After an hiatus – time to take stock again

I have been neglecting this blog for a while now. The reasons are legion, ranging from lack of physical wellbeing to family commitments to intellectual ennui and beyond. But I was surprised when I logged on a few days ago to discover that a steady stream of international viewers still visits my musings, and that my other online publications such as academic articles and books receive ongoing attention and downloads. So although I may have retired from the world the world still takes note of me, surely an existential encouragement! I visibly exist online, therefore I am…

I have dedicated my blog over the years to a Christian, especially Pentecostal, perspective on things, while the Brexit vote and election of Donald Trump fascinated my iconoclastic soul and drew me into the world of socio-political analysis. My inner hippy (and Christian prophetic convictions) rejoiced in the riling and subversion of an until then complacent academic/media/celebrity/political establishment with its quasi-religious “incontestable” narrative consciously tailored to promote a single view of “the truth.” Highlights of this continuing subversive trend for me include:

• Elon Musk’s pragmatic approach to business and innovation (no corporate shibboleth goes ignored) and of course his purchase of Twitter and the subsequent exposure to public scrutiny of its inner workings, bias and complicity with government agencies. Many are urging him to add Facebook and Google to his stock. Imagine the burning of evidence that would take place before that transpired. And, guess what? He went overnight from all round good guy to the devil incarnate among the raucous voices of the establishment. Go, Elon, you South African boy!

• The installation of a Republican majority in Congress and its new focus on investigating “progressive” misdemeanours and narrative-creation. Placing the full 40 000 hours of video footage of the Jan 6^th “insurrection” in the hands of a fearless journalist just yesterday began to bear its first fruit as unedited clips showed exactly what the events were around the “killing” of a Capitol policeman and the movement of hordes of Americans respectfully through the corridors of the building, amiably conducted by Capitol security. Sufficient to say none of it matched the narrative promoted by the previous bunch and their media symbionts, supported by highly selective and edited video clips. Watch this space.

• Donald Trump still lives rent-free in the heads of so many. Nothing negative occurs without him receiving blame, although he inevitably has to share the spotlight of blame with “racism”. He of course revels in this, I suspect him of having a wicked sense of humour.

• The vindication of so many “conspiracy theories”. Yes, the Covid virus probably did originate in a biochemical lab used in producing bio-weapons. Yes, the Hunter Biden laptop provided authentic information on the sins of the father and of the son. Yes, contracting and surviving Covid does provide natural immunity. Indeed, it is even more reliable than vaccines. Yes, forced shutdowns and closures were of little effect, if any, as were masks and mask mandates and social isolation rules. Indeed, nations and states that avoided imposing them thrived, both medically and especially economically. School closures were as unnecessary and have been devastating to an entire generation of children and young people. And so the list goes on.

Pressure to conformity

Ever disconcerting are the new and intensifying government pressures toward ideological conformity, and their ominous implication for practising Christians who base their lives and thinking on a Biblical worldview. Judaeo-Christian thinking, living and commentary is the new heresy, and the imposition of anathemas by secular authorities becoming ever more punitive.

• Dissenters from the new orthodoxy, the LGBT+ narrative, WILL be burned at the stake publicly, cancelled. One is today watching reruns of the mediaeval Inquisition and the French Reign of Terror, not to mention the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It’s religious.

• A few honest journalists have admitted that they supported the anathemising of promoters of the now vindicated “conspiracy theories” because they were “right wing talking points.” The initial advocates of the Prevent Initiative in UK educational institutions against indoctrination of young people with terrorist ideologies, now admit that the Initiative over-emphasises the dangers of Right Wing Extremism (largely non-existent) over those of Islamic Fundamentalism, (which has been behind more than 90% of violent terrorism world-wide in the last three decades.) I sat through one of their sessions at a seminary in the UK some years ago and noted precisely that. The man who blew up a train was “mentally troubled”, the White schoolboy who might one day take a flare to a football game was a major terrorist threat! You can’t make these things up…

• Justice and law enforcement agencies in the USA and many other countries now tend to include committed Christians and vocal anti-abortionists as “terrorism” dangers from the Right Wing. It appears that to be a practicing Christian and/or holding conservative political beliefs and values will mark one as Right Wing, which is BAD, extremist and promoting terrorism. Parents opposing intrusive the political policies of secular school boards have also been so indicated by the Department of Justice.

Below: Arrest of Christian praying silently the vicinity of an abortion clinic – and forcible removal and arrest of a UK street preacher for outlining the Biblical view of marriage

• Folk have been arrested for praying quietly anywhere near abortion clinics. Street preachers ditto for merely reading or proclaiming texts from the Bible which simply state the Judaeo-Christian sexual ethic. Blasphemy against Christianity receives no condemnation, while the ultra-sensitive blasphemy charges of Muslims receive full support. A University in the USA recently retired a lecturer for not considering such charges from a Muslim student, an action affirmed by a subsequent hearing which stated baldly that the religious sensitivities of the Muslim student superseded the requirements of academic rigour and objectivity. (Replace “Muslim” with “Christian” in that statement and see how well that goes down!) Where is “Je suis Charlie” now?

Enforced conformity:

The implacable insistence on compliance with the diktats of governments with regard to Covid lockdowns, closures and social distancing rules – many of which were patently ridiculous – and the immediate response to and punishment of the slightest infringement is seen by many as a trial-run for wider and deeper intrusions into public life and personal freedoms by increasingly authoritarian, supposedly democratic, governments.

The apparent enthusiasm among many politicians (of all stripes) for embarking on a “hot” war against Russia and China (there is no other way to attribute the actions of the Biden administration) could be regarded as their enthusiasm for a home front situation where dissent from the state could be prosecuted as treason in a time of war. A thirst for ever more control over the populace.

Increased policing of private citizens’ language, social media usage, interactions with government agencies, and a host of otherwise pretty normal activities, demonstrates a growing crack-down on dissent.

Dissent from the absurdity of “2 + 2 = 5 if the state says so” now incurs increasingly severe reaction. Several simple matter-of-fact statements can now attract massive penalties, such as:

• Human beings consist of only two sexes (like all other mammalian species.)
• Males cannot get pregnant nor suffer the menses;
• The male rectum was not made for a penis to penetrate;
• A man is not a woman because he says so, nor a woman a man;
• Regardless of all physical interventions and mental assertions, a person claiming to now be of the opposite sex nevertheless retains the DNA of their birth-sex in very cell of their body;
• Fully biological men cannot be housed in women’s medical, penal or shelter facilities without danger to the female residents;
• Biological men participating in women’s sports have a natural and unfair physical advantage
• What a woman is, is not complex and difficult to define (note this amazing statement by a women selected for appointment to the US supreme court precisely for being an easily-defined woman…)
• All humans are born equal
• It’s OK to be White, Christian, straight, conservative, or male…
• Etc .

This type of speech and thought control is already dealing out devastation to private lives, professions and careers, and to the practice of modern science in every discipline from the humanities to the physical sciences. Teachers, lecturers and preachers in particular are suffering the ever-more-fervent wrath of the authorities for the slightest dissent from or infringement of the assertions of the new absurd belief system. As are parents, performers and artists. Comedians and academics alike live increasingly in fear of “cancellation” and the associated termination of employment, with self-censoring in educational institutions and entertainment now reaching alarming levels. A simple attribution of the “-ist”, “-phobic” and/or “hate” labels against a person spells the end of careers and professions, and who knows when it will eventually imply a death sentence? A new Reign of Terror has been established in the “free and democratic” West.

Following Jesus Christ while living in unexpectedly perilous times for the faithful.

Simply to maintain being a Christian, and using normal Christian speech and doing normal Christian things, is clearly a threat to increasingly authoritarian state power. When those powers seek to regulate even our thoughts, and to programme our children with their absurdities to the extent that they turn against their parents, ever greater courage is required of us. We can hunker down and hope it will all flow over our heads, hoping no-one will notice. But evil power-holders will sniff out every trace of dissent, much like the forces of the Inquisition in late mediaeval times. Throughout the ages Christians have endured intensive and bitter hate and persecution for dissents such as dissent from publicly acknowledging the emperor’s divine right (later the Pope’s) or refusing to baptise their children or take oaths in the market place. Mildest critique of church dogma or state diktat would bring immediate and severe response…

As an anthropologist (F E Manning in a collection edited by S D Glazier in 1980 “Perspectives on Pentecostalism”) stated in his review of Pentecostalism in the Central American and Caribbean region in the 1970’s: Authoritarian movements act against Pentecostal Christians primarily because they refuse to bow the knee to the party, state or its dogma and idols, blatantly stating that they bow the knee only to one Lord, Jesus Christ. They are then stigmatised by the new elite as lackeys of capitalism, colonialists, right-wingers etc.

Like Elijah, Daniel, Jeremiah, John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth himself, such persons “trouble the king” and are not worthy even of life….

How firm and steadfast can you stand against the ever more permeating demands to conformity with powers and views other than those of your Lord? What price will you pay?