Religion and Geopolitics Review: Saturday, March 24

By Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

WEEKLY BRIEF

MbS VISITS AMERICA 

THE FOREIGN GOVERNMENT 

THAT DID MORE THAN MEDDLE

The great charade that has confused American foreign policy since 9/11 is that Saudi Arabia is our ally. They are the protectors of the most virulent form of Sunni Islam that is wrecking terrorist havoc around the world. One of the great fears of ex-CIA director John Brennan was that a newly elected nationalist Donald Trump would come to see how our nation had been played the fool by the Monarchy-Wahhabi alliance. (Brennan from the left like Bolton from the right have been Saudi apologists for years. Each has his reasons which are very different. Their inadequate paradigms have   kept the debate about Islam and the nations superficial and confusing. ) Though Donald Trump favored the families of 9/11 victims in their lawsuit against the Saudis, he has been all in with the Israel-Saudi alliance against Iran as the prime directive in the Mideast. It hasn't happened yet but there is much greater potential that President Trump will see this  error for our nation much sooner than Hillary Clinton, George Bush or Saudi-UAE  funded think tanks will.

Muhammed bin Salman (scroll link to Islam and Mideast) has isolated himself within the royal family; he has declared war on Shiites in the Kingdom, in Yemen, in Bahrain, in Iraq, in Syria, and most pointedly against the first real Shiite nation-Iran. He has even turned against fellow Wahhabis in Qatar (getting the religious establishment to declare they had betrayed the Salafist form of Islam). Qatar's sins(scroll down under Weekly Brief)  include sharing a natural gas field with Iran, running a news service called al Jazeera, and supporting "republican" and popular forms of Islamic purification movements over the old monarchies and military despots. Only the feminized Western media could describe a man who desires to eradicate the Shiites by execution and war while letting some women drive cars as the long awaited moderate Muslim reformer.

The primary reason this story is not being told properly is the blindness of the foreign policy experts including our military leaders and journalists to the essential role of religious distinctions and motivation in understanding the Mideast. In the world of careerist and godless power couples, the allegiances of men to God and sacral brotherhoods is too much Mars for Venus.

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

CHINA AND CHRISTIANITY: A review of Ian Johnson's The Souls of China.

PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES TO ASIA - HOW THEY CHANGED AMERICA: A video presentation of several new books about how Protestant missionaries in the early 1900's became anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and less interested in preaching Christ. These new books are a huge contribution. David Hollinger (Protestants Abroad) and Melani McAlister (The Kingdom of God Has No Borders) are the authors. Andrew Preston (Sword of the Spirit and Shield of Faith) who has written the definitive work on religion and American foreign policy is a commentator in this session.

THE THREE MEALS OF THE CHURCH: Christians are to feed any man who is hungry. Christ fed those who sat and listened to him. The Eucharist though is the most restricted of the meals. Pope Francis here reiterates that the last of these meals requires for reception no mortal sin and the state of grace. Pope Francis reiterates Catholic teaching that reception of the Eucharist is not allowed in a state of mortal sin. To be clear then.  Pope Francis has not changed doctrine on the sacrament of marriage or the nature of the Eucharist. He believes many first marriages in the last century are not sacramental. He thinks there are many people in divorced remarried situations who are being too quickly judged as in the state of mortal sin. He is not exonerating anyone. He is asking his priests to go out and meet these people in their parishes and help discern their position in the presence of God and in the Church.

LIVING A COMMUNAL SUPERNATURAL LIFE: The ongoing living presence of God in the Catholic Church and the destiny of the human race. A refection on The Second Vatican Council . Thomas White OP calls Vatican II (1962-1965) the third  Council of modernity after Trent (1545-1563) and Vatican I(1869-1870). Trent and Vatican I are the stem and root of an ecclesiology which flowers in Vatican II as the visible unified Church proclaims to the nations that humanity is being configured under the authority of the Living God in the sacramental order of the Church. The Church may have lost the Papal States but the Pope and Bishops have found their deeper social purpose as a template of brotherhood conforming the human species in communion.   

FREDERICK SCHILLER ON ACCIDENTS AND DESTINY: What seems an accident or coincidence is welling up from some "deeper source of destiny."

CARDINAL KASPAR IS NOT POPE FRANCIS: Homosexual relations are analogous to marriage says the German cardinal:

“The pope does not leave room for doubt over the fact that civil marriages, de facto unions, new marriages following a divorce (Amoris Laetitia 291) and unions between homosexual persons (Amoris Laetitia 250s.) do not correspond to the Christian conception of marriage,” writes Kasper in a recently-released book on Amoris Laetitia.

“He says, however, that some of these partners can realize in a partial and analogous way some elements in Christian marriage (Amoris Laetitia 292),” continues Kasper.

“Just as outside the Catholic Church there are elements of the true Church, in the above-mentioned unions there can be elements present of Christian marriage, although they do not completely fulfill, or do not yet completely fulfill, the ideal,” adds Kasper. The statements appear in Kasper’s new booklet, "The Message of Amoris Laetitia: A Fraternal Discussion."

Now here is what the Pope actually says about homosexual relations in Amoris Laetitia, paragraph 251:

“In discussing the dignity and mission of the family, the Synod Fathers observed that, ‘as for proposals to place unions between homosexual persons on the same level as marriage, there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.’”

Here is an instance of Cardinal Kaspar deliberately recruiting the Pope to a position he does not hold. Will sons of the Holy Father expose this lie? Some people despise the Pope so deeply that they will equate Cardinal Kaspar's repugnant position with the Pope's so to better take down the Holy Father. Let us be clear. The purpose of  inserting homosexual relations in these discussions is not to 'minister" to the confused teen. It is to protect the jobs, status, access, and pensions of Catholic priests who would be expelled from the priesthood for their infamy if the truth were told and purity codes enforced.

THE GREATEST THREAT TO THE SACRED NATURE OF THE EUCHARIST IS THE DESACRALIZED PRIESTHOOD.
As we approach Holy Thursday when the priesthood was instituted by washing out a traitor, we are confronted again with the greatest threat to the Catholic Church-the acceptance of a huge subculture of homosexual priests in the episcopacy, our religious orders and the wealthy chanceries of the northern churches. The Judicial Vicar of a Diocese is a position that during the abuse crisis was often held by homosexual friendly clerics to make sure no enforcement of priestly celibacy was taken too seriously. The Judicial Vicar in Saginaw Michigan was also a pastor of a parish with his separate living quarters. He was also a very active high school chaplain. He said in a recent homily that he had "a passion for young people" and he went to the school daily with rolls and sweets where he "called the students by name."  The predator has been arrested and the Bishop's residence properly raided. The best reporting of this has been by Michael Voris and Church Militant TV.  Priests know each other in religious orders and dioceses. This story is an affront to Christ and his Apostles. It is an abomination against spiritual fatherhood and the sacral fraternity that guards the sheep in the sacramental order. It is not an anomaly in America's urban Catholic chanceries.    

II. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

MODERN LIBERTY VS CHRISTIAN LIBERTY - DEATH VS LIFE: The liberation of the individual from religion, nation, marriage and biology is license not liberty. Christians and Americans (listen to our patriotic songs) once knew this well.

JORDAN PETERSON: New Yorker essay by Sanneh. Book Review of Twelve Rules for Life at AOA by Blonigen.

III. AMERICAN POLITICS

JOHN BOLTON AT NSA   There is no commentator that AOA has disagreed with more consistently on the Mideast than John Bolton. He certainly is not bringing to the President a more nuanced view of Iran and the plight of Shiites in a Sunni dominated salafist infected region. He has no problem with the Saudi-Israel axis against Iran as the major US initiative in the region. But in this excellent interview on receiving news of his appointment, he shows a necessary restraint and understanding that his role is to implement President Trump's policies not his own. He may be just the man to defend a new relationship with Russia which is the most important Trump strategic insight not yet carried out by his subordinates. In his first year in office, President Trump needed Rex Tillerson as his Secretary of State and HR McMaster as his NSA chief to lend gravitas to a president under siege by high level renegade government workers in the FBI, CIA, State Department and Department of Justice.  Even as those men would never fully articulate the President's new approach, they afforded him protection from the mob. Mr. Pompeo at State and Mr. Bolton at NSA will be much more effective in defending and implementing the President's agenda.


WHY TILLERSON WAS FIRED: Qatar and the Neocons. A view from Qatar.

A MASCULINE DEMOCRAT WHO CALLS HIMSELF AN AMERICAN - A WINNER: That's what the country needs, the Republicans fear, and the Democrats have repressed for several decades. Conor Lamb did not win in Pennsylvania as a Republican in Democrat's clothing. He ran as a man and an American. More Democrats should try that. Ronald Reagan and Milwaukee Democrats. The great crossover remembered. A Masculine American from Pennsylvania - the kind of Catholic Democrat we need.

TRANSGENDERS WILL GENERALLY NOT BE ACCEPTED IN THE AMERICAN MILITARY-A FEW EXCEPTIONS

The Mattis Memo is clear and understated. This important protective wall would not have happened under any other President. The defense of the masculine nature of the military obligation and our Armed services cannot be left to the generals. They must be circumspect because of the overwhelming power of the sexual revolutionaries in the judicial system. This is a tiny wedge. Christians and American patriots must be much more encompassing in our defense of the masculine brotherhood character of our nation's defense. President Trump and Secretary Mattis have given us a small place to stand. Fighting fruitcakes and feminists is not taking on the Nazis or Gulags. Why is everyone so afraid? The sexual revolution is killing our country. The sacral order is built on one God and two differentiated sexes doing their respective adult duties. Is that so hard to say?

BLOODY GINA: Is it true?

AN ENGLISHMAN INTERVIEWS STEVE BANNON: Populist Nationalism and Mussolini.

MR. COMEY MEET MR. BRENNAN - THEY ARE NOT FRIENDS: They both have aspirations.

EX-FBI HEAD JAMES COMEY TO THE PRESIDENT: "Mr. President, the American people will hear my story very soon. And they can judge for themselves who is honorable and who is not."

EX-CIA CHIEF JOHN BRENNAN SHOWS HIS NONPARTISAN CREDENTIALS: FBI agent Andrew McCabe was fired by the Attorney General at the recommendation of the FBI disciplinary office. We will hear more in the future of his involvement in the investigations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The firing was less than 48 hours before his retirement and thus compromises his pension which in careerist Washington DC is a lot bigger deal than harming one's reputation. Here is ex-CIA director John Brennan trying to lend a calm response to the news. He directs this toward President Trump:

When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you.

IV. AROUND THE WORLD R&G ROUND UP

OUR MAN IN MOSCOW: The US and the President is being well served by Jon Huntsman, Mormon, previous ambassador to China.

THE MAN IN MOSCOW: Putin wins a landslide. This may be another nationalist that British intelligence can't stand. We doubt they will be as successful in casting confusion and chaos over that sovereign state as the Christopher Steele operation did over ours.

POLAND THE JEWS THE HOLOCAUST: A sympathetic article from the Jerusalem Post on the Polish Holocaust Law.

EXECUTING DOUBLE AGENTS CHARGED WITH TREASON: What a twisted web we weave. The British intelligence are in full anti-Russia mode. Christopher Steele and much of the British globalist world never wanted to see Donald Trump elected. Once elected they wanted it to be very difficult for him to realign the US with Russia.  A year after his election, we have to judge "mission accomplished" by this foreign government interfering with American politics. Presidents can make war on their own but there shall be no unilateral peacemaking.  When English speaking whites interfere with American policy, the intellectuals right and left just see "one of us". Its a great outfit for anti Americans. Let's call this the Peter Jennings costume.  Maybe the most effective racism is not from territorial nationalists. Possibly it is that cosmopolitan class of whites who in the name of "the West" or 'the special relationship" decide to save the less educated multicolored American nation from picking our own leaders.     See Five Eyes Alliance below.

THE WAR ON YEMEN: S.J. Res. 54 would pull the US out - this is the debate we need as General Mattis and the President seem to be doubling down with the Saudis. The Generals and the Congress.

BILL TO STOP US FUNDING OF SAUDIS IN YEMEN FAILS
The Russians brought ballots to the people of Crimea to assert their ancient bonds. The Saudis drop bombs on the Houthis of Yemen to enforce their ancient enmity. The US is helping the Saudi campaign.  The US Senate attempt to debate and stop this military action lost 44-55. AOA on history of Yemen with Gregory Johnson.    

FIVE EYES INTELLIGENCE ALLIANCE: The Anglosphere is an alliance of the old white dominions. It is not representative of the multi-ethnic United States. The intelligence agencies and establishments of these countries were overwhelmingly against the nationalist agenda of Candidate now President Trump.  How hard did they try to influence the American election?  After its unsettling outcome did they help "the resistance"?  Christopher Steele is not a Russian agent. He is an honest Brit still serving his country. The trouble is that he's not really here to help the USA. For several hundred years the British foreign policy has been directed against the rise of an ascendant land power in Europe/Asia.  A serious reconciliation of Russia and the United States as a new axis in international relations would be considered a geopolitical disaster by old hands of the British Empire.
An America First policy means we make alliances in our territorial nation's best interests even if it offends a White Anglo Saxon English speaking Protestant ally across the ocean.