Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, June 6

by David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

RETHINKING ENMITY WITH RUSSIA 

The man who wrote the definitive book on Reagan and Gorbachev has written an excellent article on post-Cold War "bullying" by the victorious US over the Kremlin.

UNDERSTANDING ISRAEL FROM THE INSIDE 

Israel was founded as a socialist secular state. Like America, Israel can seek to follow the will of G-d or become enamored with itself and its military capabilities. The debate in Israel is not only about its basic identity. It is also about its existential existence. Not everyone agrees with Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran is its greatest threat.

SAUDI WAHHABISM

The Wahhabi Sunni regime of Saudi Arabia continues the bombing of Shias in Yemen. They have allied with Turkey to support the Al Nusra Sunnis in Syria to depose Assad of Syria, With their new king they have a much more aggressive and transparent policy. If they are the "Muslim moderates" , we have a problem. A terrific analysis of the incoherence of our policy and Wahhabi Islam is: Why America Needs to Beware of Saudi Wahhabism.

THE SACRED BROTHERHOOD:CHALLENGES FROM GERMAN BISHOPS AND IRELAND HERSELF 

Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register exposes the pre-Synod meeting organized by German, French and Swiss Bishops with their chosen theologians and representatives of the secular press. The meeting was an attempt by the bishops to influence the upcoming XIV Bishops Synod (to be held in Vatican City Oct 4-25, 2015 with the family as its main topic). They are championing a new theology of sexual relations which they unsuccessfully proposed in the Extraordinary Synod of October 2014. No one should be depressed by this story since Light has never favored the homosexual wing of the Catholic clergy. The Synod bishops of the Americas and Africa and Asia will be much more prepared for this exhausted agenda which has so infected the local Churches under these corrupted clergy.

Pope Francis was right to "let the debate begin". Would the Church be purer if the European bishops were left to furthering these ideas in their hiring practices and seminaries? That has been going on for forty years and the state of the Church in Germany and Ireland are its peculiar fruits. Let the light shine. The Theology of Love VS the Theology of the Body  is going to be a theme of those who seek to normalize and celebrate homosexual relations in secular life as it has already been done among Catholic clergymen throughout the White Northern church (North America and Europe). The Irish people voting for gay relations was no repudiation of their corrupted clergy. They have adopted the gay theology of love which filled Catholic seminaries, chanceries and the episcopacy for 40 years. Just compare the muffled glee of Dublin Archbishop Martin's reaction to the vote and the much more sobering take by the Vatican.

The German organizers, the Irish approval of gay marriage, and the sexual abuse of teenage boys by Catholic clergy over the last 4 decades are all fruits of the same desacralized and fractured priestly fraternity. We thought the machinations of the European bishops at the preparatory synod in October 2014 revealed this deep split. The greatest confusion among our bishops  is not about the divorced and remarried - they provide the newest smokescreen. It is not about gay marriage - that is an oxymoron. It is first about the sacred and the fraternal nature of the hierarchical priesthood. Men who celebrate homosexuality demonstrate their spiritual blindness to the Trinitarian nature of masculine love best exemplified in Christ's priesthood.They are supposed to be the living foundation stones of the Church. Our bishops need to understand their own apostolic fraternity before they can explain the sacrament of marriage. Read the full argument here.

CHINA STRATEGY

China has released a new white paper on defense which shows that an active naval presence in the sea around them is key. China's strategy will not be by land alone but encompass a strong naval force as well.

REMEMBERING D-DAY: JUNE 6, 1944

In remembrance of the men who fought and died during the D-Day invasion of Nazi-controlled France, we remember the words and prayers of our civic and military leaders, President FDR and General Eisenhower, as the invasion was underway.