligent, and have managerial jobs, where as the lower castes do the manual labor. The Alpha's have what we would consider the best jobs, and it continues down until the Epsilons, who have the least skilled jobs. The Alphas are tall and fair, while the Epsilons are dark skinned. ...

The novel takes place in the year 2540 in London. The disturbing aspect is that we are now in the year 2009 and much of Huxley’s vision has come to fruition.

James Quinn home page

James Quinn: Brave New World 2009

The Independent: The Truths Copenhagen Ignored

Commentators article link

Johann Hari: The truths Copenhagen ignored - The politicians have chosen low taxes and oil money today over survival tomorrow

Saturday, 19 December 2009

So that's it. The world's worst polluters – the people who are drastically altering the climate – gathered here in Copenhagen to announce they were going to carry on cooking, in defiance of all the scientific warnings.

They didn't seal the deal; they sealed the coffin for the world's low-lying islands, its glaciers, its North Pole, and millions of lives. ...

The rich world has been responsible for 70 per cent of the warming gases in the atmosphere – yet 70 per cent of the effects are being felt in the developing world. Holland can build vast dykes to prevent its land flooding; Bangladesh can only drown. There is a cruel inverse relationship between cause and effect: the polluter doesn't pay.

So we have racked up a climate debt. We broke it; they paid. At this summit, for the first time, the poor countries rose in disgust. Their chief negotiator pointed out that the compensation offered "won't even pay for the coffins". The cliché that environmentalism is a rich person's ideology just gasped its final CO2-rich breath. As Naomi Klein put it: "At this summit, the pole of environmentalism has moved south." ...

We will have to pay higher taxes and fly less to make the leap to a renewably powered world – but we will still be able to live an abundant life where we are warm and free and well fed. The only real losers will be the fossil fuel corporations and the petro-dictatorships.

But our politicians have not chosen this sane path. No: they have chosen inertia and low taxes and oil money today over survival tomorrow. The true face of our current system – and of Copenhagen – can be seen in the life-saving ideas it has so casually tossed into the bin.

The Independent home page

The Independent: Climate Change

UN averts climate collapse by 'noting' new deal article link

The Independent: The Truths Copenhagen Ignored

Rudiments of the World 1

God and His truth are not the exclusive property of any group or person [reactionary and/or elitist spirituality]; the common Family and God's truth are open and free for all to accept and be accepted of; the group or person has the honor of worship and representation, but only God places you within His Family -- God's truth is not proprietary; there is no copyright on His truth - no man can put his name on God's truth, he is NOT the author of it - God's truth is to be shared freely as it was freely shared with us - the merit of the words themselves lend the authority; any copyright is of God !! -- the COG community, the Family, is wholly *self-sufficient (self-Existent)*, receiving *all* from God [there is no utilization of oppression, usury, artificial scarcity, slavery, etc., ie., the world's money and means]; we are not to *touch, taste, or handle* the rudiments [the primary and fundamental principles; to proceed in a row, go in order; to go on prosperously, to turn out well; to walk; to direct one's life, to live] of the world, we are not to use or be subject to its ordinances [doctrines; of public decrees; of (Roman) government; of rulers (carnal rulership); hierarchy] -- we are to be separate from the world, we must withdraw, cease to exist systemically -- an *emancipatory spirituality* [Tikkun] that encourages people to work together in community [the social and political movement] filled with a powerful spiritual practise includes a genuine recognition that its goals cannot be achieved by means that are not as holy as its ends.

Rudiments of the World 1

Rudiments of the World 2

Colossians 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the *rudiments* of the world, why, *as though living* in the world, are ye *subject* to *ordinances*, [some were employing, utilizing its means] 21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22 Which all are to *perish* with the *using*;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh [carnally minded].

God will open our minds to the wonderful possibilities of His, *OUR* community, and to His abilities and intelligence(s), to accomplish the same -- we are NOT to *touch* [fasten ourselves to, by any means], *taste* [to partake of, in any way], or *handle* [to touch, handle; to do violence to, injury (the corporate means; money based on oppression, usury, etc.)] the SAGE systemic; and certainly NOT employ its means to propagate the Gospel [a message (and way of life) wholly opposed to, and one that demands our complete and total separation from, these same means; darkness is not the source of light]; a tainted message is the result, one lacking in power [the application of God's word], a message caught between two worlds -- true, open and free Christian community is the proper *preaching and witness* that God and His family require to deliver the Good News, the social [communitarian] Gospel, the *way of separation*, to the world [the people, the underlying foundations, the systemic psychology], to lay the foundation and build the Kingdom of God [restoration, the social reconstruction] for the inheritors.

Rudiments of the World 2

Rudiments of the World 3

The way of gain [means; as instrumentality] - a *shameful* situation in the COG; the COG today is NOT a manifestation of God's truth !! - we are not honoring God our Father, and our Mother the Church; we are committing SIN; it should be a period of weeping and mourning as we stand before the Promised Land; God's household is wasted, a desert, sterile; NO RIGHTEOUS GROWTH; we must REBUILD *IN STRENGTH* -- contentions, divisions, making merchandise of the brethren, men committing fornication with their "mother" (their father's wife), the church, filling their own bellies [CLAIMING OWNERSHIP; AN *EMPTY* BUSINESS; COG SPOILED] -- our following of men [I am of...]; there is NO preeminence of any within the COG community, NO reputation; this carnal situation has to end !! - we follow Christ, and Him only !! -- the puffed up corporate church must cease; the high mindedness - where is the *servant authority*, the elders, the mature example, to gently lead in all humility ?? - why haven't we truly gone to our brethren [in love, in prayer, trusting in God] to resolve any differences [instead of accusing, marking, calling our judgment "tough love"]; we have more in common than in difference; we have to get man out of the way of God [the evil, carnal, wall of division and strife is *money, position, and personality*] !!

1 Corinthians 5:1. It is reported commonly [that there is] *fornication* among you [AS INSTRUMENTALITY], and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have *[OWN; POSSESS]* his father's wife [MOTHER; COG]. 2 And ye are *puffed up*, and *have not rather mourned*, that he that hath done this *deed* [WORK] might be taken away from among you.

Rudiments of the World 3

Rudiments of the World 4

Whose [and what] interests are being represented here ?? - it is time that we mark [to watch; recognize] and avoid [not shun, but withdraw from, reject the teachings of] the hierarchy, the hierarchical government form, the self-appointed "ministry of the hierarchy," a ministry filling their own bellies -- we must ask for forgiveness, we are all responsible; we must admonish, teach the truth as brethren [not in authority over]; the hierarchy are our brothers, BUT THEY ARE OPPOSING GOD IN MIND, and they are opposing, silencing God in form [they assume what rightfully belongs to the brethren], in the received and applied tradition of men !! - we must implement *God's pure design*, uncorrupted by man and return to being good stewards of the faith [a ministry of the brethren] in true community [the implementation of God's consciousness] !! - we must walk *as God* in *full* consciousness !! - the "work" of the COG is NOT in the running of a Corporate entity; it is establishing and creating community; a *living* faith, where we worship in spirit and in truth !!

Colossians 2:18 Let no man *beguile* you of your reward in a *voluntary* humility and *worshipping* of angels [FALLEN ANGELS; THEIR SYSTEMIC], intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.

Rudiments of the World 4

The Independent: Copenhagen Climate Summit

Commentators article link

Johann Hari: It's the protesters who offer the best hope for our planet

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

But in reality, there are two forms of vandalism about to happen in this city. There is the cutting of a few fences as part of an act of mass civil disobedience. It is an attempt to symbolically resist the much bigger act of vandalism – the trashing of our own habitat, by leaders too short-sighted and too money-addled to listen to the science.

Isn't it violent to knowingly condemn whole countries to drown? Isn't it vandalism to knowingly let the world's most crucial farming land crust over, its most precious rivers run dry, and its hurricanes become super-charged? Isn't that immeasurably worse than breaking a fence and cutting a cordon? Couldn't resistance to this destruction-machine justify this tiny act of destruction? The young protesters who will do this have proved themselves, so far, the sanest force in town. They have ensured that the corporate lobbyists punching holes in the deal are followed and shamed wherever they meet. They chant: "It's not your business – it's our climate."

When I hear the activists, I remember something Farley Mowat, the Canadian conservationist, wrote in the 1990s: "The last three decades of this century have witnessed the ignition of the most significant internal conflict ever to engage the human species. It is not the struggle between capitalism and communism or between any other set of 'isms'. It is the conflict between those who possess the means and will to exploit the living world to destruction, and those who are banding together in a desperate and last-ditch attempt to prevent the New Juggernaut from trashing our small planet."

This week, the small band of the sane got a little bit bigger and a lot more global. For today, it is vastly outgunned by the forces of ecological destruction, and it will certainly not be able to ensure a sane deal in Copenhagen. But think of all the other movements that were small at first and held up impossible dreams. They called him "Martin Loser King"; they said civil rights would never come; now everyone says he was right and there's a black President (although alas not a green one).

The Independent home page

The Independent: Copenhagen Climate Summit

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 1

John 1:12 But as many as received him, *to them gave he power* [G1849] to become the sons of God, [even] to them that *believe on his name*:

[Strong's Concordance #1849, exousia; - power - authority - right - liberty - jurisdiction - strength 1) power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases; leave or permission 2) physical and mental power; the ability or strength with which one is endued, which he either possesses or exercises 3) the power of authority (influence) and *of right* 4) the power of rule or government (the power of him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others and obeyed) 4a) the power of judicial decisions; of authority to manage domestic affairs 4b) a thing subject to authority or rule, jurisdiction; one who possesses authority; a ruler, a magistrate, the leading and more powerful among created beings superior to man, spiritual potentates 4c) a sign of the husband's authority over his wife [Christ over the church, His bride], ie., the veil with which propriety required a women to cover herself 4d) the sign of regal authority, a crown].

Yah is Yahweh (As Become My Salvation)

Jesus (Salvation/Healing)

Holy "Being"

Yahweh-Yireh; Yahweh will see, or Yahweh will provide.
Yahweh-Rophekha; Yahweh who heals you.
Yahweh-Nissi; Yahweh my banner.
Yahweh-Meqaddishkhem; Yahweh who makes you holy.
Yahweh-Shalom; Yahweh is peace.
Yahweh-Tsebhaoth; Yahweh of hosts.
Yahweh-Tsidqenu; Yahweh our righteousness.
Yahweh-Shammah; Yahweh is there.
Yahweh-Elyon; Yahweh most high.
Yahweh-Roi; Yahweh my shepherd.
Yah is Yahweh as having become my salvation.

Genesis 1:1 immediately links Elohim with creation [Genesis 1:26. And God said, Let *us* make man in *our* image, after our likeness]:

Jehovah (The (Self-)Existing One)

Christ (Anointing/Responsibility)

Sacred "Doing"

* Jehovah; the Existing One.

* El; the Almighty, the omnipotent Elohim in all his strength, the God who knows all.
* Elohim (plural intensive, singular meaning), the God who sees all.
* Elohim fulfills his purpose for his people, *THE GOD FAMILY*.
* Eloah "the living God" (in contrast to inanimate idols), is a name stressing the Elohim is to be worshiped. Eloah is used in connection with God's will rather than his power.
* Elyon "God Most High" is the possessor of heaven and earth.
* El-Shaddai; the Almighty, is the all-bountiful giver of grace. He supplies all the needs of his people.
* Adon, rendered "Lord," meaning Lord as Ruler of the earth.
* Adonim, the plural of Adon, carries all the meaning of Adon, but to a higher degree. God is the owner and proprietor of the earth, the Lord who rules his own.
* "Lord" meaning the Lord in relation to the earth; Adonay.

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 1

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 2

Thou shalt not covet - for power, riches, gain, etc. -- I will not give you power over me because I covet reward, position, influence, from you !! -- the reward for work must be communitarian in value, meaning -- we must NOT covet and be self-satisfied in the physical or spiritual; we must NOT covet power [real or imagined], or means, of any kind !! -- the inherent power [G1411] of

God comes from the *application of God's word*, the Gospel, in righteousness ... we must be *brothers and sisters in the faith*, having no reputation, nor seeking one; not over, but among, with, serving.

[Strong's Concordance #1411 dunamis; AV - power - mighty work - strength - miracle - might - virtue - mighty 1) strength power, ability 1a) inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth 1b) power for performing miracles 1c) moral power and excellence of soul -- 1d) the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth 1e) power and resources arising from numbers 1f) power consisting in or resting upon armies, forces, hosts.]

We [individually and collectively; physically and spiritually] must realize that God All In All, I Am That I Am - I Am What I Will Become, I Will Be What I Will Be [Rev. 3:14, Christ is the first begotten, the first-born of many, ** the beginning of the Creation of God **, not of Creation itself, but of the *Creation of God*, the Elohim, God now being *created* as FAMILY; actual created God-Kind] - is our responsibility also, we are part of the creating process [the relationship]: I Am What I Will Become, and God All In All, this is "us", this is God "calling to us", to be *begotten*, to learn and apply His Word, to grow in Grace and Knowledge [to know, believe, understand], to acquire God's perception(s) [of the reduction of our humanity, our being, by our existence apart from God], to make the Kingdom of God a reality now, *at this time*, NOT man's way but God's way !! - we will determine what God will become [by our attributes; by our strengths, weaknesses, etc., by our reward] !!

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 2

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 3

We must build God's self-sufficient community, and when it is realized, if not before, we must reject all claims to man's constructs, our allotted share [the use of; partake]; these are corporate schemes to placate the unequal, unjust distribution of the *commonwealth* and is therefore opposed to the KOG; these national sins [and our personal ones] *make void the Word of God* -- we are to be "separate", considered "strangers and pilgrims, sojourners" in the land [the nations of man] while we build and establish the nation of God - we are to be in union with God, NOT a partaker/partner of this evil construct - we must reject our role(s) in society, the consumption of power [Christ's example] - we must have authentic faith in God [freely given] and reject a forced, high cost, manufactured faith in the system - we are NOT to have a share in [G3581 xenos], to be numbered among carnal men - our "relation" to man must be one of giver NOT (par)taker of other men's sins - righteousness is God's "nature of interaction" for His Family [G3056 logos; with whom as (future) judge we stand in relation]; we must dwell in righteousness, above reproach [shame, disgrace, discredit, or blame; or a source, cause, occasion of this; rebuke; reproof; censure] - the 10C are primary !!

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 3

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 4

The role is a consumption of power - it locates [or places] one in the representational hierarchy, and hence in the spectacle: at the top, at the bottom, in the middle, but never outside the hierarchy, whether this side of it or beyond it - the role is thus the means of access to the mechanism of [a chosen, or forced] culture: a form of initiation; it is also the medium of exchange of individual sacrifice, and in this sense performs a compensatory function [to the power]; and lastly, as a residue of separation, it strives to construct a behavioral unity; in this aspect it depends on identification - the series of poses chosen more or less unconsciously from the range of dominant stereotypes [the stereotype is the model of the role, the role is a model form of behavior; the repetition of an attitude creates a role, the repetition of a role creates a stereotype; the stereotype is an objective form into which people are integrated by means of the role; skill in playing and handling roles determines rank in the hierarchy] - why do we succumb to the seduction of borrowed attitudes?

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 4

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 5

The satisfaction derived from a well-played [or well mimicked] role is in direct proportion to the distance from ourselves [and from our God], to our self-negation and our self-sacrifice [the prime function of the (imposed; acquired) role is that of social adaptation, of integrating people into the well-policed universe of things; of control] - where [the SAGE] constraint breaks

people, and mediation [government; democracy] makes fools of them, the *seduction of power* [the impossibility of realization: power as sum of seductions; the evil continual, continuance; no summation (fulfillment of desire) possible; the push and pull] is what makes them love their oppression [covetousness; the grasp of evil, the embrace; *hierarchy*]; because of it people give up their real riches: for a cause that mutilates them, for an imaginary unity that fragments them, for an appearance that reifies them, for roles that wrest them from authentic life, for a time whose passage defines and confines them -- power's strength lies in its facility in enforcing both actual separation and false union - is what drives people to seek power the very weakness to which power reduces them? -- [God's Names: Our Responsibilities 4,5] [The Revolution of Everyday Life, author Raoul Vaneigem [with additions]]

God's Names: Our Responsibilities 5

IFG Primer: WTO Invisible Government

INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT: The World Trade Organization: Global Government For The New Millennium?

a primer

Prepared by

The International Forum on Globalization (IFG)

Download the report

Authors: Debi Barker and Jerry Mander

This primer is a basic briefing on the powers, structure, rules, powers, and values of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the agreements it encompasses. It includes a brief description of economic globalization the engine driving the creation of global agreements and institutions such as the WTO. Also included is a history of post-Bretton Woods free trade institutions, leading up to the WTO, as well as thorough explanations of WTO agreements and procedures. Analyses of the WTO regime and case studies are included concerning major recent decisions on: environment, agriculture, intellectual property rights, culture and investment. (50 pages)

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IFG Primer: WTO Invisible Government

Walter Rauschenbusch 1

The essential purpose of Christianity is to transform human society into the Kingdom of God by regenerating *all* human relations and reconstituting them in accordance with the will of God. The religious spirit is a factor of incalculable power in the making of history. Unless the economic and intellectual factors are strongly reinforced by religious enthusiasm [the communitarian gospel], the whole social movement may prove abortive. The vastness and the free sweep of concentrated wealth on the one side, the independence, intelligence, moral vigor, and political power of the common people on the other side, promise a long-drawn grapple of contesting forces, but if God be for us who can be against us? It is the religious leaders of the people who give direction to the forces of religion, but most have been coopted by the system [prophets for profit; it is up to the common to be led by the Spirit of God, the common spirit granted to all who seek for the *perfecting* of humanity; Work out *your own* salvation with fear (respect, reverence for God) and trembling (Phil. 2:12)]. The conscience of Christendom is halting and groping, *perplexed by contradicting voices*, still poorly informed on essential questions, justly reluctant to part with the treasured maxims of the past, and yet conscious of the call of the future, the voice of our children.

Walter Rauschenbusch 1

Walter Rauschenbusch 2

Ascertaining what was the *original and fundamental purpose* of the great Christian movement - the *life and teachings* of Jesus, and the *dominant tendencies* of primitive Christianity, is imperative due to the impossibility of handling of questions so vital to the economic, the social, and the moral standing of great and antagonistic classes of men, without jarring precious interests and convictions, and without giving men the choice between the bitterness of social repentance and the bitterness of moral resentment. Men must overcome the temptations which made the wrong almost inevitable, and the points of view in which they entrench themselves to save their self-respect. Those who come after us will live in a world which our sins have blighted or which our love of right has redeemed. We must do our thinking on these great questions, not with our eyes fixed on our accounts [the entrenched fear, the blinders], but with a wise outlook on the fields of the future and with the consciousness that the spirit of the Eternal is seeking to distill from our lives some essence of righteousness before they pass away. [Christianity and the Social Crisis by Walter Rauschenbusch 1907, 1913 edition, [with additions]]

Walter Rauschenbusch 2

Orestes A. Brownson 1

The remedy is to be sought first in the destruction of the priest [the systemic priesthood: religious, governmental and business]; we are not mere destructives; we delight not in pulling down; but the bad must be removed before the good can be introduced; conviction and repentance precede regeneration; moreover we are Christians, and it is only by following out the Christian law, and the example of the early Christians, that we can hope to effect anything; Christianity is the sublimest protest against the priesthood ever uttered ... in the person of [Christ] Jesus both God and Man protested against the priesthood -- we may offend in what we say, but we cannot help that; we insist upon it, that the complete and final destruction of the priestly order, in every practical sense of the word priest, is the first step to be taken towards elevating the laboring classes ... He who redeemed man did not spring from the priestly class ... the chief priests were at the head of those who demanded his crucifixion ...

Let us have no class of men whose profession it is to minister at the altar [the altar of power and commerce]; let us leave this matter to Providence; when God raises up a prophet, let that prophet prophesy as God gives him utterance ... let us have none to prophesy for hire [prophets for profit] ... none of your hireling priests, your "dumb dogs" that will not bark ... what are the priests of Christendom as they now are?; miserable panderers to the prejudices of the age, loud in condemning sins nobody is guilty of, but silent as the grave when it concerns the crying sin of the times ... the next step in this work of elevating the working classes will be to resuscitate the Christianity of Christ; the Christianity of the Church has done its work; we have had enough of that Christianity ...

Orestes A. Brownson 1

Orestes A. Brownson 2

According to the Christianity of Christ no man can enter the kingdom of God who does not labor with all zeal and diligence to establish the kingdom of God on the earth; who does not labor to bring down the high and bring up the low; to break the fetters of the bound and set the captive free; to destroy all oppression, establish the reign of justice, which is the reign of equality, between man and man; to introduce new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, wherein all shall be as brothers, loving one another, and no one possessing what another lacketh - no man can be a Christian who does not labor to reform society ... no man can be a Christian who does not refrain from all practices by which the rich grow richer and the poor poorer [EXPATRIATION], and who does not do all in his power to elevate the laboring classes, so that one man shall not be doomed to toil while another enjoys the fruits; so that each man shall be free and independent ...

We grant the power of Christianity in working out the reform we demand; we agree that one of the most efficient means of elevating the working men is to christianize the community, but you must christianize it; it is the gospel of Jesus you must preach, and not the gospel of the priests ... let it be the genuine Gospel [the communitarian way] ... and not the pseudo-gospel, [the gospel of men; worshipping in vain; commandments of men] which lulls the conscience asleep, and permits men to feel that they may be servants of God while they are slaves to the world, the flesh and the devil ... we must preach no Gospel that permits men to feel that they are honorable men and good Christians, although rich and with eyes standing out with fatness, while the great mass of their brethren are suffering from iniquitous laws, from mischievous social arrangements, and pining away for the want of the refinements and even the necessaries of life -- we speak strongly and pointedly on this subject, because we are desirous of arresting attention

... the redemption of the world is understood to mean simply the restoration of mankind to the favor of God in the world to come; their redemption from the evils of inequality, of factitious distinctions, and iniquitous social institutions [in the present world] counts for nothing in the eyes of the Church and this is its condemnation [the Mammon systemic, the origins of the evil; band-aid solutions provide temporary relief but no cure; you cannot use evil (the systemic) to propagate the good, in doing so you negate the good]. -- [Orestes A. Brownson (1803-76), The Laboring Classes, 1840 [with additions]].

Orestes A. Brownson 2

Christian Thoughts: A Powerful Delusion

Saturday, December 12, 2009

A Powerful Delusion blog link

With millions upon millions in the service to Mammon, who is left to raise the alarm? Who is left to seek to counteract the effects of service to Mammon? And who is willing to hate and despise Mammon as a consequence of seeking to serve God. And what we formerly took for granted, now is revealed to be the service to Mammon all around us. Indeed, there is no way to reconcile the glaring contradictions of those serving Mammon unopposed and unhindered, and unencumbered.

And with service to Mammon, the world becomes innundated with false prophets who instinctively peddle the false hope that God will do nothing. As a matter of fact, the service to Mammon works on the premise that God will not interfere in the affairs of man and put an end to the abomination of hating and despising him for the sake of the luxury and wealth offered by the service to Mammon.

Christian Thoughts blog home

As the heart and spirit moves, so does the pen. JESUS IS LORD.

Christian Thoughts: A Powerful Delusion

International Forum On Globalization

Look at the facts, weigh the judgements vs. free trade, globalization; the TNC corporate model = dependence, ie., Third World Nations, the starving exporting food to meet the demands of the TNCs - most of the biggest TNCs, these private monoliths (and private profits) were researched and developed by US public monies, tax dollars, over the past 50 years - companies merged, employees purged, profits and CEO salaries surged; the TNC contribution to employment argument vs. disestablishment is moot -- the destruction, the non-sustainable growth; third-world forced trade, imports/exports, TNC agenda against self-sufficiency vs. the TNC argument that no growth = standard of living cut in half in an increasing world population; a prescription without corporate growth = decline of rights, human and environmental leading to war, etc., the corporate responsibility vs. future anarchy, protecting mankind [the corporation as *saviour*] - who will prevail? - the answer is *the strong*, they will set the rules [the golden rule: those who have the power and the gold set the rules, must be negated] vs. the double-speak, the construction of words, ie., the WTO declaration; the corporate *monetized minds* emphasizing democracy yet ridiculing the democratic rights and decisions of citizens [ie., the MAI, the subordination of democracy by its self-appointed protectors]. -- [based on International Forum On Globalization, www.ifg.org; Seattle-WTO, Nov.99; debate broadcast on NPR-Alternative Radio, Jan.15.00 [with additions]]

IFG and Allies Look Back to Seattle and Forward to Copenhagen

On Monday, November 23rd, 2009, IFG organized a public evening at the First Unitarian Universalist Center in San Francisco. The forum's speakers reflected back on the 10th anniversary of the historic WTO shutdown in Seattle, Washington, in November 1999, and looked forward to the growing peoples' movement on climate justice about to converge in December of this year in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event featured activists involved in organizing around the connections between them both through local actions taking place across the US on November 30th and December 7th.

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Antiwar.com article

Our Chief Industry: War

The economy may be collapsing, but the war business is booming

by Justin Raimondo, November 18, 2009 article link

While our factories have long since moved abroad, where wages are lower and regulation is lax, and our crippled industries are in Dr. Obama’s economic intensive care unit, on life support and awaiting last rites, America’s number-one export – representing, by far, our single largest capital investment – is our overseas military presence. What Chalmers Johnson referred to as our "empire of bases" is the framework of an international economic system in which the division of labor is roughly as follows: while Asia is the factory of the world, South America the farmland, and Europe increasingly a theme park/museum, the U.S. role is that of world gendarme. ...

Before the big crash of 2008, you’ll recall, in the glory days of the bubble years, our elites were all atwitter with a vague, glowing vision of the new economic reality, which touted the alleged benefits of "globalization." More than just the traditional free-market prescription of free trade, this concept envisioned extending the reach and influence of Western finance capital over the entire globe. At the end of this road – at "the end of history," as Francis Fukuyama famously put it – we would fall into the all-encompassing embrace of the emerging world state and live happily ever after.

This ever-upward-and-onward Panglossian view, which identified growing Western domination of the global economy with the march of progress itself, was the underlying rationale of an increasingly aggressive policy of U.S. military and political intervention worldwide. We said we were fighting for civilization as we bombed some of the oldest cities in Balkans, and when" humanitarian" interventionism gave way to a more Roman concept of America’s role in the world – the dividing line being, roughly, 9/11/01 – still we invoked the defense of universal values as the ultimate justification for occupation and mass murder. We unhesitatingly identified ourselves and our interests with the advent of modernity and took up the old Kiplingesque burden of empire with alacrity.

This kind of hubris, however, has since gone out of fashion. The trauma of Iraq and an economic downturn have tamped down our crusading fever; a new appeal is needed in order to buttress the global economic and political order our ruling elites once thought they had in their grasp. At a time when the whole rationale for our endless "war on terrorism" is being challenged, a more pragmatic course is called for.

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Monthly Review MRZine article

Crisis of the Capitalist System: Where Do We Go from Here?

by Immanuel Wallerstein article link

The Harold Wolpe Lecture, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 5 November 2009

The depression into which the world has fallen will continue now for quite a while and go quite deep. It will destroy the last small pillar of relative economic stability, the role of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency of safeguarding wealth. As this happens, the main concern of every government in the world -- from the United States to China, from France to Russia to Brazil to South Africa, not to speak of all the weaker governments on the world scene -- will be to avert the uprising of the unemployed workers and the middle strata whose savings and pensions disappear. The governments are turning to protectionism and printing money as their first line of defense, as ways of dealing with popular anger.

Such measures may postpone the dangers the governments fear and may assuage momentarily the pain of ordinary people. But they will eventually probably make the situation even worse. We are entering a gridlock of the system, from which the world will find it extremely difficult to extract itself. The gridlock will express itself in the form of a constant set of ever wilder fluctuations, which will make short-term predictions -- both economic and political -- virtually guesswork. And this in turn will aggravate the popular fears and alienation. ...

From here on in, we are living amidst the bifurcation of the systemic process. The question is no longer, how will the capitalist system mend itself, and renew its forward thrust? The question is what will replace this system? What order will be chosen out of this chaos?

Of course, not everyone is aware of this as yet. Most people continue to operate as though somehow the system were continuing, using its old rules. They are not really wrong. The system does continue to operate, using its old rules. But now, using the old rules only exacerbates the structural crisis. However, some actors are quite aware that we are in a bifurcation. And they know, perhaps only tacitly, that at some point in a bifurcation, the collectivity of all actors leans definitively in one direction or another. One can say that a decision has been made, even if the use of the word "decision" sounds anthropomorphic.

We may think of this period of systemic crisis as the arena of a struggle for the successor system. The outcome may be inherently unpredictable but the nature of the struggle is very clear. We are before alternative choices. They cannot be spelled out in institutional detail, but they can be suggested in broad outline.

We can "choose" collectively a new stable system that essentially resembles the present system in some basic characteristics -- a system that is hierarchical, exploitative, and polarizing. There are, no doubt, many forms this could take, and some of these forms could be harsher than the capitalist world-system in which we have been living. Alternatively we can "choose" collectively a radically different form of system, one that has never previously existed -- a system that is relatively democratic and relatively egalitarian.

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Community Congregations 1

The hierarchical government form violates the 10C:

1. it is in the service of another god; BAAL [ownership; over and upon];

2. it is the Roman image, the image of the Beast;

3. it is taking God's name in vain; worshipping [as way of life] in vain;

[God's name(s) (His/our spiritual characteristics/responsibilities) denied; God's truth partially taught, but in *little strength*; His government has been denied; the strength has been consumed, in vain, from within];

4. it is employed, working for itself on the new moons, Sabbaths, holy days;

5. it is dishonoring God, our Father, and our Mother, the Church;

6. it is committing murder [the way of gain = the way of Cain];

7. it is committing adultery; fornication (with the world) as instrumentality;

8. it is stealing the authority of God away from the brethren; it is stealing God's tithes (community contribution) for its own work, the Gospel as product [maintaining the corporate church; way of gain as righteousness];

9. it is bearing false witness [hierarchy is NOT the government of God]; it is denying God's self-sufficient community [full preaching, witness]; it is denying the very "anointing" of the brethren, their ministry; it is (/they are) the "anti-Anointed";

10. it is covetous for position and power, honor and privilege; it is covetous for what its neighbor [the world] possesses.

The hierarchical government form is opposed to God, an enemy of God, *carnal*, yet, those within its grasp are our brethren -- you cannot exercise holy, righteous, spiritual character by utilizing the means of the world, the unholy, the unrighteous, the base; good cannot proceed out of evil [there is no good in evil, but, the *recognition* of the evil can bring the good] - God's presence will not occupy the same space, environment, with sin [evil is the absence of God; evil flows from sin, the negation of God's way; selfishness]; righteousness does not come from, originate, from unrighteousness, or its means, its instrumentality !!

Community Congregations 1

Community Congregations 2

We need to look at the governmental structure of the first-century church, built as it was on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, in which every person was a brother or sister and coheir with Christ; where no centralized hierarchy of power and control reigned supreme; where God's Spirit moved mightily among people who put their trust in Him alone -- we are the Body, *not* the corporation, of Christ; Jesus is our Master, King, High Priest and Lord - He and His apostles set the standard for governance -- it is when we understand our weakness that God will be our strength - if our hearts are right and our garments figuratively wet from washing each other's feet, then God can use us in His ** Ministry of Reconciliation ** to prepare a people for Christ's second coming - but, if we insist on patterning our self-rule after the kings of the gentiles, which invariably results in people *acting* like kings of the gentiles, then God might call others who will serve Him and Him alone. -- [partial excerpt: Seeking the Government of God Here on Earth, by Lee Lisman; from the June 24, 1996 issue, In Transition]

Community Congregations 2

Community Congregations 3

The subject matter of 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 is *spiritual gifts*, positions of service and responsibility, NOT positions of rank, privilege, and authority over, or upon, the brethren, but in the service for, and of, the brethren - eldership and service from within the congregation !! - there is no professional ministry, no central authority; the government of God is a relationship amongst the ministry of the brethren with Christ as High Priest directing *the* work: the autonomous, self-sufficient, loosely confederated, and flexible [not rigid, but open to new truth, new experience] community-congregations, each *a* work of God, growing in the grace and knowledge of God, each walking with Christ, working out their own salvation with fear and trembling [reverence and awe] !! - a plurality of elders, mature in the spirit, providing guidance in each, with a sharing of the gifts by the brethren amongst the congregations, a *reciprocal relationship* of freely sharing all that God has freely shared with them, for the edification and growth of the Body of Christ - in *brethren assemblies* there is NO imposed distinction between clergy and laity !!

Community Congregations 3

Community Congregations 4

God's self-sufficient and free community ensures preservation of, and absolute, prohibition of evil [fornication as instrumentality; female rivals (church typed: hierarchy; divisions), etc.] within, the COG - the COG is in league [earth community covenant], in alliance with, the natural order of God's creation, in a *reciprocal relationship* [physical as-well-as spiritual; RESTORED TO LIFE] -- the COG is *our* dwelling, home, habitation, *the sacred tent* of God [the tabernacle]; it is a place of health, prosperity, and peace - the COG community is visited [to oversee, muster, charge, care for; do judgment] ** without sin ** [complicity, incur guilt; judge] [without losing oneself, without wandering from the way] - the absolute disestablishment of the hierarchical systemic accomplished; ** pre-millennial fulfillment ** possibility (it is up to us to avert the coming Holocaust); the COG persuaded, opened, made simple again; a very deep, and profound *work* NOW begins; the Holy Spirit deeply stirred, the COG collected, and bound together.

Community Congregations 4

Feast of Dedication 1 Hanukkah/Chanukah

The Feast of Dedication [Chanukah; the Festival of Lights] to GOD and to His Temple must be honored by the COG, just as Christ did [John 10:22-28]: [G] our dedication to God our Father, [O] our dedication to Others, through the body of Christ, [D] our dedication to the destruction of the works of the Devil [his systemic], by growing in grace and knowledge through God's Holy Spirit !! -- the continued use of the world's systemic by the COG is a validation of that which is and the inability to commit to that which ought to be, and we affirm a different vision of strength - God's strength [the application of His word] is dependent on our ability to create a world of love and caring, a world of peace and justice, a world in which every human being is treated as an embodiment of the Spirit of God [the community of God]; ** the works that we do in our Father's name, bear *witness* of us **.

Chislev 25 Festival of Lights or Dedication - beginning of the Jews' eight-day celebration in memory of the dedication of the altar in 164 B.C. after it had been defiled by Antiochus IV on the same date in 167 B.C. (Dan. 11:31; see also John 10:22).

G1456 egkainia; AV - feast of dedication 1) dedication, consecration; in particular the annual feast celebrated eight days beginning in the 25th of Chislev, instituted by Judas Maccabaeus [B.C. 164] in memory of the cleansing of the temple from the pollution of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Feast of Dedication 1 Hanukkah/Chanukah

Feast of Dedication 2

Chislev XXV The Feast of Dedication, viz. of the temple, profaned by the order of Antiochus Epiphanes, and repaired and purified by the care of Judas Maccabeus ["the hammer" or Maccabee]. This festival Christ honored with his presence at Jerusalem. It is likewise called the Feast of Lights because, during the time of its celebration, the people used to illuminate their houses, by setting up candles at every one's door; I Mac. iv. 52., II Mac. ii. 16., John x. 22.

John 10:22. And it was at Jerusalem the ** feast of the dedication **, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. 24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: *the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me*. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father's hand. 30 I and [my] Father are one.

31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ** Ye are gods? ** 35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, ** believe the works **: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father [is] in me, and I in him.

Feast of Dedication 2

Feast of Dedication 3

The spiritual message of who, and what we are, our responsibilities [John 10:34; the Family of God, our self-awareness], and of the "spiritual warfare" that we are engaged in [one definition (occurrence) of evil is our lack of awareness, the absence of *ourselves* (we are a part of God, and our absence is an absence of God's presence) both within and without the COG] - the COG is rededicated by keeping the Feast of Dedication on Chislev 25 for eight days [one day's oil burned for eight days symbolizing the miracle of the Holy Spirit; circumcision (physical) on the eight day (spiritually of the heart); Mary impregnated by the Holy Spirit most likely at this time, Christ was "conceived" at the time of the winter solstice when the night and darkness are longest; the "light" of the world] - a candle is lit each evening [using a Menorah], with each day of celebration focused on a different aspect of God's community [our "agape" relationship with God and with each other] - Chanukah celebrates the world's first recorded national liberation struggle; a message to the COG that we must not worship at the altar of this world's economic, political and cultural "reality," that we must overthrow all bondage [secular as-well-as religious], that we must rededicate God's Temple [which is *each-and-every one of us*] to God !! [Feast of Dedication 1-3] [based on Tikkun Magazine, Nov/Dec.2000]

Feast of Dedication 3

Feast of Dedication 4

The *will* to define our existence must be *God's Will* !! - we are *all* inspired and backed by God [the common fellowship] - we are to give of our gifts, to make a contribution, to the body of Christ, including the body of knowledge and wisdom [the application of that knowledge; the power of God] - we must promote the advancement of knowledge and dialogue, honestly seeking understanding of any resultant conflicts, we must build on the foundation, the existing truths [the template], all-the-while realizing that knowledge without wisdom is like faith without works - we must utilize *all* that God gives us [faith, reason, revelation, etc.] and realize that blind rejection [without due recourse] is *not* protection of belief [we can easily be the source of each other's negation] - many different attitudes, approaches, methods and conclusions will be represented [we are the human face of God], a substantial exchange of views, all-the-while trusting God to bring the harmony !! -- this *community of mind*, a complete and authentic presence of individual, begotten human beings, one to another, inspiring each other with the courage to take the risk of being the source of each other's completion, in the full faith of Jesus Christ, reverencing the animating Spirit that dwells within and among us - that which links us is what *ennobles* us and we must be cognizant of this because *holocaust*, the horror of our monstrous *failure of connection* in the COG, will be the tragic result if we don't !!

Feast of Dedication 4

Feast of Dedication 5

Our fellowship must have the *possession of God's mind*, must be fully prepared to show by words or teaching, to do justice to, to protect and defend, the truth of God, and must be ready to refute and to destroy [to cast out and to cast down], *all* decisions, reasoning's and judgments, that are opposed to, or against, the knowledge of God [and the application of that knowledge (worship and power and wisdom); the spiritual gifts], including the underlying consciousness and systemic structures [the "high things", the "higher powers" of hierarchy both secular and religious]; THOSE SELF-EXALTED AGAINST GOD utilizing the suppression of spontaneity, the enacting of roles, the pervasive imposition of "acceptable" behavior, the ensuing artificiality and stress, and, finally, the collective experience that simultaneously divides a group of people by an infinite distance and unites them in the false communion of being-other-than-themselves together !!

Feast of Dedication 5

Feast of Dedication 6

The *perfected and gifted fellowship* must *STILL* the enemy within and without the COG, and the avenger [the curse, the Tribulation holocaust] by the *power of God*, the strength ordained !! -- there is simply no depth of evil to which a church/society cannot sink once it abandons love as its governing principle, and the test of love's authenticity is that in its presence nobody gets harmed !! - therefore the "imaginary and false community" that purports to satisfy our need for connectedness and recognition always reveals its duplicity by having to generate an *unworthy class of non-members* to outwardly personify the "haunting inner demon" of personal alienation - true "agape love" realizes itself through the *affirmation of the other*; we are, to varying degrees and in the aggregate, *blind*, and in our blindness we injure ourselves and our world; we become *lame* - we must examine with righteous perseverance the symptoms and causes of alienation wherever they manifest themselves; we must be *healed* !!

[Feast of Dedication 4-6] [based on Tikkun, Jan/Feb.2001, pp.66-67]

Feast of Dedication 6

Tikkun Magazine

Chanukah and Christmas Guides (pdf's) download page

CHANUKAH
CELEBRATING THE WORLD’S FIRST RECORDED NATIONAL LIBERATION STRUGGLE
evening of December 11 to December 19, 2009

The Story
(the non-mythologized version you may never have heard)

... To fight against superior military force was totally illogical and unrealistic from the Hellenizers’ standpoint. But the Maccabees rejected assessments of “realism” that derived from the framework imposed by the imperialists, and drew instead upon the Jewish religion and the stubborn spirit of a people who had come to believe that every human being was created in the divine image, hence had a right to be treated with respect and decency. These were people who could not submit to the rule of the imperialist, and whose religion taught them that they need not do so, because the central Power of the universe was a power that rejected the reality of oppression. Their Torah told the tale of their origins in a slave rebellion against another imperialist power thought to be invincible—Egypt of the Pharaohs.

Armed with these stories, the Maccabees and their followers used guerrilla tactics to win the first national liberation struggle in recorded history. In 165 bce they retook Jerusalem, purified and rededicated the Temple (chanukah means dedication), and rekindled the eternal light that was to glow therein. The fighting continued many years more,but eventually the Maccabees and their descendants (called Hashmona’im) set up an independent Jewish state. ...

The miracle was this: a critical mass of people had come to recognize that there was a Force in the world that made possible the transformation of what is to what ought to be (the Force that we call God). That recognition, when it takes hold of large numbers of people, becomes a manifestation of God’s presence, and in that presence “the power of the people,” suffused with divine energy, becomes greater than all the technology and manipulations of the most sophisticated forms of oppression.

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Jeff Sharlet, The Family, 2008

Jeff Sharlet, The Family blog entry

From the bookjacket:

They are the Family—fundamentalism’s avant-garde, waging spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. They consider themselves the new chosen, congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a “leadership led by God,” to be won not by force but through “quiet diplomacy.” Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have written from inside its walls.

The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power—not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the Far Right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a “family” that thrives to this day. In public, they host prayer breakfasts; in private they preach a gospel of “biblical capitalism,” military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao, the Family's leader declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."

Sharlet’s discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the Cold War, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not “What do fundamentalists want?” but “What have they already done?”

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Jeff Sharlet, The Family, 2008