Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30

by A. Joseph Lynch

THE WEEKLY BRIEF

IS THE END NEAR?

Impeachment is failing. Time for Plan B. Don't take it from AoA; that's the headline from Left leaning, The Week. The hard-Left outlet, The Washington Post, hasn't had much better to say with their piece entitled, the Democrats' impeachment obsession is backfiring, which opened by saying their obsession with impeachment "could prove to be the biggest political blunder in modern times." In more news from the hard-Left news site, Mother Jones is admitting, "Yep, Impeachment Is a Yawner," and reporting that "the impeachment hearings appear to be a bust." During Thanksgiving week, Congressional Democrats from Trump districts were hammered by anti-impeachment ads and slammed at town hall meetings.

While the impeachment boondoggle is becoming an anvil around the necks of Democrats, it has become a boon for GOP fundraising and for Trump in particular. Congressional fundraising reports revealed that - no surprise - celebrity Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised the most money of any congressional Democrat. At $1.42 million this past quarter, Cortez out-raised Nancy Pelosi ($1.26 million) and Adam Schiff ($1.14 million). Yet many Republicans congressmen out-raised Cortez. It's reported that Steve Scalise ($3.45 million), Devin Nunes ($2.6 million), and Kevin McCarthy ($1.6 million) all out-raised the Democrats' biggest celebrity in Congress. With Trump out-earning Obama at the same period of their respective presidencies, we might soon see a repeat of 2004 and 2016, when the GOP swept the House, Senate, and Presidency.

Impeachment is becoming a no-win scenario for Democrats.

If the Democrats can muster enough impeachment votes from Trump district Democrats the Senate trial will not bode well for them. The GOP will now set the rules. After rejecting testimony based on hearsay, virtually every witness called by Schiff will be dismissed outright while Republicans will undoubtedly call the so-called whistle blower, Adam Schiff, and the seemingly corrupt father-son Biden duo to testify. The timing of course will also be terrible. While destroying the Biden candidacy, the trial will certainly keep the presidential contenders from the Senate - Booker, Harris, Warren, Sanders, and Klobuchar - tied quietly to their Senate season and off the trail during the heart of the campaign season. In the end, Trump will be found innocent and the Democrats - along with the Left wing media - will look like fools. Swing district Democrats - who ran on fixing America's problems - will certainly face a swift and terrible backlash at the ballot box come November.

The Democrats could instead opt not to vote on impeachment in the House and instead censure President Trump. The time for censuring, however, is past. As one columnist put it: A censure is "[n]ot happening. If Democrats walk away from impeachment now, Schiff and his enablers will not just have egg on their collective faces, they will have an entire omelet."

One way or another, the end of impeachment is nearing.

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

THANKSGIVING: Don't call it Turkey Day. Another article about the Puritans from Trevor Thomas.

EX-NFL PLAYER'S ANTI-CATHOLICISM: Ex-NFL star Larry Johnson took to social media to reject celebrating Christ's birth on December 25. Johnson repeated a tired myth (refuted by apologist Jimmy Akin) that the Catholic Church is pagan, commemorating Christ's birth on date common to paganism.

THE FAITH OF CHILDREN: Scientific research indicates belief in God is built in.

LIFE COMES FROM LIFE: You can't give what you don't have - biological life cannot exist without spiritual life preceding it.

POPE FRANCIS IN JAPAN: Pope Francis is the first pope in nearly forty years to visit Japan. Read our book review of Silence, a Catholic novel about 16th century persecution of Catholics in Japan.

FEAST OF ST. ANDREW: Read and reflect on the Apostle and the monks of Mt. Athos.

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

HURD'S BOGUS WARNING? Retiring Never-Trumper, Will Hurd, is warning the GOP that it must diversify if it is to survive. When the fellow Never-Trumper, Mitt Romney managed to win only 6% of the black vote while President Trump is currently polling at 34% approval among blacks, we can all tell where the diversity deficit can be found.

RECORD MARKET: The markets closed for their 100th record high under President Trump. If markets predict elections, Trump is looking very good for 2020.

IS ANYONE WATCHING? As liberal politicians, along with CNN, MSNBC, and the broader left wing media continue to cry wolf - first in the Russia hoax, and now in the Ukraine hoax - their loss of credibility is leading to a loss of viewers. Viewership of the impeachment inquiry dropped day by day while viewership of the latest Democrat debate hit another low of only 6.5 million viewers. Axios is reporting that the hit character "Baby Yoda" from the new Star Wars TV series is beating every 2020 presidential contender combined with the exception of President Trump.

THE FART HEARD AROUND THE WORLD: One Democrat member of the House Intel Committee let it slip that impeachment really is a bunch of hot air.

III. THE NATIONS

SYRIA FALSE FLAG: Last June we covered false flag allegations behind the chemical weapons attack in Syria. More allegations have been made and largely left uncovered - with the exception of Tucker Carlson (FoxNews' best newsman).

NO GAY MARRIAGE IN CHINA: Last May Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalize gay marriage. Meanwhile China recently affirmed it's adherence to traditional marriage. Why are we defending Taiwan again?

HINDU-INDIAN POLITICS: Modi of India continues to press home a Hindu nationalist agenda with particular animus to it's old enemy Pakistan and its Islamic population. He is now moving to extend citizenship to non-Muslims immigrants in India as a census is prepared that might undercut Muslim representation and lead other Muslims to expulsion from the predominantly Hindu nation.

NATIONALIST WINS SRI LANKA: A Buddhist nationalist has been elected to lead the tiny island nation off the coast of India. Dr. Steve Turley explains this results and the nature of Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka.

BREXIT TO WIN BIG? The Brexit party has evaporated as the Brexit vote is falling behind Boris Johnson's conservatives - who now hold a 19 point edge in the polls ahead of next month's elections. The numbers indicate the biggest win for British conservatives since Thatcher.

"BRAIN DEAD" NATO: Macron of France recently declared NATO "brain dead." Pat Buchanan concurs.

IV. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

HAIDT ON RITES OF PASSAGE: Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains the needs for initiation rites, especially for males.

BINGE DRINKING UP, BIRTHS DOWN: Binge drinking among childless women in their 30s and early 40s has doubled in the past ten years. Meanwhile the US fertility rate hit an all time low in 2018. Other reports have shown that wealthier zip codes have markedly lower birth rates. Careers and houses come at a cost more terrible than money.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL DEMOTED: Lieutenant General - make that Major General - Lee Levy was demoted and discharged after making comments he'd make to any other male officer... except it was to a female officer. Our language should change when speaking to ladies, but is the US military the appropriate place for "ladies and gentlemen" language or is the place where men learn how to speak to other men?

CRYING FOWL: Cambridge has removed the 17th century painting, The Fowl Market, after its depiction of butchered animals offended vegan students. If university is meant to help us prepare to enter the world, pulling down the fine art is not helping these students one iota.

Nov 30: Saint Andrew and the 2,000 Byzantine monks on the Holy Mountain

[first published November 30, 2016]


MOUNT ATHOS in northeastern Greece is one of the powerhouses of prayer that keeps our tired old world going -- because sturdy men of faith submit their hearts to God.

On this feast day of the Holy Apostle Andrew, it is right that we deepen our understanding of our Christian brothers in Greece and Russia. East and West, the bonds of a praying brotherhood define the monastic and Apostolic Church. But in the heart of this all-male environment where even the animals must be male, there is a special presence and she is decidedly feminine.

"There are 20 monasteries on Mount Athos of which 17 are Greek, one Russian, one Serbian, and one Bulgarian. There are also twelve Skites (similar to monasteries but much smaller), a large number of Kellia (large farm houses), Kalyves (smaller houses), Kathismata (small houses for a single monk) and Hesychasteria (hermitages or caves in desolate cliff faces, for the most austere hermits)."

             

                                   

                                                   

From the parish bulletin of a Russian Orthodox church in Minneapolis:

Last October, Fr. Andrew and I visited Mt. Athos, affectionately known as the Garden of the Theotokos. As we experienced this beautiful place where God’s glory seems to radiate from everything, we were made aware of her presence. When we spoke to the monks in that holy place, they would refer to her and say things like: "Whatever the holy Mother wants." They live in humble submissiveness to her and understand the value of her intercessory prayers and guidance. We met an older monk on one of the remote walking paths by his hut (it was very old and abandoned-looking), who explained to us that he had lived 30 years alone with the Mother of God in "her garden." 

Sit back and enjoy one of the finest segments that has ever appeared on "60 Minutes."

               

UPDATE: Here is a short video of one of President Putin's visits to Mount Athos. He was joined by the Patriarch of Moscow.

Let us praise Andrew, the herald of God, / the namesake of courage, / the first-called of the Savior’s disciples / and the brother of Peter. / 

As he once called to his brother, he now cries out to us: / "Come, for we have found the One whom the world desires!"

THANKSGIVING: Don’t call it Turkey Day

[first published November 22, 2012]

David Pence writes:

Thanksgiving Day is an embarrassing holiday for the atheists. Whom should one thank?

Nonbelievers first turned this day of formal national prayer into a rekindling of an earlier bliss betwixt Pilgrims and Indians. A little rewriting, and secularists turned the feast into a memorial of Pilgrim settlers thanking the native-born Americans for their ecological wisdom that allowed us a full table and survival through the winters. As usual, the guilt-ridden white folk reminded us of something true but missed the real story. There were formal acts of prayerful thanksgiving before we became a nation but unfortunately for the Protestant imagination the first such acts were in that old liturgical  form of the Catholic Mass.

The Pilgrim parable was soon debunked by Indian activists who reminded the well-meaning storytellers that the only gifts white men gave Indians were smallpox blankets. "Who wants to celebrate that, white man?"

Instead of returning to the first Congress or Washington or Lincoln to get the holy day back on track as a civic duty of a repentant nation to a Sovereign God, our adaptable consumer culture had a new answer. Let the appetites be sacralized! There was a surge to elevate not "Whom We Thank" but "What We Eat." Turkey Day was proclaimed!

No more messy cross-cultural narratives. Instead of asking that our sins be forgiven and as a nation we bow to God, a turkey was pardoned and the whole affair was consummated in a next-day orgy of shopping called Black Friday. That spin-off Feast Day is demanding a vigil service of its own, which may drive the whole embarrassment of public thanksgiving to God  back in the memory hole where school prayer now abides.
               

Contrast our evolving celebration of  Black Friday Eve with George Washington’s understanding of Thanksgiving Day in the first sentence of his 1789 Proclamation:

“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to recognize the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor…” 

Contrast Turkey Day with the content of his prayer:

“And also that we may unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions -- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually…” 

This is a day as a nation we are supposed to perform a religious duty -- to ask forgiveness and give thanks to a Divine Ruler who governs not only the lives of men, but the public communal forms of men: the nations. That is what Congress requested Washington to declare; and that is what this national day of prayer for forgiveness and thanksgiving is still meant to be. Let us assemble in our houses of worship, at community kitchens, and at our family tables but remember we are acting as members of the larger national political community.  Let us ask God forgiveness for turning away from Him and allowing these sacred goods to be defiled: His holy Name, our sacred flag, our national brotherhood, the institution of marriage, the protective love of mother for child, and the sacred virginity and innocence of our young. In Lincoln's words: "with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience...we fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union."




UPDATE: Be sure to check out Andrew Lynch's essay.

The Thanksgiving proclamation of our First Continental Congress.
 A reminder from "War on the Rocks" that Thanksgiving is a holiday forged in national wars.
  Lincoln declared the last Thursday of every November as a national holiday at the bequest of Sara Josepha Hale, editor of the popular magazine, Godey's Lady's Book. 

Bending the knee to "Christ the King of Fearful Majesty" as the Church Year ends with the final Drama

[first published November 25, 2011]

"Yes, I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice."  (Gospel of St. John)

Dr. Pence writes:

The liturgical year of the Church ends with this feast day to remind us how sacred history will come to its fulfillment with the return of Christ as King. Yes, Jesus is your personal Lord and Savior. He is also the Ruler of Nature, the Lord of History, and the Slayer of the Leviathan.  We know Him in the Eucharist as we are becoming not his friend, but incorporated in His Body. We remember his Incarnational transformation of physical nature at the Annunciation, and we await his triumphant coming again as Head of the Mystical Body incorporating all of humanity in Himself. Catholics are always living within these three comings of Christ. Maybe because the Eucharist is less like friendship and more like incorporation, we don’t emotionally emphasize our "personal relationship with Christ" -- but we look, instead, from the vantage of Holy Communion, both backward and forward to the actions of the Cosmic King.

          The feast of Christ the King was  instituted by Pope Pius IX in 1925 as atheistic movements were persecuting Catholics in Spain and Mexico and the Orthodox in Russia. In his encyclical Quas Primas he asserted the independent authority of the Church in relation to States. He also asserted that political communities were subject to the authority of Christ as well. Christ is King of the whole man and the whole of his social relations. This feast calls Christian men to understand that civic life cannot be divorced from God. As we deepen our bonds in the church we must shape our nations as well in a fraternal international order in consonance with Divine Providence. Establishing the Kingship of Christ is more a matter of ordered loves than creedal assertion. Christ the King and devotion to the Sacred Heart are deeply tied. Pius IX ordered on this day every year that MANKIND be consecrated to the Sacred Heart.  Politics is one of man’s  highest callings when understood as forming fraternal bonds to provide for the civic common good by enforcing justice. Such a city on a hill gives honor to Christ as King and Lord. A man is a sign of Christ when he exercises legitimate authority. This feast is a good day to reflect on this dimension of Christian identity. We are meant to be rulers over ourselves first. The father and mother are to rule over their children. Politically men are called to establish law and order to rule our civic communities and lastly as a human race we are ordered to have dominion over the earth. It is a great threat to both Church and State that the ruler as an integral part of the Christian personality has become so neglected. This is particularly true in the priesthood which is the primary Christian template of a fraternity of ordered love and authority.

Christ shows us not only the face of God, but He has enlightened us to our own true nature as well. Man is by nature a eusocial organism in which all of humanity is united in  an interpersonal union headed by the alpha male. That is our final perfection as creatures truly made in the image of an interpersonal Trinity. On our way to that final union we live in the communal forms of marriage and nations. Christ’s Kingdom on earth is His Father’s Kingdom. Christ is King, but he is a Son as well. We are incorporated in his sonship-filiation. This is what we pray for in the prayer He taught us, that the rule of the Father would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let us bow to the king and accept the order of patriarchy. A particular concern of Pius IX in declaring this feast was to reassert that modern man is not an emancipated individual but still a subject to the authority of the one true King. Let us contemplate this final feast in the Church calendar, in order to better greet the baby at Christmas and receive His Body in the Eucharist -- remembering that when the trumpet finally sounds, indeed, he will "bestride the narrow world like a Colossus" and Eternal King. 

                                       

UPDATE -- A stanza from a translation of the 'Te Deum':

"From Thy high celestial home,

 Judge of all, again returning,

 we believe that Thou shalt come

 in the dreaded Doomsday morning;

 when Thy voice shall shake the earth,

 and the startled dead come forth."

Religion, Nations, and Geopolitical Review: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23

by A. Joseph Lynch

THE WEEKLY BRIEF

MORE FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

The House "investigation" inquiry has reached the end of its testimony with the House now going on Thanksgiving break for the next week. Many agree that the Democrats failed to make their case. Will moderates return home from their swing districts able to risk reelection and vote in favor of impeachment? Most think impeachment will happen by December 20, but we believe much will be decided in the next week while House members hear from their constituents. There will certainly be no bipartisan support for impeachment and virtually no chance of the Senate removing President Trump.

Much focus this week went to the testimony of US Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, who said both that there was a quid pro quo and that President Trump told him directly: "I want nothing [from Ukraine]. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell [President] Zelensky to do the right thing." Sondland tried to appease both sides and has found himself alienated.

What has gone relatively unnoticed is the way in which foreign born members of the State Department and US military are imposing their foreign policy demands on the nation. The testimony this week from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Fiona Hill revealed two members of the intelligence-military-foreign affairs bureaucracy angry that their policy positions were not shared by the duly elected President of the United States.

What's more, little mention has been given of Hill's British birth or Vindman's Ukrainian birth.

This week we learned that Hill is a close associate of Christopher Steele, the writer of the debunked, virulently anti-Trump Steele dossier. While conservatives have attacked the dossier's ties to Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and Russia, we have repeatedly noted its connection to Steele himself and British intelligence. After losing her empire, British strategy often seeks to co-opt the "special relationship" between the UK and the US, manipulating the US into acting in accord with British interests. Trump's "America First" policy is diametrically opposed to this strategy, which is why Steele - and now perhaps Hill as well - sought to bring Trump down.

Despite winning a purple heart, we also learned that Lt. Col. Vindman was not above reproach. His demand to be called by his rank revealed the high esteem in which he holds himself and the disregard he has has for elected officials, be they US representatives or presidents. After it was revealed that Vindman was thrice offered the job of Ukrainian defense minster, we are not surprised that Vindman has such an elitist view of himself. We are also not surprised, given his Ukrainian birth, that he holds such anti-Russian foreign policy views. Vindman, however, needs to be reminded that our nation's foreign policy is "America First" not "Ukraine First."

As Pat Buchanan reminds us, when did Ukraine become critical ally of the US? The British and the Ukrainians may have a beef with Russia, but we do not. We must not allow them to interfere with our internal political affairs and threaten a coup against our president so that they can manipulate our government into serving their foreign policy interests. Should impeachment go the Senate, we hope the real foreign interference in our elections is revealed.

I. POPE FRANCIS AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

POPE FRANCIS IN ASIA: Pope Francis took a four day trip to Asia, where in Thailand he met with the supreme Buddhist patriarch. Despite anger from conservatives that the Pope is treating other religions or religious leaders as equal to Catholicism, we should always cheer when two men of faith speak to each other as brothers rather than as enemies.

A CURVED UNIVERSE: Scientists are 99.8% sure the universe is positively curved, making it more like the shape of an expanding balloon.

CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION UP: A recent study on the persecution of Christianity in Europe has revealed “a rise in the number of churches, Christian symbols, and cemeteries across Europe being vandalized, desecrated, and burned, compared to previous years." Read the full report.

DEFENDING A NUN - BUT WHAT ABOUT ALL WOMEN? French officials are defending a nun's right to wear the habit when under French law she is not allowed to wear religious attire in certain public areas - such as her retirement home. Two questions remain: 1) Why is she living in a retirement home rather than a convent? and 2) Why can't French officials defend the right of all women - Muslims included - to wear religious veils in public?

II. PRESIDENT TRUMP AND AMERICA

CHICKEN FINGERS: Mayor Pete mistakes a cinnamon roll for chicken wings. See the photo here. Somehow he's leading in Iowa.

EXECUTIVE CANDIDATES: Mayor Bloomberg and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick are now in. With mayor Pete in the lead, it may be becoming an executive race. With two new candidates, it might also be a sign of a weak field. We're not sure the two candidates will help - Deval recently cancelled an event because only two people showed up.

BILL MAHER PULLS BACK: Bill Maher recognizes how polarized our nation is in and fears a creeping civil war. For the good of the country he's announced he's cutting back on his own vicious attacks on the president. Maher should be applauded.

TOO FAR LEFT: Bill Maher is not the only Democrat to see the danger. Even former-President Obama is warning Democrat presidential candidates they are going too far to the Left, saying "We have to be rooted in reality," and that We need not"completely tear down the system and remake it." Sadly the candidates largely rejected his wise words.

WHO CARES?: A recent focus group study of independents revealed that few care about impeachment and would rather our political leaders focus on fixing America's real problems. Another recent pool revealed that independents have swung against impeachment by ten points. Will impeachment be able to get past the House?

PERJURED DIPLOMAT?: Did the ex-ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, commit perjury during her testimony to Congress?

III. THE NATIONS

BERLIN WALL - THIRTY YEARS LATER: From our R&G on November 15, 2014: Another speech at the Berlin Wall should be listened to as carefully as the JFK and Reagan speeches that helped tear down the wall. Mikhail Gorbachev, on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, warned against a new and dangerous barrier being erected by NATO and the West against Russia. This interview is a good introduction to the thinking which underlies the animus of many prominent US Catholics to Vladimir Putin, Russia and leaders of the Orthodox Church.

NETANYAHU FACING CHARGES: But do the charges add up? Time will tell.

PILLSBURY ON CHINA: Michael Pillsbury is a China hawk and author of The Hundred Year Marathon, in which he argues China has a hundred year plan towards hegemony. Given China's tepid economy and its inching ever nearer to a Hong Kong Tiananmen Square, we at AoA hold a less fearful view of China. Nevertheless it's good to hear both sides on China. Here is a short video interview with Pillsbury and a transcribed interview by Hugh Hewitt.

JAPANESE EMPEROR & SHINTOISM: The new Japanese emperor is maintaining his people's traditional religious rituals as he ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. The throne rituals came to an end with a ritual meal held between the emperor and Japan's sun goddess. Despite the rise of secularism, the nations and civilizations of the world are still fundamentally religious.

IV. CULTURE OF LIFE, CULTURE OF PROTECTION

SANDMAN VS MEDIA: In another win for the Nick Sandman and the young men of Covington Catholic High School, a judge is allowing discovery to move forward in their suits against NBC, CNN, and the Washington Post. We await to hear what will be revealed in discovery.

"ME TOO" ON SURVIVOR: Not long after a contestant was scolded for complaining women in the game show Survivor could collude against the men, two women on the show were caught exaggerating the "inappropriate touching" of a male contestant in order to emotionally manipulate the votes of other contestants and vote him off the island. If Survivor is a kind of microcosm of society, this wasn't the best of moments.

MORMONS AND SCOUTS: A Mormon leader says the Boy Scouts left the Mormons, not vice versa.

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: It's happening to Starbucks and movies like Charlie's Angels and Terminator: Dark Fate. The latest Star Wars film - a series now marred by woke feminist politics - is not expected to do well next month. Will the same happen to Chik-fil-a after they bent the knee to the homosexual agenda and cut support to groups such as the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and The Salvation Army?

DECRIMINALIZING INCEST? As Ireland considers decriminalizing incest and lowering the age of sexual consent, it's legalization of abortion signaled its rapid downfall into sexual chaos.