Tell It to the Judge, Part II: A Killer Southpaw

So reading deeper into the Book of Judges I get to its third chapter. I come across a strange comment about the judge Ehud that warranted a deeper look.

Judges 3:12 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and because they did this evil the Lord gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man…

The text will go on to state that Ehud creates a double-edged sword with which to kill Eglon. This assassination will be done by Ehud with his left hand under the pretense of bringing a secret message to him in private.

Judges 12:21-22 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged.

So the obvious question becomes, “Why the left hand?”

The Scientific/Medical Forensic

Based on wordage in the text and what we know medically, there are a few reasons a puncturing sweeping left abdomen wound would be preferred for an assassin. The heart and lungs being protected by the rib cage would make them prohibitively difficult to hit. Targeting the abdomen makes for a large, soft target that lacks the protection of the ribcage. Tactically, it is also the center or mass and hardest to get out of the way quickly, especially for a fat man like Eglon was. A hand or head can dodge or weave quickly, not an abdomen. It’s also closest to a neutral hand position for Ehud.

You also have many major blood vessels in the area targeted by Ehud. The abdomen houses critical vascular structures like the renal artery and branches tied to the aorta, which can cause rapid internal bleed out. It also contains vital organs. A deep penetration like Ehud would’ve produced with a double-edged sword in this region can damage organs like the liver, left kidney, spleen, or descending colon, leading to fatal hemorrhage. Therefore, the probability of a quick death as narrated in this passage would easily have been produced by a puncture of the liver or abdominal aorta artery. Either of these can lead to unconsciousness within a minute if executed exactly.

Then there is also the density and proximity of all the above accessible to a left-handed assassin sweeping a blade across an abdomen. An effective sharp, rising simultaneous perforation through a kidney, the diaphragm and into the thoracic cavity to puncture a lung would be nearly instantly lethal. The victim’s first exhalation pushes the air out and the perforated diaphragm makes replacing that air virtually impossible. Shock, unconsciousness, and death from blood loss and asphyxiation would follow quickly. We in fact read in the sword was pulled from Ehud’s right side and entered so deeply the handle was in the body also. So, therefore, a deep slashing puncture wound.

The Theological/Philosophical

The left hand or a left-handed man may be regarded as a type abnormality, eccentricity or even a disability in the time of the Judges or approx 1200 B.C.-1020 B.C. or late Bronze Age (or any time for that matter). For this alone it warrants examining why God would have a left-handed person doing this killing, medical reasoning aside. The phrase ‘left-handed man” in Hebrew literally means…"a man bound or obstructed in his right hand". Ehud may have been paralyzed or disabled. The real Jewish tribal irony is that Ehud belonged to the Tribe of Benjamin, a name that literally means "son of my right hand" or as Hebraism, “…son of my strength.” Furthermore, there may have been some genetic/hereditary abilities imparted to the Benjamites or a proclivity trained into them  because Judges also goes on to state this gem too…

Judges 20:15-16 At once the Benjamites mobilized twenty-six thousand swordsmen from their towns, in addition to seven hundred able young men from those living in Gibeah. Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred select troops who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

Left-handed men would have a distinct military advantage, especially when attacking as most combatants would’ve been right handed carrying shield in their left hands which would’ve made deflecting projectiles from a lefty nearly impossible. As we know from David and Goliath, this vulnerability is deadly.

Finally, I should also mention one other peculiarity about Old Testament southpaws. In 1 Chronicles 12:2 there is mention of another contingent of lefty soldiers who were also Benjamites. Again, this lends credence to the possibility there might have been something genetically unique about Benjamite manual dexterity. David's general Joab (Tribe of Judah, closely linked to Judah and southern kingdom) is shown to be either left-handed or ambidextrous in 2 Samuel 20:8-10. He grabs his opponents beard with his right hand while holding a sword in his left. The opponent takes no heed of the sword in his left and is undefended when Joab strikes.

So to surmise:

Benjamin was a “son of the right hand.” Ehud (and 700+ others) were Benjamite men whose right hand was somehow restricted either through disability or binding. Yet God places the sword or slings of deliverance in their left hands.

The Paradoxical Nature of God

In God’s providential goodness he permits peculiar variations from the norms of society. God does not form all men according to one exact pattern or mold. There is great variety in the nature, capacity and position of people. While many are in the center of the bell-curve there are some that are far removed from it. There is a high probability therefore that Eglon wouldn’t have deemed a left-handed man a direct immediate threat when is sword was fastened on his non-dominate side. Unfortunately, what Eglon failed to understand is that the left-handed man has the same heart as the right-handed man….capable of the highest good but also the ugliness of lethality when pressed by desperation. Guards usually searched visitors on their left side assuming they were right-handed and drew swords from their left hip; Ehud concealed his double-edged sword on his right thigh, bypassing security. Ehud is then able to implement his shocking purpose more securely through the element of surprise and Eglon letting his guard down in what appears to have been arrogance.

Ehud’s eccentricity or abnormal dexterity is turned to advantage. What first appears at first as nothing but a societal abnormality becomes a special aptitude. A peculiarity or shortcoming can always be turned into a positive. It may enable those who suffer from it to sympathize with and help others with similar difficulty. The the blind have a mission to the blind, the alcoholic to the alcoholic, the cancer survivor consuls the cancer patient. Suffering is the language and medium to consul the sufferer. A peculiarity itself becomes the tool or path by which God’s needed work is accomplished. Paradoxically, a peculiar disadvantage in one direction is often compensated for by peculiar advantages in another. This is often the mode by which God works through man. The first last and the last first.

A man who is weak in the right hand, is often strong in the left-hand. The blind often have a rare skill in music. Muscular weakness is often offset by intellectual strength. Deficient physical health is equalized by spiritual power. Therefore, instead of complaining of shortcomings we should associate with others not avoid those who have had similar issues and determine how to turn disadvantage into an advantage. It is the proverbial turning of lemons into lemonade.

God can use even the useless as a very useful thing. Therein we have the story of God using Onesimus in Philemon. The paradoxical abnormality in the letter to Philemon is that Philemon was a free man who owned a slave. Onesimus was the slave that Paul writes to Philemon about to free him. Paul is writing to him from Roman imprisonment. Onesmus’ name means ‘useless’ in Greek, but he is very useful in making a point to shame Philemon into freeing Onesimus even while Paul is in prison so that Onesimus can carry Paul’s message to the world outside the prison.

In the end it is just another example of thousands that the Bible shows divine subversion of human arrogance or supposed cleverness. Christian and Jewish thought highlights how God consistently uses what society deems weak, overlooked, or disabled to turn the tides of history.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

The Lindsey Clancy Horrorshow

So apparently people still don't get the full panoptic of what we're dealing with in society. The inability to understand the staggering injustice of Lindsey Clancy methodically killing her children is merely a symptom of a much larger spiritual disease that is actually a judgment against a nation. America is not only in decline, it is actively under judgment by Biblical standards. I've said it numerous times before but it warrants saying again because I've heard so many implying a question through a statement similar to this:

"I honestly do not understand what is going on in society anymore with this Clancy case. I can't comprehend a mother killing her children. What is more troubling is the women supporting it under the guise of postpartum depression."

I present a quick Biblical aside from 2 Timothy 3:1-6 and and a detour to Paul’s letter to the Romans in this post.

There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God......They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires...

The passage above is describing the root cause of a complete breakdown of society during "terrible times" in the last days. The text warns that people will become "unloving or specifically without natural affection" or astorgoi/ ἄστοργοι in Greek. Theologically the historical interpretation of this Greek word in context is understood as the ultimate corruption of natural bonds—specifically parents becoming callous, cold, or negligent toward the welfare of their own children.

In the context of the Lindsey Clancy horror show the phrase “unloving/without natural affection” is significant because storgē refers to natural familial affection or the bonds between her and the children she brutally murdered. Paul places the absence of astorgoi/ ἄστοργοι alongside brutality, lack of self-control and rejection of what is good. When a society begins losing its understanding of paternal love, it is not merely experiencing a political or moral problem. It is experiencing a massive spiritual problem. So this passage now provides us a biblical framework for discussing the horrifying breakdown of natural moral bonds in this case. If family is the building block of society it would begin to explain why the entirety of society is now in full freefall.

The family also needs to be seen as the building block of the Church which is why Paul writes this portion. It is a warning not just to individuals but to the Church. The endgame for the Devil is to bring the Church down. Family destruction is just a collateral damage or serendipitous side effects of the evil. Timothy is not merely being given a lesson about wicked people “out there.” Paul is warning Timothy about conditions that will affect the people and communities within normal society and the Church. That is the exact reason I have seen women on social media who claim to be Christian right within the Church touting support for Clancy. Their minds are twisted or they’re gullible.

While the Clancy case isn't necessarily the cause of the cultural problem—it is an especially horrifying illustration of a deeper problem Paul warned about. The erosion of self-control, moral restraint and love of God. The farther we've gotten away from God and scripture the more debased our actions have become. Paul described the corruption of the instincts that ordinarily hold human society together. Paternal instincts. That is why so many are making perplexed statements of disbelief searching for an answer to the madness. Those stating types of statements can’t possibly comprehend what is going on with the cold, callous people since they are not one of them. To understand the madness, you must become the madness.

What we now need to contend with is the degeneration of society. What happens to a society when self-control, natural affection and love for God have eroded? The Christian answer cannot simply be, “I don't understand how society got this way.” Paul told us what happens when humanity turns away from God in these passages. When God is rejected, His truth is rejected. When His truth is rejected, moral boundaries are rejected. When moral boundaries are rejected, desires that once were restrained become celebrated, defended, and normalized.

Romans 1:28-31 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil

Furthermore…

Romans 1:32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

The irony of v.32 tells us exactly why there are so many women supporting a murderer who slaughtered her three children, “…they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Many of these women have what some would call toxic empathy. Those supporting this have had their brains seared because they are godless. So their minds don’t function in the manner they were made to. This is why Paul would earlier say:

1 Timothy 4:1-2 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

The act of searing flesh will, over time numb it by destroying nerve endings near the surface due to scar tissue that builds up. Repeated burning will only increase and thicken the scar tissue. In society people’s minds and thinking have become numb over repetitive searing.

The further society moves from God, the more deeply human rebellion and enmity against God digs its heels in and affects our understanding of gender, marriage, family, sexuality, responsibility, authority, self-control, and value of human life. This is why we should not be surprised when a culture that has spent a century rejecting biblical authority begins producing increasingly distorted ideas about morality.

If we ever hope of living in a normal society again, Christians need to do the following to push back against the tide of darkness we see enveloping us…

• We should grieve the victims.
• We should condemn evil.
• We should name the evil explicitly while holding people accountable that committed it.
• We should show compassion toward those suffering from mental illness.
• We should be able to discern if said actions are actually demonic in origin stop it.
• We should study the spiritual/moral condition of the culture and turn to God to fix what we can.

While we can simultaneously have compassion for people suffering from real mental illness, we must never be confused with calling evil good or the demonic a mental issue. The Bible delineates the two. Lindsey Clancy clearly stated she heard a male voice tell her to do it. We can acknowledge the devastating effects of postpartum and other psychiatric illnesses while still maintaining the biblical conviction that the taking of innocent human life is profoundly evil and needs to be punished, not acquitted or freed of all responsibility because of blame shifting.

When the bonds that God designed to hold families together begin to unravel, the consequences will not remain confined to the family. They will eventually be felt throughout society destroying society and inevitably the Church. 

So…the question isn’t: 

“What is wrong with society?” 

The more important question is: 

“How far have we wandered from God and how do we get back?”

Tell It to the Judge, Part I: Judged by the Company You Keep

The Book of Judges. In the book what we see is a cycle of sin and disobedience to God over and over. The people repent and cry to God for help. Their deliverance comes when God raises up a temporary leader, or judge, to save them. Over the course of the book and over time, both the people and the judges become increasingly corrupt, mirroring the ways of surrounding nations. In the beginning of Judges we see the tail end of the conquest of the Book of Joshua.

Judges 1:1-6 After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.”

There are three main things that can be seen in this passage. I will elaborate on them over the next three posts. The first one is that before taking in hand any important matter I need to seek god's direction in prayer (v. 1). In verse 1 its says, “Israel inquired of the Lord.”  This is always the best place to start. Praying or looking to God in the midst of change, stress or struggle. I’ve seen this in my own life. I am going through it now in the process of changing jobs.

The key point is to seek God before acting, even through the stress of facing a major transition. I didn’t just seek God asking Him to bless a decision we’ve already made—I literally asked Him to direct the decision in the first place to the point that I believe he gave me signs to do so. Transitional times are times when a person especially needs God’s direction. In Judges, Joshua was gone, and Israel was entering a new season. Likewise, changing jobs can bring uncertainty about finances, relationships, responsibilities, and the future.

Prayer should come before action. Israel didn’t immediately decide which tribe should attack. They first “asked the Lord.” God may give direction one step at a time. Thereby encouraging or even forcing us to go to Him in prayer continually to determine each subsequent step. God answered Israel’s question specifically: “Judah shall go up.” He did not give Israel the entire plan at once though. Likewise, I may not receive the whole plan for my future, but I can ask God to show us the next faithful step. Seeking God doesn’t mean there will be no difficulty. Judah still had to fight. Prayer doesn’t necessarily remove the challenge; it puts us in the right posture to face it mentally. Our confidence ultimately rests in God’s leading. God said, “I have given the land into his hand.” Israel’s success was ultimately dependent upon God rather than their own strength. Yet…there were actions the Israelites had to perform themselves. Just as I had to put the next step of my plan in motion by resigning and entering into a risky period of no pay and no healthcare.

This means I had to start distrusting my own wisdom. I was already having misgivings as to my motives to take the job I just resigned from. What I realized is seeking God’s direction means more than asking God to bless my plans. It means being willing to surrender my plans to His answer if it does not align with mine. The job I have inevitably taken is one I normally wouldn’t have. My previous job was one I thought was an easy decision. In these two instances, logic was flipped. God’s will should’ve been abided by. I believe only in the most recent scenario this path was followed. The decision to take the last job as based in my understanding and aligned with my comfort zone. A mistake to be sure. All events are in the hands of God's unerring providence even the decision to take the last job. It was to fulfill something God desired of me even if it is not plainly evident. Success and failure should always prompt us to look to God for guidance. Nothing is a failure in God's plan.

Is what is happening now God’s genuine will for me? I guess I need to ask myself: (1) Am I genuinely asking God what He wants, or am I asking Him to confirm what I already want? (2) Am I willing to accept “no” or “wait” as an answer? (3) Are my motives being shaped by Scripture, prayer, wise counsel—or by comfort, money, frustration, or fear? (4) Am I trusting God’s providence even when I cannot see how everything will work out? As my father used to say, "To make a deal, you have to be willing to walk away from it."

There is also a good balance here. Seeking God doesn't mean becoming paralyzed and waiting for some extraordinary sign. I use Scripture, prayer, wisdom, counsel, circumstances, and godly judgment, while recognizing that God remains sovereign over the outcome.

There is a counterbalance to the idea to whether I am in my will, or God’s outlined in Jeremiah 41. A passage that helps me assure whether or not I am in God’s will. The Israelites are already engaged in change or trial and are looking for direction…

Jeremiah 41: 1-3 Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah[a] son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached 2 Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Please hear our petition and pray to the Lord your God for this entire remnant. For as you now see, though we were once many, now only a few are left. 3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.”

In verse 7 or as the narrative states, ten days later God answered Jeremiah’s petition.

Jeremiah 41:10-16 If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented concerning the disaster I have inflicted on you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you and will save you and deliver you from his hands. I will show you compassion so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your land.’ “However, if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and so disobey the Lord your God, and if you say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the trumpet or be hungry for bread,’ then hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die.

The Jeremiah passage gives me a particularly powerful sentence to incorporate into my lesson here: I must be careful that my interpretation of God’s will is not simply my own desires dressed in a facade and religious clothing. Unfortunately, as is often the case, I have asked God's direction, hoping that the answer will be in alignment  with my own desires, and then do my best to twist it into that alignment. Sadly, what I do when I do this is I am confabulating God’s holy answer with my own sin/error. Even then, God can bend my disobedience and sin to His will. He can bend out mistakes to His desired outcome. Regardless, when seeking God's guidance, special care should be taken so to humble my will. I need to be able to do that so that I can be ready to act upon the answer God gives me. No matter how contrary it may be to my own heart. This exact idea fits with Judges because the larger problem in the book is that Israel repeatedly did what was right in their own eyes. The book begins with Israel asking God, “Who shall go up first?”—but as the story progresses, they increasingly stop looking to God and follow their own wisdom.

As a human this can be very hard to accept especially when cases of financial loss, sacrifice of worldly advantages or pleasures, self-humiliation and self-denial, resentment, jealousy, pride, vanity, praise are at stake. We’re all human. We’re all flawed. All have desires contrary to the will of God. I need to crush them and align myself to God.

What ways do I "Ask the Lord" concerning the course I need to pursue? I have a few tried and true courses of action.

(1) First and foremost I pray and engage conversation with God directly. Its a relationship first.

(2) Secondly, if God doesn’t plainly reveal it in the Scripture, He can impress it upon my mind directly in thought or dream.

(3) Third, I seek the counsel of Scripture. That I will see light and truth from the words that are the expression of the mind and will of God. There is no state of darkness, or confusion as to the path of my duty to God in the Word. In the Bible it is in black and white. Most often my answers to prayer are outlined in the Scripture. It may take a little cleverness and inductive thinking to see the answer, but it’s in there. God’s word is always a light on my path  (Psalm 119:105). There is no question of morality or conduct that the Bible cannot shed truth on. The Bible has an answer for every question if approached with the right heart and mind. The answer must be sought in intelligent, prayerful study, not as a matter of blind chance or in the presumptuous expectation of a miraculous answer.

(4) He can work through others through wise counsel. In this way my own family, friends and acquaintances have acted as judges and prophets in my very own life. The interesting thing about working through others is that some of those others may not even be believers. He can even work through my enemies and has. I am not so arrogant that I cannot learn a lesson vicariously though those I do not like (that is one of the reasons we are called to love our enemies). If God can use Satan to His ends, he can use any method or agency.

The instruments of His will are endless. Suffering, stress, affliction, success and so on. If the answer is sought faithfully and earnestly, it will come eventually. It may not come on my schedule which it often doesn’t but then again…patience isn’t one of my strengths.

An answer will unquestionably come, either by the Spirit suggesting to my mind or strengthening of what is at the time a doubt or lack of confidence, building it into a strong conviction. He will make my decision into firm reasoning by clearing away any last clouds of doubt. This last example being the most powerful form of God answering my prayer and bolstering it to perform the duty he called me to by building me from within. Conviction.

In the end it is not hard to assume my character, morals and decisions match the person, people or things I choose to spend the most time with. The people or things I surround myself with influence the direction of my life for good and bad. Who has the greatest influence on my thinking? The God/god I chose to listen to changes what I worship. Is it the One True God or the god of the world and my own making?

Keeping Your End of the Deal

I am continually pressed to strengthen my faith. Trials and unpleasant events have been a constant in my life since God entered back into it full blast around 2005. I have taken jobs and I have lost jobs. I completed a college degree. I lost a parent and family members. I watched my fiancé suffer through cancer. I have gone through the highs and lows of parenting and watch my sons surmount their own trials. Discomfort has become the norm and comfort is often fleeting.

Each trial and overcoming of trial has built on the last. The trials are common for me and those around me now. They say just one really stressful event in any given year can be traumatizing. I have gone through two or three of them in some years. You learn longsuffering. You learn pain and how God allows you to cope with it. Endurance. Perseverence.

Some of my problems are self-wrought. At times I am unable to remain silent and not tell people truth if I know it is damaging mentally or physically…from the entry level employee to the CEO of companies. What I have found nearly without question is there is a deficit of accountability in society. Many outside observers often point to the unemployed, uneducated clerical position or the youth to blame for this type unaccountability. The real truth is the blight extends all the way to upper managers, leader pastors, political ‘leaders’ and their ilk. It extends to people who in middle-age should know better but chose to sit idle. Passivity is a plague of inaction and has infected a large portion of society. The Bible even condemns it in Luke 12.

Luke 12:48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

It is apathy, unaccountability or inaction. It is the reason I’ve just resigned from a high paying job. It was never about the money. It was about making lives better and getting a better return on investment. The problem in the company was the same as the society at large. Most are content to sit on what they have and make little effort to either maintain or gain by investing energy and time. In layman’s terms sloth or laziness in abundance.

There’s an important distinction above between suffering and personal formation though. The events themselves—divorce, losing employment, completing a degree, losing parents, watching my children struggle and grow—aren’t necessarily good or bad things in themselves. What I’m saying is that, over time, surviving them has produced capacities that I did not possess before: Patience, endurance, longsuffering, and an increased ability to tolerate discomfort without immediately needing it removed. I get time to learn from the pain as I walk through it. The grind in life is the same as the pain of bearing the tonnage of weightlifting. The pain produces strength. I was born to be a spiritual pack mule.

James speaks of the testing of faith producing steadfastness; Paul likewise connects suffering, endurance, character, and hope. The point isn't that Christians are supposed to enjoy suffering but we’re not to avoid it either. In my life I have run directly towards it. That is the difference between my pro-activity and hyper focus to achieve a goal and the passivity of others whether it be as a lifter or a leader of people in work or the Body of Christ. Faith becomes something tested and emboldened when circumstances give you reasons to abandon it.

The accountability end of my comment comes in at this point because it connects directly to the second half of what I wrote. I have a conviction that being entrusted with something creates an obligation to act, not merely an entitlement to possess it. These statements are not restricted to money or formal authority. I can be entrusted with knowledge, intelligence, responsibility, influence, employees, a congregation, children, or simply the ability to recognize that something is wrong. In each case, the question becomes: What did I do with what I was given?

That's also why my frustration with passivity and lack of accountability runs much deeper than ordinary dissatisfaction. It is a spiritual discontent. I’m not merely saying, “These people aren't working hard enough.” I’m saying, “These people have been entrusted with something, they know what needs to be done, and nevertheless they choose to do little or nothing.”

Lastly, I need to address the counter argument. There needs to be a tension even in the unbridled energy I bring to bear on a situation even at almost 60 years old. People are human and some cannot necessarily perform at an exceedingly high level. There is a balance between passive idle and full throttle that is the sweet spot for an engine. Idling gets nothing done. Full throttle burns up an engine and abuses it.

The willingness to tell an uncomfortable truth can be a virtue or a sin. But the conviction that one must always tell that truth can itself become a temptation. Sometimes silence is golden. Ecclesiastes says there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” Paul tells believers to speak the truth in love. Blurting out a truth that will clearly maim someone in spirit is not helpful or productive. Nathan confronted David; John the Baptist confronted Herod; Christ confronted religious authorities. But Christ also remained silent before His accusers when silence served its purpose. Perhaps the better principle isn't: “If I know something is wrong, I must tell someone.” Instead, it should be, “If God has given me knowledge and responsibility, I must discern whether, when, and how or even if I am obligated to act.”

The distinction matters because otherwise accountability can turn into personal responsibility for everybody else's behavior. In business they call it scope creep. In weight lifting it's called an injury. And that's a burden God hasn't necessarily given me. That is His responsibility to make others see that they need to act. I can tell the CEO what I believe he needs to hear. I can warn the pastor. I can confront the employee. I can resign when remaining would make me complicit in the sin or failure. But after I've faithfully done what I believe God obligated me to do, their response belongs to them and my responsibility ends.

In the end it comes back to faith and realizing I need to turn it over to God after my responsibility in the situation is complete. This is where all of it becomes a faith-building exercise for me. Earlier trials taught me how to endure what happened. The most recent trial seems to have taught me how to release what I can never control. Know when to walk away.

It requires a large amount of faith to say and believe, “God, I have done what I believe You required of me. Now I will trust You with what happens next.” This kind of faith can be extraordinarily difficult for someone like me whose conscience is strongly oriented toward action and accountability, because inaction by other people feels almost like something I am morally compelled to correct. I can’t. My resignation wasn’t about escaping discomfort or trial so much as it was about refusing to spend my strength and energy sustaining a system whose stewards were unwilling to steward it. I can't make others carry their end of the weight. Not all burdens are mine to carry.

I believe this is the lesson I was to learn from this. It was a modern day Parable of the Talents. How did I steward my responsibility (Matthew 25:14–30). My faithfulness is inextricably attached to stewardship. This is not the case for so many others. I was accountable to God. In the end many are not. 

Romans 14:12: “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

Stewardship asks the question: What have I done with what God gave me?

Accountability asks the question: What will I say when I must answer to God for it?

Faithfulness asks the question: Was I faithful with what I was entrusted with?

A Bird on Barbwire

The greatest lie ever told about totalitarianism by the left is that totalitarian movements are in fact a few strong men or Übermensch imposing their will on the unwilling participants. That people like Trump or Gavin Newsom are the embodiment of this at the federal or state levels.  The opposite of this is actually true. This subtle correction to the simplistic "dictator imposes tyranny on everyone" model flips the script on the mindless liberal assertion of one powerful person taking over the masses.

Totalitarian movements generally require mass participation, or at least substantial popular mobilization. They don't merely suppress an unwilling society from above; they seek to transform society from within-through propaganda, ideological conformity, political organizations, rallies, protests, surveillance and pressure to demonstrate enthusiasm organically that is actually artificial.

The paradox is that coercion and consent can coexist and are not mutually exclusive. A population may initially embrace a movement (BLM, Trans rights, etc, participate actively in and genuinely believe its ideology, while the resulting regime simultaneously destroys alternatives and makes dissent increasingly dangerous and then destroys these ‘useful idiots’.

Hannah Arendt emphasized something like this in The Origins of Totalitarianism. Totalitarian movements drew power from mass society and sought to organize otherwise politically atomized people into an ideological movement. In other words, the rogues, those left out or perceived as left out or the lone gunmen and lunatics. The "strong man" is therefore not the whole explanation; the movement and its mass base matter enormously if it is to succeed. A distinction needs to be made though.

Authoritarianism primarily asks people to obey. Totalitarianism seeks to mobilize them -to make them participate in, identify with, and reproduce the ideology of the regime. That is the reason totalitarianism can be more socially invasive and violent than ordinary dictatorship. That is why we are seeing a mobilization of the weak and marginalized in society to protest law-abiding agents of change such as ICE and other paramilitary organizations incorporated by the sitting government.

Recruiting the weak and the isolated creates a mass of weak individuals that imposes its will on a majority of sane and responsible citizens. We see it in the transgender movement, in the lunacy of the post partum killer Lindsay Clancy, and similar support of otherwise insane ideologies. At its core it is cultural Marxism. For this Marxism to take over it needs to isolate and kill of its main threat. The masculine male in a traditional male role…father, soldier, leader. Modern progressives believe that if they suppress the male drive toward strength, tyranny stays caged. They have it completely backwards and support the destructive outcome of putting weak morally rudderless males or even morally debased women in charge.

This ‘collectivism’ runs on social causes regardless of how depraved or mental they are. They enforcement by what should be considered ‘consensus enforcement’ or the ‘will of the mob’. What Americans should really be doing is shifting our focus from the so-called dictator or predator complex (Trump as Hitler) and realize that we need focus on the isolated individual as a recruit for collective power and the recruiters. The people like those supporting Lindsey Clancy, the would-be assassins of Trump and the morally bankrupt media recruitment agents. They are the cooperative agents in the hidden tyrannical takeover.

In other worlds, true totalitarians regimes exploit isolated and politically aggravated people. This applies to both sides of the aisle in America too. Both view themselves as the underdog and oppressed. Both willing to resort to violence to make a point. The left being quicker to pull the trigger than the right. The truth and time has shown that suppressing individual strength doesn't necessarily prevent tyranny; if anything, a population of fragmented, dependent, and socially insecure individuals are easier for an organized movement to mobilize.

The protesting of the oddball left therefore needs to be seen as ‘consensus enforcement’ and is born of a weak population too beta-ized and demasculinized to stand on its own. Through this weakness the true dictator steps in to take advantage of the weak and feebleminded. People who outsource their lives to the state and look to it for rescue from an existence they cannot bear. Ostracism, reputational ruin, and cancellation work best on those too frail to face rejection. A mind that judges independently, backed by a spine willing to absorb the anger that follows, is the only thing that stands against a mass movement. That is exactly why ‘acceptance’ is not only desired by the progressive left, it is demanded.

The one trait that defends against this tyranny, masculinity, is then labeled as toxic an undesirable, harmful of even extreme. There is even a biological and scientific support of this argument. Testosterone in men has fallen roughly 1% a year since the 1980s, a decline the endocrinology literature documents independent of age. A man today carries meaningfully less than his father did at the same stage of life. A growing body of research points one direction. As alcoholism and drug use increase, testosterone falls even more. As testosterone falls, so does the capacity to withstand social pressure. We are building a society where the internal capacity for dissent is falling while institutions raise the penalty for dissenting. Compliance is expected. Compounding this fact, increasingly women, more physically vulnerable by nature, move into positions of power and men grow weaker, the herd instinct that drives every collective movement takes hold due to sheer numbers or rule of the mob, not actual strength.

At this point, the herd is the precondition for every totalitarian project. The volume of sheer numbers an the mindlessness of the mob wins over the individual masculine resistance. Like a white blood cell being overwhelmed by a horde of diseased cells or a malignant cancer. The immune response to stop the spread of contagion is overwhelmed by design. The diseased cell attacks the healthy one by surrounding it, suffocating and killing it.

What is the easiest way to stop this? It is also happens to be the hardest. It requires a critical mass of strong, independent, responsible individuals, enough to outweigh the compliant mass. It begins with the refusal to pretend that sexual perversion and gender identities are okay. That illegal immigrant invaders can just do as they please. That no-fault divorce is okay and raping men blind of everything they invested in a family is a legal recourse for unemployed women with a vendetta. That women can wantonly murder children in the womb and the medical establishment gets away with calling it healthcare.

As Carl Jung wrote, resistance to the organized mass can only be affected by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the parasitic mass is itself. The best defense against a dangerous but organized mass isn't simply physical aggression or "strength," but an individual sufficiently integrated to withstand the psychological cost of disagreeing with the group.

To summarize: Societies become weak and vulnerable when individuals become psychologically, economically, and socially dependent on institutions for identity and security. Conformity is the logical out come in oppressive societies like this because dissent then carries severely higher reputational costs. We all saw this during COVID if someone actively resisted or refused vaccination.  A free society doesn't merely need citizens who are willing to resist a tyrant…it needs citizens willing and capable of resisting their own neighbors and family if morally required. Sometimes...you just have to do the hard thing.

Are You On The List?

The Lamb's Book of Life or the Epstein List? Why would I even ask such a paradoxical question? What's the difference? The difference between them is one decision. It is a single intent that festers into many bad decisions. Sin. Righteousness and unrighteousness. Men are capable of profound good and also profound evil.

Everyone is rightfully horrified by the Epstein files, but most people are horrified by the ending and ignored the process or incidents that led up to the ending. That is why no one is being held to account. The Left has their own people involved so it behooves them to remain silent about it. The right including Trump have told the populace that there is nothing to see in the files and we should move on as an American people…and many have done exactly that. That is likely because people on both sides are complicit also. It is a nest of vipers no matter how one looks at it.

No one held accountable. Victims are victimized twice. Perverts get away with their sins and perversions akin to Caligula’s reign of horror from Capri. We are in fact all somehow complicit if we do not insist justice is still sought for the children abused or killed. Instead many embrace their ideological overlords and ignore what is plainly in their faces. Therein lies a huge part of why politicians, the rich and the famous have not been persecuted and locked away. Other than the rare psychopath, no one wakes up intending to become monstrous. They make one small deal after another. They excuse a small lie, accept a strange invitation, and keep quiet when something feels off. Call it what you will. Moral apathy, intellectual complacency, cowardice, etc.

Many have traded integrity for access, reputation, and influence. Step by step, Americans sell pieces of themselves. As Dostoevsky noted, your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing. The quick willingness for political ideologues on the right and the left to forgive their political leaders or heroes are/were not desperate acts of survival. They willingly traded their conscience for a seat at the elite table. That is the real lesson. Not that fame, sex, money, and power inherently corrupt, but that people willingly corrupt themselves in pursuit of them. So it goes for the politicians, rich, famous and even the working class or the general masses.  

Unchecked desire is the process, while moral transgressions are the end point. IT applies to the President of the United States all the way down to the abusive drug addict boyfriend. There is an ancient Native American story that tells of a wolf being hunted. The hunter, wanting to avoid direct confrontation with the dangerous creature, stuck a blade in the ice and coated the blade in blood. When the wolf came upon the blood-soaked ice, he began licking the blade. The blade numbs the wolf’s tongue and it is thinking that he was eating, when in fact he was cutting himself and slowly dying. It keeps licking, unaware it is cutting itself, until it can't tell the difference between frozen blood and its own, then bleeds out in the dark. That is how corruption works. It begins as an appetite and feels like personal advancement or winning. It is a dulling of the senses until there is no sense. The seared conscience of 1 Timothy 4:2.

The truth is the conscience slowly dulls, and by the time the acts are unthinkable, the numbness is complete. The uncomfortable truth is that we as the ordinary people that refuse to force the truth to be brought forward or lazily not force the issue with the perverted elite ruling class have helped create the conditions where justice does not prevail for the weak or the innocent. The Epstein files are not just an indictment on leaders and famous but on us also.

We create the conditions for leaders, famous and rich to operate with impunity. We worship fame, we equate wealth with worth, we kneel before power, we reward the traits that lead people to tables like Epstein's. We water the tree of desire and then gasp in horror when the fruit is rotten.

Accountability matters. God will eventually hold everyone accountable on the Last Day.

Those who cross moral and legal red lines must face consequences. But punishment alone does not cure the disease. The deeper lesson is restraint. Most people, given the chance, would start licking the knife. They believe they would stop in time, but just like the wolf and the frozen blade, by the time you need to stop, you are too numb to do so. So, we arrive where we are today. Numb and morally bankrupt. We idolize the people and things that we should find most abhorrent. We hated the people on Epstein’s list because some of us knew that, in a way, we were on the list indirectly too because of the things we value and the people we look up to. That is why most didn’t make a huge stink when the issue got abruptly dropped.

This is unacceptable and shows a majority of society spiraling unanchored in a moral abyss. Unless we are saved by the acknowledgement of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, we are in effect, all on the list somehow because of what we prioritize as important and what we give our money and attention too. If we are not in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 3:15, 21:27), we might as well be on Epstein’s list.

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Romans 3:11-12 “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.

Stepping Into The Quantum Breach

This post is going to run deep and long. I will be trying to tie the quantum uniqueness into the Biblical worldview. It may be a head scratcher for some but hopefully if you hold on until the end it will mostly make sense. Recent trends in the exploration of the quantum world are bringing to light some strange new realities. Quantum entanglement, quantum tunneling and quantum teleportation all reveal that matter is effectively non-local. That is to say, quantum interactions occur instantaneously over arbitrarily long distances. Quantum entanglement proves that in the quantum world there is no such thing as "over here" and "over there." I will need to define a few things before moving forward.

In short Quantum Entanglement is… when two particles become deeply and inseparably linked, sharing a single physical state. Changing the state of one particle instantly changes the other, even if they are light-years apart. I suggest that this is possible way that God directly interacts with us in the Spirit. In particular the idea that John the Revelator is taken up in the Spirit in Revelation may also be an apropos example of this (Revelation 4:1-2).

In short Quantum Tunneling… is a phenomenon where a particle defies classical physics by passing directly through a solid barrier that it normally shouldn't have enough energy to cross. It essentially behaves like a wave, "bleeding" through the wall and appearing on the other side. I suggest that this is revealed in events following Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus is described as passing through his grave clothes in his resurrected body (John 20:6-7).

In short Quantum Teleportation… says you can move data, not matter instantly. It is a process where the exact quantum state (information) of a particle is transferred to another distant particle, using quantum entanglement. The original particle's state departs, and the particle appears at the destination, without the actual particle traveling through space. I believe this is what we saw when the disciples first saw Jesus after the Resurrection in multiple examples (Luke 24:36–43; John 20:19–23). There was something about Jesus spirit body that allowed him to do all the previous actions, quantum entanglement, tunneling and teleportation.

So…to surmise the first part, quantum non-locality is the phenomenon where entangled particles instantly influence each other's states across any distance, transcending the limits of space and the speed of light. From a biblical worldview, this mirrors the interconnectedness of a creation spoken into existence by the omnipresent Creator, Jesus Christ. It illustrates that the physical universe is fundamentally unified and sustained by a power that transcends physical boundaries, reflecting scriptures like Colossians 1:17, which states that, "in Him all things hold together,” and Hebrews 1:3 which tells us that, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”

What man has learned about the quantum level in the last century is that there is no mechanism in quantum mechanics which explains how particles "communicate" with each other superluminally or faster than light. The fact is, there is no superluminal communication; rather there is an extra-dimensional property called "non-locality" which implies that two sub-atomic particles separated by vast distances in space are actually "non-locally" joined together in another dimension. New experiments consistently prove that matter itself, at a quantum level, does not have a strictly "material" reality. It also has alternate reality characteristics. In the Bible I would stretch so far to say, it has spiritual or spirit implications. I suggest the subliminal ‘reality’ is in-fact Christ himself because the Bible tells us He is (Hebrews 1:3).

In these examples we see what the Biblical worldview has always alluded to and accepted. There is a veil between the world of matter and the spirit realm. There are two worlds revealed in the Bible. Jesus frequently talked about this world and the world above. He said to those who opposed Him:

“You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.”John 8:23

There is this material world and there is another world that is above and beyond this physical universe because it exists in a spiritual dimension. These two worlds are separated by an ethereal veil. Even a simple reading of the Bible shows that they are continuously intersecting yet they are two entirely separate worlds. Currently, one is the world constituted by matter and the other is constituted by spirit. At a later date these worlds will, in effect merge as all will have what Paul referred to as the spirit body or σῶμα πνευματικόν/ soma pneumatikon. Both those saved to Christ in eternity and those condemned in torment. How else can one be physically tormented without a body? They will be bodies that will have both the properties of matter/physicality and properties of the ethereal/Spirit. How else would Jesus have been able to materialize or appear in the Upper Room and also eat? Jesus’ spirit body is an example of the First Fruits of the Resurrection and a breach in the veil between worlds

When Jesus walked upon the earth he displayed the supernatural powers of the world above, which He identified as "heaven." Even when He was upon the earth He was still living in this other dimension called heaven. He said, "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven." (John 3:13) The Heavenly Man, Jesus Christ, displayed heaven on earth and revealed the Kingdom of Heaven everywhere He walked on earth. That is why heaven was where Jesus was. The Kingdom is where the King is/was. Where Jesus walked and performed miracles the effects of the entropy of the Fall of man in Genesis 3 were pushed back and ‘heaven’, the ‘kingdom’ bled through the veil into this world. Corruption and decay was pushed back or overturned completely.

The Gospels continually revealed the Spirit world breaking into our world. The Bible continuously refers to and mentions veils. I do not believe this is by accident.  It is a "veil" that separates the things of heaven and earth. In the Bible, the "veil" primarily refers to the literal and theological curtain in the Tabernacle and Temple that separated humanity from the dwelling place of God (the Holy of Holies). It symbolizes the spiritual barrier between the physical, earthly realm and the supernatural, divine realm. It is no accident that the moment Jesus died, that veil is torn in the Temple. It is a literal and figurative symbol of the line of demarcation between the heavenly and the earthly being pulled down.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that at the exact moment that Jesus died on the cross the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, prophetically symbolizing that through the atonement of Christ the way had been made for humanity to pass "through the veil" (Hebrews 10:20) into this supernatural world called heaven when we die. The only way to approach God’s presence fully is to die and leave this earth. Here we see the truth of Exodus when God tells Moses that, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live." The holiness of God presence prevents the regular physical human from being in front of God without damaging them. They need to change states and only death allows this change.

Elsewhere in the New Testament we encounter another interesting concept that appears to communicate a similar idea to a veil or a separation between the earthly and the spirit. It never actually makes a claim to a change in physical location or proximity though. It makes claim to perception, observation or a state of being. Paul talked about a "mirror" or a "looking glass." He said, "For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face." (1 Corinthians 13:12). In reality Paul is telling us that need to realize our knowledge is incomplete and puzzling. Paul picked up this idea again in 2 Corinthians 3:16 where he deliberately mentions a "veil" is removed when a person turns or more specifically focuses on God. The act of observing things of the heavenly realm changes the state of one’s perception. This sounds strangely akin to the phenomenon of Superposition in Quantum Mechanics that says that…

…observation changes reality because particles double as waves of probability. Before you look at a particle at the sub-atomic level, it exists in multiple possible states or locations at the exact same time. When a measurement or observation occurs, the system interacts with a physical instrument or fully physical realm. This interaction forces the broad wave of probabilities to collapse into a single, definite reality. Essentially, you cannot measure/observe a quantum system without physically disturbing it, meaning the act of looking directly alters the outcome to permanent reality.

Paul taught that whenever someone turns to Christ the veil is taken away and things become clearer or absolute, fixed or...determined. He also implies that when we die and reach our final state we will understand and see fully. Things will be fully realized. He then proceeded to teach that those who have turned to Christ are able to peer through the looking glass into heaven in order to behold the glory of God.

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18.

The obvious conclusion is that God is on the other side of the veil. When we are faced with the overwhelming truths of Scripture and then compound them with the enigmas of non-locality, the existence of God and the supernatural intervention of God all over the Bible I believe a clear picture begins to form out of the dark mirror. We can move forward to theorize the relationship between these three fundamental realities of our supernaturally crafted universe. I propose that this invisible layer of quantum reality acts as some kind of interface between the presence and power of God (who exists in the spiritual realm) and the world of matter.

The non-local quantum world appears to be a kind of invisible, intermediate "buffer zone" between spirit and matter. It appears that the non-local quantum realm has been strategically crafted by God to be directly responsive to the influence and activity of the Spirit of God so these non-local quantum realities are capable of "materializing" into a localized spatial formation. Quantum realities are the building blocks of matter. This is an established scientific fact through experimentation but at their rudimentary levels they stop behaving as matter and become something more that is not tied or regulated by the rules of this universe/reality. It is tied to another.

One last note... I believe that we saw breaches in the quantum veil and it makes sense that this is what was being described in the Bible. I’ve already mentioned John in revelation 4 but there are even more pronounced examples. We saw examples of it primarily in two very specific episodes. Firstly, the stoning of Stephen when he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” Acts 7:55-57

We also see the breach between the earthly and the spirit in Jesus’ transfiguration.

Specifically, I focus on Luke’s account to draw out a contrast of the two realms revealed…

“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God. About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus.” Luke 9:27-30

The word changed here in Greek is ἕτερον /heteron and it means that his face being observed was indeterminate or of an uncertain affinity…’ or of another kind’ or ‘classification’. That is why we say Jesus’ face was transfigured. Transfigured is closer to the truth of what happened than using the word changed. It implies his face was strange (not in a bad way). What were the disciples really seeing? Was the act of looking upon Christ altering their perception of Christ’s holy reality? I believe at the moment of the transfiguration reality around Christ altered and created a breach to the spirit realm. How else would Peter, James and John be able to see Moses and Elijah?

To conclude I will state that the quantum realm has brought us to the very edge of the world of the spirit. From a biblical perspective we understand "spirit" as a dimension beyond space and time. In the world of spirit all the attributes familiar to human existence suddenly change. Similarly, within the quantum world the rules of the game are not at all the same as the rules of the classical physical world we live in. Quantum weirdness is exemplified by realities that are entirely counterintuitive to the world in which we live. In the quantum world electrons can materialize as particles and dematerialize. At times even time itself has no meaning, just as it did for the prophets in the Bible when they were 'in the Spirit'.

Defeat By Trillions of Papercuts

World War III has already started. The U.S. and Iran sat down for 21 hours of peace talks this week and walked away with nothing. Trump is pushing for a $1.5 trillion defense budget. Canada's top general says we need to prepare for large-scale conflict. Mark Carney of Canada just declared that the days of our military sending 70 cents of every dollar to the United States are over. Meanwhile, corporate leaders meeting under the World Economic Forum banner admitted that the predictability that once underpinned corporate planning has gone.

The point is, you are living through a once-in-a-century rupture, and the people in charge are only now admitting it. Trump is either too proud, too nationalistic or too dumb to admit it. Western civilization is no longer on the rise. It is fracturing, and the goal now is not to slightly increase the standard of living, it is to survive the geopolitical storm heading straight towards us. People can squabble over which leader or which country is to blame, but that's like being in the middle of a bar fight and focusing on who threw the first punch, when you should really be focused on not getting knocked out.

A far more important question in a fight is who you're standing beside or with and who you're standing against. Those lines are being drawn right now. For the last decade, China and America have been competing for top position on the global markets and exchanges. Secondary Western nations are being wedged between them, and many are drifting towards Beijing. Either because they are trying to hedge their bets just on sheer scale and numbers or because the United States is starting to turn inward again in another anti-global nationalistic phase akin to the era just prior to WWII. That shouldn't surprise anyone, though, seeing as the ruling class in countries like Canada have been compromised by Chinese influence for years. Justin Trudeau even once said that the success of the world is inexorably linked to the success of China. His successor hasn't pulled back either.

America and Americans on the other hand could care less about China. We only care that our costs remain low and our sovereignty remain intact. Globalism be damned. From the late 1940s to 1991, opposition to the Soviet Union held the West together. When that enemy collapsed, nothing replaced it. Western leaders believed bringing China into the global system would make China more like us, but instead the world became more like them. Part of America did too. The Marxist Progressives, the academics and the sycophant media that supports them. The rest of American patriots and the blue collars have given a stern middle finger to China and the rest of the world. We believe we don’t need them and we don’t care about them.

Outside America and sometimes in the coastal liberal cities within the masses have lost touch with God, morals and human value. They have become markedly socialistic in on so doing have become dehumanized like China. Without a shared ideal, Western leaders let their nations weaken so long as profits rose and international governing bodies gained power. They drilled holes in the national hull while planning their exit onto the dock of global governance, like a sailor stepping off a sinking ship without looking back. That's why so many leaders lately are failing upwards. It is also why they're starting to panic now. Some are being voted out because of the destruction they’ve wrought on their own nations. Others like Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom are resigning before the rabble and riotous crowd lynch him. The illegals they’ve allowed into their nation have virtually destroyed it.

Now we see as America, the largest player pulls away, the institutions built on Western cooperation begin to collapse. As the warning goes, you can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality. So, welcome to the consequences. Americans cannot continue to support a self-destructive immorality that continues to dictate its demented and depraved philosophies on domestic and foreign policy. It is immorality is destroying families, illegal immigration with no intent to assimilate to American culture is destroying communities and crippling debt is destroying American’s futures.

We need to remove ourselves from the Deep State Marxist cabal intent on destroying America from within. They're even using out own tax money to do it. World War III is being fought on our borders, in our colleges and schools and in our wallets. The foreign invaders, our own education system and the international banks are succeeding where every American enemy has failed on a battlefield for the last 250 years. It's time to unplug from the very institutions that mean our demise. We're not being defeated in a traditional ground war, we're in essence dying a slow death by a trillion papercuts that are self-inflicted.