Francis Berger's Blog, page 93
July 4, 2021
The Increased Freedom Christ Offers Versus The Corrected Work of the Grand Inquisitor
I have personally found The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov to be one of the most clarifying of texts in reference to the spiritual choices that confront us all in this time and place.
The story presents the stark choice between the increased freedom Christ offers and the "corrected work" espoused by System Christianity.
The increased freedom Christ offers pertains to the belief in the reality of the often neglected and under-discussed divine-human aspect of Christianity. The corrected work of System Christianity considers this divine-human aspect of Christianity to be unattainable for most people; hence, it sets it sights on alleviating people of the divine-human burden of freedom and offering in its place the promise of universal happiness via consented "veiled" slavery.
In the story, the Grand Inquisitor reveals the core nature of Jesus’s mission on earth – to make people aware of their innate spiritual freedom and to empower people to discern good and evil for themselves using only the image of Christ as their guide:
“Instead of taking mastery of people's freedom, you increased it and saddled the spiritual kingdom of man with it for ever. You desired that man's love should be free, that he should follow you freely, enticed and captivated by you. Henceforth, in place of the old, firm law, man was himself to decide with a free heart what is good and what is evil, with only your image before him to guide him . . .”
This mission of increasing freedom is a testament to Jesus’s knowledge of the divine potential within humanity – that He thinks highly of us, our fundamental nature, and of our spiritual potential.
On the flip side, the Grand Inquisitor believes Jesus has overestimated man’s potential; that Christ’s mission to increase spiritual freedom within individual hearts ended up spiritually burdening rather than spiritually liberating man.
In humanity, Jesus sees potential sons and daughters of God – each capable of discernment, right choice, and increased spiritual freedom. Conversely, in humanity the Grand Inquisitor sees mostly weaklings, cowards, and slaves, the bulk of whom are utterly incapable of embracing the increased spiritual freedom Christ offers:
“Upon my word, man is created weaker and more base than you supposed! Can he, can he perform the deeds of which you are capable? In respecting him so much you acted as though you had ceased to have compassion for him, because you demanded too much of him—and yet who was this? The very one you had loved more than yourself! Had you respected him less you would have demanded of him less, and that would have been closer to love, for his burden would have been lighter. He is weak and dishonourable.”
Jesus’s respect for us, the increased freedom He demands of us is a testament to His love and of His esteem for us as divine beings. However, the Grand Inquisitor counters this by claiming that Jesus’s respect for humanity is misguided – that His love for humanity and faith in the spiritual potential of humanity are not love or faith at all, but cruelty.
To the Grand Inquisitor, Jesus is like a father who dreams of seeing his obese, non-athletic, clumsy, lazy son play in big league professional sports. “Why torture the kid with such unrealistic and unattainable ambitions?” the Grand Inquisitor would surmise. “Better to have him eat pizza and play video games all day. Not only would the kid not feel burdened by unrealistic expectations, but he would also have a shot at being happy in life."
Unburdening humanity of Jesus’s high expectations of freedom while simultaneously ensuring humanity’s happiness is the mission of the Grand Inquisitor and his Church. In the story, the Grand Inquisitor even describes this mission as “correcting” Jesus’s work.
A big part of correcting Jesus’s mission is the understanding that humans can tolerate anything but freedom of choice in the face of good and evil – that the vast majority of humanity cannot bear the kind of spiritual freedom Christ offered. Moreover, the vast majority of humanity would happily relinquish this increased freedom and lay it down before some authority or other:
“Was it not you who so often used to say back then: 'I want to make you free'? Well, but now you have seen those 'free' people," the old man suddenly adds with a thoughtful and ironic smile. "Yes, this task has cost us dearly," he continues, looking at him sternly, "but we have at last accomplished it in your name. For fifteen centuries we have struggled with that freedom, but now it is all over, and over for good. You don't believe that it is over for good? You look at me meekly and do not even consider me worthy of indignation? Well, I think you ought to be aware that now, and particularly in the days we are currently living through, those people are even more certain than ever that they are completely free, and indeed they themselves have brought us their freedom and have laid it humbly at our feet. But we were the ones who did that, and was that what you desired, that kind of freedom?"
Furthermore, the vast majority of humanity also prefers to do this universally, as a collective.
“There is for man no preoccupation more constant or more nagging than, while in a condition of freedom, quickly to find someone to bow down before. But man seeks to bow down before that which is already beyond dispute, so far beyond dispute that all human beings will instantly agree to a universal bowing-down before it. For the preoccupation of these miserable creatures consists not only in finding that before which I or another may bow down, but in finding something that everyone can come to believe in and bow down before, and that it should indeed be everyone, and that they should do it all together. It is this need for a community of bowing-down that has been the principal torment of each individual person and of mankind as a whole since the earliest ages.”
Of course, the Grand Inquisitor does not tell his followers that they have chosen spiritual enslavement over freedom. On the contrary, his "corrected work" falsely claims to work under the banner of freedom:
"Oh, we shall persuade them that they will only become free when they renounce their freedom for us and submit to us. And what does it matter whether we are right or whether, we are telling a lie? They themselves will be persuaded we are right, for they will remember to what 'horrors of slavery and confusion your freedom has brought them. Freedom, the free intellect and science will lead them into such labyrinths and bring them up against such miracles and unfathomable mysteries that some of them, the disobedient and ferocious ones, will destroy themselves; others, disobedient and feeble, will destroy one another, while a third group, those who are left, the feeble and unhappy ones, will come crawling to our feet, and will cry out to us: 'Yes, you were right, you alone were masters of his secret, and we are returning to you, save us from ourselves.'"
The Grand Inquisitor is the perfect representative of what I have termed System Christianity. Those who are members of his church believe they are attaining salvation through obedience; however, the Grand Inquisitor reveals otherwise:
“Quietly they will die, quietly they will fade away in your name and beyond the tomb will find only death. But we shall preserve the secret and for the sake of their happiness will lure them with a heavenly and eternal reward. For if there were anything in the other world, it goes without saying that it would not be for the likes of them.”
Spiritual discernment of vital importance in this time and place - and the core of spiritual discernment resides in the choice Dostoevsky presents in his The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor.
Do you choose the increased freedom Christ offers or do you choose to relinquish this freedom in the name of comfort, peace, and happiness.
Do you choose to follow the divine-human aspect of Christianity via the increased freedom of spiritual discernment or settle for the human-all-too-human aspect of System Christianity via the increased enslavement of blind obedience and non-discernment.
The choice applies regardless of whether you attend a church or not because elements of Christ's increased freedom and the Grand Inquisitor's "happy" slavery exist both within and outwith churches.
Juxtaposed against the increased freedom Christ offers is the universal love of mankind, and this universal love of mankind is what fuels the contemporary global diktat of none are safe until all are safe.
We are currently embroiled in an unprecedented Satanic assault on human freedom. Any individual, group, or organization that supports any aspect of this Satanic assault, that opposes the increased freedom Christ offers is not on the side of God, as the Grand Inquisitor himself reveals toward the end of the story:
"And that was what we did. We corrected your great deed and founded it upon miracle, mystery and authority. And people were glad that they had once been brought together into a flock and that at last from their hearts had been removed such a terrible gift, which had brought them so much torment. Were we right, to teach and act thus, would you say? Did we not love mankind, when we so humbly admitted his helplessness, lightening his burden with love and allowing his feeble nature even sin, but with our permission? Why have you come to get in our way now? And why do you gaze at me so silently and sincerely with those meek eyes of yours? Why do you not get angry? I do not want your love, because I myself do not love you. And what is there I can conceal from you? Do you think I don't know who I'm talking to? What I have to say to you is all familiar to you already, I can read it in your eyes. And do you think I would conceal our secret from you? Perhaps it is my own lips that you want to hear it from—then listen: we are not with you, but with him, there is our secret! We have long been not with you, but with him . . ."
If Dostoevksy's Grand Inquisitor informs us of anything today, it is this - individual spiritual discernment of good and evil is no longer an option, but a duty.
Note added: I highly recommend reading or re-reading The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor, which is only a chapter long (link above). I can think of few texts - especially fiction pieces - that strike so precisely and vividly at the core of what we are facing today.
The story presents the stark choice between the increased freedom Christ offers and the "corrected work" espoused by System Christianity.
The increased freedom Christ offers pertains to the belief in the reality of the often neglected and under-discussed divine-human aspect of Christianity. The corrected work of System Christianity considers this divine-human aspect of Christianity to be unattainable for most people; hence, it sets it sights on alleviating people of the divine-human burden of freedom and offering in its place the promise of universal happiness via consented "veiled" slavery.
In the story, the Grand Inquisitor reveals the core nature of Jesus’s mission on earth – to make people aware of their innate spiritual freedom and to empower people to discern good and evil for themselves using only the image of Christ as their guide:
“Instead of taking mastery of people's freedom, you increased it and saddled the spiritual kingdom of man with it for ever. You desired that man's love should be free, that he should follow you freely, enticed and captivated by you. Henceforth, in place of the old, firm law, man was himself to decide with a free heart what is good and what is evil, with only your image before him to guide him . . .”
This mission of increasing freedom is a testament to Jesus’s knowledge of the divine potential within humanity – that He thinks highly of us, our fundamental nature, and of our spiritual potential.
On the flip side, the Grand Inquisitor believes Jesus has overestimated man’s potential; that Christ’s mission to increase spiritual freedom within individual hearts ended up spiritually burdening rather than spiritually liberating man.
In humanity, Jesus sees potential sons and daughters of God – each capable of discernment, right choice, and increased spiritual freedom. Conversely, in humanity the Grand Inquisitor sees mostly weaklings, cowards, and slaves, the bulk of whom are utterly incapable of embracing the increased spiritual freedom Christ offers:
“Upon my word, man is created weaker and more base than you supposed! Can he, can he perform the deeds of which you are capable? In respecting him so much you acted as though you had ceased to have compassion for him, because you demanded too much of him—and yet who was this? The very one you had loved more than yourself! Had you respected him less you would have demanded of him less, and that would have been closer to love, for his burden would have been lighter. He is weak and dishonourable.”
Jesus’s respect for us, the increased freedom He demands of us is a testament to His love and of His esteem for us as divine beings. However, the Grand Inquisitor counters this by claiming that Jesus’s respect for humanity is misguided – that His love for humanity and faith in the spiritual potential of humanity are not love or faith at all, but cruelty.
To the Grand Inquisitor, Jesus is like a father who dreams of seeing his obese, non-athletic, clumsy, lazy son play in big league professional sports. “Why torture the kid with such unrealistic and unattainable ambitions?” the Grand Inquisitor would surmise. “Better to have him eat pizza and play video games all day. Not only would the kid not feel burdened by unrealistic expectations, but he would also have a shot at being happy in life."
Unburdening humanity of Jesus’s high expectations of freedom while simultaneously ensuring humanity’s happiness is the mission of the Grand Inquisitor and his Church. In the story, the Grand Inquisitor even describes this mission as “correcting” Jesus’s work.
A big part of correcting Jesus’s mission is the understanding that humans can tolerate anything but freedom of choice in the face of good and evil – that the vast majority of humanity cannot bear the kind of spiritual freedom Christ offered. Moreover, the vast majority of humanity would happily relinquish this increased freedom and lay it down before some authority or other:
“Was it not you who so often used to say back then: 'I want to make you free'? Well, but now you have seen those 'free' people," the old man suddenly adds with a thoughtful and ironic smile. "Yes, this task has cost us dearly," he continues, looking at him sternly, "but we have at last accomplished it in your name. For fifteen centuries we have struggled with that freedom, but now it is all over, and over for good. You don't believe that it is over for good? You look at me meekly and do not even consider me worthy of indignation? Well, I think you ought to be aware that now, and particularly in the days we are currently living through, those people are even more certain than ever that they are completely free, and indeed they themselves have brought us their freedom and have laid it humbly at our feet. But we were the ones who did that, and was that what you desired, that kind of freedom?"
Furthermore, the vast majority of humanity also prefers to do this universally, as a collective.
“There is for man no preoccupation more constant or more nagging than, while in a condition of freedom, quickly to find someone to bow down before. But man seeks to bow down before that which is already beyond dispute, so far beyond dispute that all human beings will instantly agree to a universal bowing-down before it. For the preoccupation of these miserable creatures consists not only in finding that before which I or another may bow down, but in finding something that everyone can come to believe in and bow down before, and that it should indeed be everyone, and that they should do it all together. It is this need for a community of bowing-down that has been the principal torment of each individual person and of mankind as a whole since the earliest ages.”
Of course, the Grand Inquisitor does not tell his followers that they have chosen spiritual enslavement over freedom. On the contrary, his "corrected work" falsely claims to work under the banner of freedom:
"Oh, we shall persuade them that they will only become free when they renounce their freedom for us and submit to us. And what does it matter whether we are right or whether, we are telling a lie? They themselves will be persuaded we are right, for they will remember to what 'horrors of slavery and confusion your freedom has brought them. Freedom, the free intellect and science will lead them into such labyrinths and bring them up against such miracles and unfathomable mysteries that some of them, the disobedient and ferocious ones, will destroy themselves; others, disobedient and feeble, will destroy one another, while a third group, those who are left, the feeble and unhappy ones, will come crawling to our feet, and will cry out to us: 'Yes, you were right, you alone were masters of his secret, and we are returning to you, save us from ourselves.'"
The Grand Inquisitor is the perfect representative of what I have termed System Christianity. Those who are members of his church believe they are attaining salvation through obedience; however, the Grand Inquisitor reveals otherwise:
“Quietly they will die, quietly they will fade away in your name and beyond the tomb will find only death. But we shall preserve the secret and for the sake of their happiness will lure them with a heavenly and eternal reward. For if there were anything in the other world, it goes without saying that it would not be for the likes of them.”
Spiritual discernment of vital importance in this time and place - and the core of spiritual discernment resides in the choice Dostoevsky presents in his The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor.
Do you choose the increased freedom Christ offers or do you choose to relinquish this freedom in the name of comfort, peace, and happiness.
Do you choose to follow the divine-human aspect of Christianity via the increased freedom of spiritual discernment or settle for the human-all-too-human aspect of System Christianity via the increased enslavement of blind obedience and non-discernment.
The choice applies regardless of whether you attend a church or not because elements of Christ's increased freedom and the Grand Inquisitor's "happy" slavery exist both within and outwith churches.
Juxtaposed against the increased freedom Christ offers is the universal love of mankind, and this universal love of mankind is what fuels the contemporary global diktat of none are safe until all are safe.
We are currently embroiled in an unprecedented Satanic assault on human freedom. Any individual, group, or organization that supports any aspect of this Satanic assault, that opposes the increased freedom Christ offers is not on the side of God, as the Grand Inquisitor himself reveals toward the end of the story:
"And that was what we did. We corrected your great deed and founded it upon miracle, mystery and authority. And people were glad that they had once been brought together into a flock and that at last from their hearts had been removed such a terrible gift, which had brought them so much torment. Were we right, to teach and act thus, would you say? Did we not love mankind, when we so humbly admitted his helplessness, lightening his burden with love and allowing his feeble nature even sin, but with our permission? Why have you come to get in our way now? And why do you gaze at me so silently and sincerely with those meek eyes of yours? Why do you not get angry? I do not want your love, because I myself do not love you. And what is there I can conceal from you? Do you think I don't know who I'm talking to? What I have to say to you is all familiar to you already, I can read it in your eyes. And do you think I would conceal our secret from you? Perhaps it is my own lips that you want to hear it from—then listen: we are not with you, but with him, there is our secret! We have long been not with you, but with him . . ."
If Dostoevksy's Grand Inquisitor informs us of anything today, it is this - individual spiritual discernment of good and evil is no longer an option, but a duty.
Note added: I highly recommend reading or re-reading The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor, which is only a chapter long (link above). I can think of few texts - especially fiction pieces - that strike so precisely and vividly at the core of what we are facing today.
July 3, 2021
Garden Coming Along Nicely
Well, it's the beginning of July and the garden appears to doing quite well. Big thanks to those individuals who kindly provided me with some weed control tips. I'm still struggling, but it's getting better. 
Squash, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, onions, beets, and potatoes. I think the squash and zucchini are too close together. My wife disagrees. We'll find out soon enough. Me in the background. The garden inspector - she's a tough boss - on the right. 
The potato plants in the foreground look awful, but that's because they'll be ready to harvest soon. A different kind of potato in the middle of the garden is still lush and green. Tomato plants in the background - thirty-two of them! Raspberries to the left. 
Raspberries my wife picked this evening. We harvest about 20 kg per season. Amazing!
Squash, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, onions, beets, and potatoes. I think the squash and zucchini are too close together. My wife disagrees. We'll find out soon enough. Me in the background. The garden inspector - she's a tough boss - on the right. The potato plants in the foreground look awful, but that's because they'll be ready to harvest soon. A different kind of potato in the middle of the garden is still lush and green. Tomato plants in the background - thirty-two of them! Raspberries to the left. Raspberries my wife picked this evening. We harvest about 20 kg per season. Amazing!
July 2, 2021
Good Spiritual Pride is Indispensable
Every now and then some grudging, small-minded commenter visits my blog and inevitably accuses me of spiritual pride.
These kinds of accusations tend to focus on my perceived egotism, pretension, hubris, and smugness, with the general implication that I view and present myself as someone who has his proverbial spiritual act together and vaingloriously advertises this lofty spiritual act to the world for purely self-serving reasons.
Allegations of spiritual pride lobbed against yours truly also address my apparent spiritual conceit and disdain, which is readily discernible in my sneering and supercilious criticisms of the misguided spirituality or absent spirituality of others.
To commenters who make such accusations, I offer the following response - have you ever stopped to consider that accusing another Christian of spiritual pride could also be categorized as an act of spiritual pride?
Conversely, has it ever occurred to you that excessive humility, spiritual self-debasement, passivity and meekness you espouse and promote also qualify as forms of spiritual pride? That our servile, suicidal societies, which are currently enslaving us all, might just be the creations of such servile, suicidal souls?
Don't misunderstand. I'm not trying to deflect the issue. If I have transgressed, I shall ponder the matter with God and if need be, repent.
Having said that, I do not believe spiritual pride is a purely negative phenomenon. Though it sounds paradoxical, pride does play a role in my belief in God.
I am proud of my belief in God. I am proud of my belief in Jesus Christ. I am proud of my ongoing mission to follow Christ to everlasting life. I am proud that I recognize God as the prime source of freedom and independence from the corrupting and entropic power of the given world. I am proud of the divine that is within me.
I am also proud of my attempts to adhere to the primacy of the spiritual, in my indisposition to worship anyone or anything except God.
This pride provides me with the inner strength needed to spiritually resist the power of society and the world, to not consent to spiritually prostrate myself before the world, society, and people, especially not before those who are actively, willingly, and blatantly opposed to God.
I am proud to know God exists because His existence enriches my own existence and the existence of the whole world.
I am proud to comprehend that God is a person and that this person has as much love and faith in me as I have in Him, and that he extends this personal offer of love and faith to all of his children.
I am proud of God's patience, fortitude, and forgiveness. I am proud that God has granted me - all of us - the possibility of adding something to Creation that He alone cannot. I am proud of the fact that God desires that we all become more like Him.
And I am proud of my attempts to discuss these matters on these pages.
These kinds of accusations tend to focus on my perceived egotism, pretension, hubris, and smugness, with the general implication that I view and present myself as someone who has his proverbial spiritual act together and vaingloriously advertises this lofty spiritual act to the world for purely self-serving reasons.
Allegations of spiritual pride lobbed against yours truly also address my apparent spiritual conceit and disdain, which is readily discernible in my sneering and supercilious criticisms of the misguided spirituality or absent spirituality of others.
To commenters who make such accusations, I offer the following response - have you ever stopped to consider that accusing another Christian of spiritual pride could also be categorized as an act of spiritual pride?
Conversely, has it ever occurred to you that excessive humility, spiritual self-debasement, passivity and meekness you espouse and promote also qualify as forms of spiritual pride? That our servile, suicidal societies, which are currently enslaving us all, might just be the creations of such servile, suicidal souls?
Don't misunderstand. I'm not trying to deflect the issue. If I have transgressed, I shall ponder the matter with God and if need be, repent.
Having said that, I do not believe spiritual pride is a purely negative phenomenon. Though it sounds paradoxical, pride does play a role in my belief in God.
I am proud of my belief in God. I am proud of my belief in Jesus Christ. I am proud of my ongoing mission to follow Christ to everlasting life. I am proud that I recognize God as the prime source of freedom and independence from the corrupting and entropic power of the given world. I am proud of the divine that is within me.
I am also proud of my attempts to adhere to the primacy of the spiritual, in my indisposition to worship anyone or anything except God.
This pride provides me with the inner strength needed to spiritually resist the power of society and the world, to not consent to spiritually prostrate myself before the world, society, and people, especially not before those who are actively, willingly, and blatantly opposed to God.
I am proud to know God exists because His existence enriches my own existence and the existence of the whole world.
I am proud to comprehend that God is a person and that this person has as much love and faith in me as I have in Him, and that he extends this personal offer of love and faith to all of his children.
I am proud of God's patience, fortitude, and forgiveness. I am proud that God has granted me - all of us - the possibility of adding something to Creation that He alone cannot. I am proud of the fact that God desires that we all become more like Him.
And I am proud of my attempts to discuss these matters on these pages.
July 1, 2021
Some Choice Bukowski Quotes
"If you're losing your soul and you know it, you've still got a soul to lose."
"The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them."
"You have to die a few times before you can really live."
"People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lack the ability to feel or love."
"You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics."
"“The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left."
"There are times when those eyes inside your brain stare back at you.”
“Understand me. I’m not like an ordinary world. I have my madness, I live in another dimension and I do not have time for things that have no soul.”
Note added: Bukowski wasn't a Christian - certainly not in any conventional sense, anyway. Come to think of it, he wasn't much of a poet either, but he did wrestle with life, creativity, and God in a way few men ever dare to do. And in my mind that counts for something.
"The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them."
"You have to die a few times before you can really live."
"People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lack the ability to feel or love."
"You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics."
"“The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left."
"There are times when those eyes inside your brain stare back at you.”
“Understand me. I’m not like an ordinary world. I have my madness, I live in another dimension and I do not have time for things that have no soul.”
Note added: Bukowski wasn't a Christian - certainly not in any conventional sense, anyway. Come to think of it, he wasn't much of a poet either, but he did wrestle with life, creativity, and God in a way few men ever dare to do. And in my mind that counts for something.
June 30, 2021
We Live in a Nightmare of Falsehoods
We live in a nightmare of falsehoods, and there are few who are sufficiently awake and aware to see things as they are.
Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality . . .
To recover a sense of reality is to recover the truth about ourselves and the world in which we live, and thereby gain the power of keeping this world from flying asunder.
- Nikolai Berdyaev
Our first duty is to clear away illusions and recover a sense of reality . . .
To recover a sense of reality is to recover the truth about ourselves and the world in which we live, and thereby gain the power of keeping this world from flying asunder.
- Nikolai Berdyaev
June 29, 2021
The System's "Think-Feel-Do" Approach
A big part of system distancing entails building resistance to the System's endless mass communications: marketing, advertising, persuasion, storytelling, and propaganda.
This is much easier said than done, partly because the System is now global and totalitarian, which means the mass communications tactics employed are also global (ubiquitous, unavoidable) and totalitarian (repressive, indoctrinating, terroristic).
The System, together with the Establishment that runs it, is evil - meaning it is anti-God, anti-spiritual, anti-Truth, anti-Beauty, and anti-Goodness. This means all of its communications have been purposefully designed and engineered to oppose God and degrade Creation, primarily by subverting the divine element within each individual person.
The fact the System's mass communications and mass media are virtually hardwired into modern people's consciousnesses doesn't make the matter any easier. This is particularly relevant within the development of human consciousness, which is meant to follow a spiritual trajectory, one that should - after a long period of autonomy and alienation from the spiritual - draw us back toward God and Creation.
The rampant despiritualization of human consciousness is a testament to how ruthlessly effective the System's mass communications campaigns against God and Creation have been - in which the birdemic/peck campaigns stand out as crowning achievements. Sadly, the effectiveness of the System's mass communications is also a testament to the spiritual weakness and cowardice of modern people, which has been on full display in the West and around the world for the better part of sixteen months.
What strikes me about the System's mass communications and media in general is how savvy we moderns proclaim ourselves to be concerning these things. Nearly everyone I I know seems to understand the tactics and ploys the System uses in its communications. People everywhere appear to be aware of advertising tricks, persuasion techniques, and media manipulation. Yet when it comes to resisting the tricks, techniques, and manipulation, the very same knowledgeable and aware people are rendered completely powerless.
I believe this has to do with the process of despiritualization mentioned above. Once people refuse to understand themselves as primarily spiritual beings, they surrender the resources required to resist the various "approaches" the System employs in its communications. Once deaf and blind to all divine communications, modern people sever their connection to reality and become defenseless against the anti-divine communications of the System.
The despiritualized consciousness of modern people appears incapable of discerning truth from lies, beauty from ugliness, and Good from evil, which is a dream come true for modern advertisers, marketers, and propagandists. Assured of a "captive and receptive" audience, the System's communications departments are increasingly emboldened to ramp up their diversions and inversions because they know nothing they produce will be ever be meaningfully scrutinized, questioned, or resisted (mostly because despiritualized people have become literally incapable of learning).
The current and ongoing mass communications campaign focusing on the peck provides some clarifying insights into the System's tactics and motivations within the overarching global campaign of "none are safe until all are safe". The following is taken from a recent WEF piece (bold added):
The decision-making process for customers - or in this case patients - is often understood using the Hierarchy of Effects Framework. It suggests that customers think first, then feel and then do. In relation to the COVID-19 vaccine, this implies that patients need to first “think” about it, that is, become aware of and knowledgeable about the vaccine. Next, patients need to “feel” positively about it, as in developing a conviction to get the vaccine. Finally, patients need to “do” it - in other words, get vaccinated.
Most policy makers have emphasised the “do” stage by focusing on distribution and convenience via a combination of mass vaccination, hospital, physician, and drug store sites. This makes sense for the population interested in getting vaccinated. For the vaccine procrastinator, hesitant, and rejector populations, however, we need to focus on the “think” and “feel” stages of decision making. Without these stages, patients are unlikely to move to the “do” stage.
Think . . . One rural parish in the US state of Louisiana, for example, enlisted African-American preachers and local leaders to directly phone members of their community. This led to a 9% increase in the parish’s vaccination rate in a week.
Feel . . . One nurse in Louisiana deployed a particularly effective tactic. She called her vaccine-hesitant patients to talk about how she had been a vaccine skeptic but changed her mind after her husband passed away due to COVID-19.
. . . Another way to improve vaccine sceptics’ feelings is to play into a fear of missing out (FOMO), both socially and economically.
Do . . . First, incentives can work. Several US states and cities provide cash incentives and free transportation, or create lotteries and large block parties to incentivise vaccinations. Businesses should also be encouraged to contribute by providing paid time-off, free products and lottery giveaways.
We believe applying the “think - feel - do” patient-centered approach to the COVID-19 vaccine communication problem will improve efforts at accelerating global herd immunity. Ensuring a safe economic reopening and recovery and overcoming this significant health and economic challenge could depend on such tactics.
Think - feel - do.
Now that's an approach to self-damnation!
Note added: System distancing is more about discernment than it is about avoidance. Thus, the goal in system distancing mass communications and media is not to cut it out completely - though that certainly wouldn't be bad! - but to see the thing for what it is.
This is much easier said than done, partly because the System is now global and totalitarian, which means the mass communications tactics employed are also global (ubiquitous, unavoidable) and totalitarian (repressive, indoctrinating, terroristic).
The System, together with the Establishment that runs it, is evil - meaning it is anti-God, anti-spiritual, anti-Truth, anti-Beauty, and anti-Goodness. This means all of its communications have been purposefully designed and engineered to oppose God and degrade Creation, primarily by subverting the divine element within each individual person.
The fact the System's mass communications and mass media are virtually hardwired into modern people's consciousnesses doesn't make the matter any easier. This is particularly relevant within the development of human consciousness, which is meant to follow a spiritual trajectory, one that should - after a long period of autonomy and alienation from the spiritual - draw us back toward God and Creation.
The rampant despiritualization of human consciousness is a testament to how ruthlessly effective the System's mass communications campaigns against God and Creation have been - in which the birdemic/peck campaigns stand out as crowning achievements. Sadly, the effectiveness of the System's mass communications is also a testament to the spiritual weakness and cowardice of modern people, which has been on full display in the West and around the world for the better part of sixteen months.
What strikes me about the System's mass communications and media in general is how savvy we moderns proclaim ourselves to be concerning these things. Nearly everyone I I know seems to understand the tactics and ploys the System uses in its communications. People everywhere appear to be aware of advertising tricks, persuasion techniques, and media manipulation. Yet when it comes to resisting the tricks, techniques, and manipulation, the very same knowledgeable and aware people are rendered completely powerless.
I believe this has to do with the process of despiritualization mentioned above. Once people refuse to understand themselves as primarily spiritual beings, they surrender the resources required to resist the various "approaches" the System employs in its communications. Once deaf and blind to all divine communications, modern people sever their connection to reality and become defenseless against the anti-divine communications of the System.
The despiritualized consciousness of modern people appears incapable of discerning truth from lies, beauty from ugliness, and Good from evil, which is a dream come true for modern advertisers, marketers, and propagandists. Assured of a "captive and receptive" audience, the System's communications departments are increasingly emboldened to ramp up their diversions and inversions because they know nothing they produce will be ever be meaningfully scrutinized, questioned, or resisted (mostly because despiritualized people have become literally incapable of learning).
The current and ongoing mass communications campaign focusing on the peck provides some clarifying insights into the System's tactics and motivations within the overarching global campaign of "none are safe until all are safe". The following is taken from a recent WEF piece (bold added):
The decision-making process for customers - or in this case patients - is often understood using the Hierarchy of Effects Framework. It suggests that customers think first, then feel and then do. In relation to the COVID-19 vaccine, this implies that patients need to first “think” about it, that is, become aware of and knowledgeable about the vaccine. Next, patients need to “feel” positively about it, as in developing a conviction to get the vaccine. Finally, patients need to “do” it - in other words, get vaccinated.
Most policy makers have emphasised the “do” stage by focusing on distribution and convenience via a combination of mass vaccination, hospital, physician, and drug store sites. This makes sense for the population interested in getting vaccinated. For the vaccine procrastinator, hesitant, and rejector populations, however, we need to focus on the “think” and “feel” stages of decision making. Without these stages, patients are unlikely to move to the “do” stage.
Think . . . One rural parish in the US state of Louisiana, for example, enlisted African-American preachers and local leaders to directly phone members of their community. This led to a 9% increase in the parish’s vaccination rate in a week. Feel . . . One nurse in Louisiana deployed a particularly effective tactic. She called her vaccine-hesitant patients to talk about how she had been a vaccine skeptic but changed her mind after her husband passed away due to COVID-19.
. . . Another way to improve vaccine sceptics’ feelings is to play into a fear of missing out (FOMO), both socially and economically.
Do . . . First, incentives can work. Several US states and cities provide cash incentives and free transportation, or create lotteries and large block parties to incentivise vaccinations. Businesses should also be encouraged to contribute by providing paid time-off, free products and lottery giveaways.
We believe applying the “think - feel - do” patient-centered approach to the COVID-19 vaccine communication problem will improve efforts at accelerating global herd immunity. Ensuring a safe economic reopening and recovery and overcoming this significant health and economic challenge could depend on such tactics.
Think - feel - do.
Now that's an approach to self-damnation!
Note added: System distancing is more about discernment than it is about avoidance. Thus, the goal in system distancing mass communications and media is not to cut it out completely - though that certainly wouldn't be bad! - but to see the thing for what it is.
June 28, 2021
You Don't Have To Be A Sinless Saint To Be On God's Side
In yesterday's post I drew attention to the fact that the humans on both sides of the spiritual war are all sinners.
Those on the side against God are sinners and those on the side for God are also sinners.
This means the spiritual war must not be conceptualized as an army of sinless human saints engaging an army of human sinners, but rather as two armies of sinners clashing together.
But this doesn't mean the sinners on the one side are the same as the sinners on the other side. The key differences between these two armies of sinners are motivation, discernment, belief, and repentance.
Those on the side against God are motivated to oppose the primacy of the spiritual, particularly spiritual freedom. If they are able to discern Good from evil at all, they inevitably choose evil. The vast majority do not believe in God and Creation, but the few that do reject both. Most significantly, those on the side against God refuse to acknowledge let alone repent sin.
Those on the side for God are motivated to live and create via the primacy of the spiritual and to increase spiritual freedom. They are able to discern Good from evil most of the time, and actively strive to choose the Good. All of those who are for God believe in Creation and work toward adding something unique to Creation. Most meaningfully, those on the side for God acknowledge and repent sin. This includes errors in discernment that may have led to bad choices.
So being against God or for God is not a matter of being a sinner or saint; it is a matter of the heart - of where the heart is oriented - of what the heart believes and thinks.
Thus, people whose hearts are oriented toward God and Creation, who have freely and lovingly chosen to align themselves with both, can remain God's side even when they succumb to sin, provided they acknowledge the sin and repent it.
In this sense, the heart remains greater than the sin, and the individual remains aligned with God and Creation.
The clip below is taken from the latest episode of The Chosen. I believe the short scene does an excellent job illustrating some of what I have explored above. Pay particular attention to what Jesus says about the heart as Mary Magdalene repents her waywardness and sin.
Those on the side against God are sinners and those on the side for God are also sinners.
This means the spiritual war must not be conceptualized as an army of sinless human saints engaging an army of human sinners, but rather as two armies of sinners clashing together.
But this doesn't mean the sinners on the one side are the same as the sinners on the other side. The key differences between these two armies of sinners are motivation, discernment, belief, and repentance.
Those on the side against God are motivated to oppose the primacy of the spiritual, particularly spiritual freedom. If they are able to discern Good from evil at all, they inevitably choose evil. The vast majority do not believe in God and Creation, but the few that do reject both. Most significantly, those on the side against God refuse to acknowledge let alone repent sin.
Those on the side for God are motivated to live and create via the primacy of the spiritual and to increase spiritual freedom. They are able to discern Good from evil most of the time, and actively strive to choose the Good. All of those who are for God believe in Creation and work toward adding something unique to Creation. Most meaningfully, those on the side for God acknowledge and repent sin. This includes errors in discernment that may have led to bad choices.
So being against God or for God is not a matter of being a sinner or saint; it is a matter of the heart - of where the heart is oriented - of what the heart believes and thinks.
Thus, people whose hearts are oriented toward God and Creation, who have freely and lovingly chosen to align themselves with both, can remain God's side even when they succumb to sin, provided they acknowledge the sin and repent it.
In this sense, the heart remains greater than the sin, and the individual remains aligned with God and Creation.
The clip below is taken from the latest episode of The Chosen. I believe the short scene does an excellent job illustrating some of what I have explored above. Pay particular attention to what Jesus says about the heart as Mary Magdalene repents her waywardness and sin.
June 27, 2021
Siders Rather Than Sinners. Why It Matters After Things Have Come To a Point
Over on his Notions blog, Bruce Charlton has been noting the phenomenon of things coming to a point for many years. Dr. Charlton takes the term from C.S. Lewis's novel That Hideous Strength and uses it to describe the process in which the difference between Good and evil become so extreme that potential gray areas separating them dissolve into nothingness. In this sense, things coming to a point is a clarifying phenomenon. As the distinction between Good and evil becomes increasingly stark, crisp, and obvious, choices made between the two become increasingly clear, noticeable, and revelatory.
Last December I wrote a post in which I posited that 2020 marked the year in which things essentially came to a point - that the successful birdemic global totalitarian coup had obliterated all gray areas separating Good and evil, rendering neutrality impossible. The year 2020 has made the active choice between Good and evil unavoidable.
Another way of conceptualizing the implications of things coming to a point in 2020 is the acknowledgement of the full and undeniable unveiling of the spiritual war. As things came to a point in 2020, the two sides of the spiritual war - the side that is for God and the side that is anti-God - became incontestably visible.
In my post from December I noted the following:
If we take full awareness of "the point" to be the point of 2020, then the active, conscious, and committed choosing of a side, that is, the active and conscious commitment of Good or evil - must become the overarching point of 2021 and beyond.
But what exactly does the active, conscious, and committed choosing of a side entail?
To answer this question, perhaps it would be best to briefly cover what an active, conscious, and committed choice does not involve.
First, choosing to be for God or against God does not presuppose physically extracting oneself from the System (which is thoroughly and actively anti-God). Like it or not, we are all enmeshed in the System in one or other, and contrary to what some hardcore preppers or survivalists proclaim, almost no one can effectively isolate himself or herself completely from the System.
Like it or not, we are dependent on the System to varying degrees. Not only does it provide the bulk of what we need to ensure our physical survival, but it also demands or, more commonly these days, enforces our subservience to its anti-God agenda. If the war we are waging now were purely a physical war, barely anyone on the side of God would stand a chance against the System.
Thankfully, the war we are waging is not physical, but spiritual. That means we can remain active on the side of God and Creation despite being trapped behind enemy lines.
Being trapped behind enemy lines is not the same as joining the enemy; and in a spiritual war, joining the enemy involves spiritual, not physical surrender.
This does not suggest that an individual should simply throw up his or her hands and choose expediency when it comes to his or her physical and material complicity with the System.
On the contrary, individuals should and must do everything they can to oppose the evil, material machinations of the System, primarily because evil, material machinations are among the only weapons the System has to wield.
Thus, if individuals on the side of God feel they must make a stand, they should. Whether that stand entails something simple and pain-free like refusing to vote, or openly challenging someone who supports a lie, or not engaging in media, or whether the stand involves something more significant such as refusing to abide by some enforced legal measure, directly opposing some form of agenda coercion, or resigning from a job, all individuals on the side of God and Creation should make the concerted effort to oppose the System at the material level.
At the same time, those who have chosen to be on the side Good must remember that battles fought at the material level, though important and meaningful, are of secondary importance. Also, material battles also run the risk of backfiring and being utilized by evil (think about the recent face mask agenda and the countless well-motivated people who ended up becoming embroiled in public rage-filled altercations with store clerks, fellow passengers, and others who insisted on the face mask. Yes, the mask-resisters were certainly on the right side of the issue, but it is unlikely that their behavior and course of action led to anything spiritually positive).
As stated above, it is nearly impossible for anyone on the side of God and Creation to be totally separated from the System physically, but it is imperative that those on the side of God and Creation separate himself or herself from the System spiritually.
First and foremost, spiritually separating oneself from the System requires the full acknowledgement that the System in its current form is evil - more specifically, that it is actively, willingly, purposefully, and consciously aligned against God and Creation. Once this acknowledgement is made, individuals must focus on Truth, Beauty, and Virtue and spiritually oppose any and all attacks against these.
Individuals must also become ruthlessly honest about their complicity with the System and willingly repent any and every act of collaboration with the System, no matter how trivial, coerced, or unavoidable the collaboration is. And yes, this means even something as seemingly inevitable as paying taxes requires repentance.
The keys to spiritual separation from the System - which I have referred to as system distancing in earlier posts on this blog - are attitude, thinking, motivation, discernment, and belief.
Thus, people who recognize the System's evil agenda and its infinite lies and refuse to spiritually surrender to the agenda and its lies are on the side of Good.
Conversely, people who deny the existence of an evil agenda, or worse, actively endorse the System's evil agenda or any one of its evil lies as "good" are on the side against God.
The Litmus Tests of Serious Christianity are one way to determine which side an individual or group has chosen.
Sin is another factor that does not necessarily determine which side of the spiritual war an individual has chosen. Many mistakenly believe the spiritual war is primarily about sin, with the sinful making up the anti-God side and the sinless making up the side that is for God. Within this conceptualization, anyone who commits sin has automatically chosen to be on the side against God.
Not quite.
First of all, every human in the spiritual war (and that's everyone, whether he or she accepts it or not) is a sinner, regardless of which side he or she is on.
Every. Single. Person. Including me.
If the spiritual war necessitated that all on the side of God and Creation be sinless, the war would have been over yesterday if not nearly two thousand years earlier.
Hence, all "siders" are sinners, and all sinners are "siders."
The only meaningful distinction between the two is this: sinners on the side of God and Creation are repentant sinners, while those on the side of Satan are not.
Those on the side of Good only acknowledge and repent real sin, not System-fabricated sin.
Those on the side of Good acknowledge sin, repent it, and utilize repentance to further align themselves with God and Creation.
Those on the side Satan only acknowledge and repent System-fabricated sins, not real sin.
Those on the side of Satan embrace sin, relish in it, and utilize their un-repentance to further align themselves against God and Creation.
Separating sinners from non-sinners was not "the point" of things coming to a point in 2020. "The point" of things coming to a point in 2020 was determining which side the sinners would ultimately take.
Therefore, the key to the spiritual war of 2021 and beyond is to remain focused on siders rather than sinners.
Last December I wrote a post in which I posited that 2020 marked the year in which things essentially came to a point - that the successful birdemic global totalitarian coup had obliterated all gray areas separating Good and evil, rendering neutrality impossible. The year 2020 has made the active choice between Good and evil unavoidable.
Another way of conceptualizing the implications of things coming to a point in 2020 is the acknowledgement of the full and undeniable unveiling of the spiritual war. As things came to a point in 2020, the two sides of the spiritual war - the side that is for God and the side that is anti-God - became incontestably visible.
In my post from December I noted the following:
If we take full awareness of "the point" to be the point of 2020, then the active, conscious, and committed choosing of a side, that is, the active and conscious commitment of Good or evil - must become the overarching point of 2021 and beyond.
But what exactly does the active, conscious, and committed choosing of a side entail?
To answer this question, perhaps it would be best to briefly cover what an active, conscious, and committed choice does not involve.
First, choosing to be for God or against God does not presuppose physically extracting oneself from the System (which is thoroughly and actively anti-God). Like it or not, we are all enmeshed in the System in one or other, and contrary to what some hardcore preppers or survivalists proclaim, almost no one can effectively isolate himself or herself completely from the System.
Like it or not, we are dependent on the System to varying degrees. Not only does it provide the bulk of what we need to ensure our physical survival, but it also demands or, more commonly these days, enforces our subservience to its anti-God agenda. If the war we are waging now were purely a physical war, barely anyone on the side of God would stand a chance against the System.
Thankfully, the war we are waging is not physical, but spiritual. That means we can remain active on the side of God and Creation despite being trapped behind enemy lines.
Being trapped behind enemy lines is not the same as joining the enemy; and in a spiritual war, joining the enemy involves spiritual, not physical surrender.
This does not suggest that an individual should simply throw up his or her hands and choose expediency when it comes to his or her physical and material complicity with the System.
On the contrary, individuals should and must do everything they can to oppose the evil, material machinations of the System, primarily because evil, material machinations are among the only weapons the System has to wield.
Thus, if individuals on the side of God feel they must make a stand, they should. Whether that stand entails something simple and pain-free like refusing to vote, or openly challenging someone who supports a lie, or not engaging in media, or whether the stand involves something more significant such as refusing to abide by some enforced legal measure, directly opposing some form of agenda coercion, or resigning from a job, all individuals on the side of God and Creation should make the concerted effort to oppose the System at the material level.
At the same time, those who have chosen to be on the side Good must remember that battles fought at the material level, though important and meaningful, are of secondary importance. Also, material battles also run the risk of backfiring and being utilized by evil (think about the recent face mask agenda and the countless well-motivated people who ended up becoming embroiled in public rage-filled altercations with store clerks, fellow passengers, and others who insisted on the face mask. Yes, the mask-resisters were certainly on the right side of the issue, but it is unlikely that their behavior and course of action led to anything spiritually positive).
As stated above, it is nearly impossible for anyone on the side of God and Creation to be totally separated from the System physically, but it is imperative that those on the side of God and Creation separate himself or herself from the System spiritually.
First and foremost, spiritually separating oneself from the System requires the full acknowledgement that the System in its current form is evil - more specifically, that it is actively, willingly, purposefully, and consciously aligned against God and Creation. Once this acknowledgement is made, individuals must focus on Truth, Beauty, and Virtue and spiritually oppose any and all attacks against these.
Individuals must also become ruthlessly honest about their complicity with the System and willingly repent any and every act of collaboration with the System, no matter how trivial, coerced, or unavoidable the collaboration is. And yes, this means even something as seemingly inevitable as paying taxes requires repentance.
The keys to spiritual separation from the System - which I have referred to as system distancing in earlier posts on this blog - are attitude, thinking, motivation, discernment, and belief.
Thus, people who recognize the System's evil agenda and its infinite lies and refuse to spiritually surrender to the agenda and its lies are on the side of Good.
Conversely, people who deny the existence of an evil agenda, or worse, actively endorse the System's evil agenda or any one of its evil lies as "good" are on the side against God.
The Litmus Tests of Serious Christianity are one way to determine which side an individual or group has chosen.
Sin is another factor that does not necessarily determine which side of the spiritual war an individual has chosen. Many mistakenly believe the spiritual war is primarily about sin, with the sinful making up the anti-God side and the sinless making up the side that is for God. Within this conceptualization, anyone who commits sin has automatically chosen to be on the side against God.
Not quite.
First of all, every human in the spiritual war (and that's everyone, whether he or she accepts it or not) is a sinner, regardless of which side he or she is on.
Every. Single. Person. Including me.
If the spiritual war necessitated that all on the side of God and Creation be sinless, the war would have been over yesterday if not nearly two thousand years earlier.
Hence, all "siders" are sinners, and all sinners are "siders."
The only meaningful distinction between the two is this: sinners on the side of God and Creation are repentant sinners, while those on the side of Satan are not.
Those on the side of Good only acknowledge and repent real sin, not System-fabricated sin.
Those on the side of Good acknowledge sin, repent it, and utilize repentance to further align themselves with God and Creation.
Those on the side Satan only acknowledge and repent System-fabricated sins, not real sin.
Those on the side of Satan embrace sin, relish in it, and utilize their un-repentance to further align themselves against God and Creation.
Separating sinners from non-sinners was not "the point" of things coming to a point in 2020. "The point" of things coming to a point in 2020 was determining which side the sinners would ultimately take.
Therefore, the key to the spiritual war of 2021 and beyond is to remain focused on siders rather than sinners.
June 25, 2021
The Catholic Church and System Christianity
The title of this post comes from the blog of a contemplative Catholic blogger named Ann who composed an insightful response to my criticism of an American bishop's appeal for Catholics to return to Mass following the birdemic church closures.
I have excerpted this response in full below because I believe it touches upon a crucial challenge facing all serious Catholics and other serious Christians.
My intent here is not to disparage or disprove Ann's assertion regarding the essential role of the Roman Catholic Church in salvation, but rather to focus attention on Ann's understanding that attaining salvation within the Roman Catholic Church is now dependent upon a high and unprecedented level of individual discernment.
The overarching point in my criticism of the bishop's appeal to return to Mass was pegged to my observation that any Roman Catholic who blindly obeys church authority in this time and place is setting himself or herself for self-damnation. In her post, Ann basically agrees discernment is necessary, but posits that this fact does not negate the essential-ness of the Church in salvation.
I believe countless souls have attained salvation through the Church, and I believe individuals can still attain salvation through the Church today - but as Ann points out, attaining salvation within the Church today requires an immense amount of personal discernment:
Dear Francis Berger,
Today you took exception to Bishop Robert Brown's appeal for Catholic's to return to Mass. I can see that you are very angry and some of that is indeed righteous anger. Our shepherds have let us down. They closed down the churches to all but a few for several months and thus relinquished the "last" of their authority to the System.
They were already in the process of abdicating to the System before the Covids hit through allowing the System to dictate what is taught in Catholic schools, allowing non-Catholic procedures in what were once Catholic hospitals and giving only token resistance to System sanctioned sins such as abortion and same sex "marriage".
Added to this we have the sexual abuse scandals within the Church. This helped to whittle away the Church's moral authority in the world. It stopped the Church from insisting upon that moral authority. She had to remove the plank from her own eye.
We have also been suffering under 2 Popes. One is virtually silent and the other makes ambiguous statements hoping to mollify the System.
Most of these things were already happening prior to the Covid and it made me think that because the prophecies of the End Times predicted the cessation of the Mass then the End Times were a long way off since who would persecute such an innocuous institution. It rolls over for every command of the System. Little did I realise that it was the rolling over that would cause the Mass to stop.
So there you are, many reasons for righteous anger. If only we were Jesus and could stay on anger's righteous side. For mixed up in the righteousness is also spite. You say, to leave the Church and follow to a new unprecedented form of Christianity for this is where salvation lies. I say that salvation still lies within the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church unlike the American constitution does not need virtuous citizens to be effective, she was designed by God for sinners, which is lucky for us. Jesus said that she would last until the end of time and the gates of Hell would not prevail against her. (Matt 16:18.) and it is Jesus who gives her her authority. It is also within the Church that we find the sacraments, including the Eucharist and these are for our benefit; a gift from God. We do not need to follow the Bishops who push the vaccine or agree with the Pope's view on climate change. We do need to follow the Magisterium, the truths that the Church has held since the beginning. This includes that the Mass and the Eucharist are essential. The Church was wrong when she prevented us from going and receiving. She is right when she asks us to come back. As Fr Clovis said back in 2017, "It is self-evident that the Catholic Church and the anti-Church currently co-exist in the same sacramental, liturgical and juridical space." It is our job to discern the way the truth and the life and to stay in the Catholic Church and stay out of the anti-Church.
I left the following comment in response:
Thanks for this thoughtful response to my post. Our only real point of disagreement is the role of the Church in salvation. You believe the church is essential to salvation. I, on the other hand, do not.
Contrary to what you allege, this belief does not emanate from spite, but from the conviction that God would not arrange things in such a way as to make staying in the Church essential to salvation. And I say this as someone who still attends Mass regularly and whose son serves as an altar boy every Sunday.
We appear to agree on the importance of personal discernment within the RCC, but very few Catholics I know seem to understand the deeper implications of what this individual discernment within the RCC means and where it leads. A recent comment by Bruce Charlton provides some clarifying insight on the matter:
"Catholics such as yourself claim to be obedient to 'the church' yet everything you do shows that you personally are discerning, picking-and-choosing, within the RC church - even to the level of disobeying the Pope and obeying only a small, selected-by-you minority of Bishops and priests within the church.
This seems to be In Fact a very different way of behaving than a Catholic of 400, 200, 100 years ago. Indeed, I think it is impossible to be a Catholic in the old sense - probably because the RCC (top to bottom, everywhere) is so incoherent and changeable that traditional simple obedience is unattainable.
My point is that you (and all serious Roman Catholics in 2021) apparently Just Are discerning (picking-and-choosing), on personal grounds, all the time, within the RCC; and that this practice invalidates your 'timeless' arguments concerning the nature of the RCC and its place in the scheme of salvation."
Dr. Charlton's observations concerning discernment among Roman Catholics touches upon the larger issue of consciousness. Like it or not, Roman Catholics do not think about, understand, or relate to the Church in the same manner Roman Catholics did in the past. This in itself poses a serious challenge to the "timeless" concept of the Church being sole avenue to the way, the truth, and the life.
And this does not even address the concept of the anti-Church within the Church - that the RCC itself has changed decisively in the past century, which once again poses a serious challenge to the "timeless" arguments concerning the nature of the Church and its necessary role in salvation.
Like Ann, I believe Catholics can attain salvation through the Church, and I am confident Catholics like Ann can still achieve salvation with the Church.
Unlike Ann, I am convinced that salvation is also attainable outwith the Church. Moreover, that the increased level of personal discernment required to attain salvation within the Church is a testament to this reality.
And yes, I still believe that any Christian who blindly obeys church authority in this time and place is setting himself or herself up for trouble.
I have excerpted this response in full below because I believe it touches upon a crucial challenge facing all serious Catholics and other serious Christians.
My intent here is not to disparage or disprove Ann's assertion regarding the essential role of the Roman Catholic Church in salvation, but rather to focus attention on Ann's understanding that attaining salvation within the Roman Catholic Church is now dependent upon a high and unprecedented level of individual discernment.
The overarching point in my criticism of the bishop's appeal to return to Mass was pegged to my observation that any Roman Catholic who blindly obeys church authority in this time and place is setting himself or herself for self-damnation. In her post, Ann basically agrees discernment is necessary, but posits that this fact does not negate the essential-ness of the Church in salvation.
I believe countless souls have attained salvation through the Church, and I believe individuals can still attain salvation through the Church today - but as Ann points out, attaining salvation within the Church today requires an immense amount of personal discernment:
Dear Francis Berger,
Today you took exception to Bishop Robert Brown's appeal for Catholic's to return to Mass. I can see that you are very angry and some of that is indeed righteous anger. Our shepherds have let us down. They closed down the churches to all but a few for several months and thus relinquished the "last" of their authority to the System.
They were already in the process of abdicating to the System before the Covids hit through allowing the System to dictate what is taught in Catholic schools, allowing non-Catholic procedures in what were once Catholic hospitals and giving only token resistance to System sanctioned sins such as abortion and same sex "marriage".
Added to this we have the sexual abuse scandals within the Church. This helped to whittle away the Church's moral authority in the world. It stopped the Church from insisting upon that moral authority. She had to remove the plank from her own eye.
We have also been suffering under 2 Popes. One is virtually silent and the other makes ambiguous statements hoping to mollify the System.
Most of these things were already happening prior to the Covid and it made me think that because the prophecies of the End Times predicted the cessation of the Mass then the End Times were a long way off since who would persecute such an innocuous institution. It rolls over for every command of the System. Little did I realise that it was the rolling over that would cause the Mass to stop.
So there you are, many reasons for righteous anger. If only we were Jesus and could stay on anger's righteous side. For mixed up in the righteousness is also spite. You say, to leave the Church and follow to a new unprecedented form of Christianity for this is where salvation lies. I say that salvation still lies within the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church unlike the American constitution does not need virtuous citizens to be effective, she was designed by God for sinners, which is lucky for us. Jesus said that she would last until the end of time and the gates of Hell would not prevail against her. (Matt 16:18.) and it is Jesus who gives her her authority. It is also within the Church that we find the sacraments, including the Eucharist and these are for our benefit; a gift from God. We do not need to follow the Bishops who push the vaccine or agree with the Pope's view on climate change. We do need to follow the Magisterium, the truths that the Church has held since the beginning. This includes that the Mass and the Eucharist are essential. The Church was wrong when she prevented us from going and receiving. She is right when she asks us to come back. As Fr Clovis said back in 2017, "It is self-evident that the Catholic Church and the anti-Church currently co-exist in the same sacramental, liturgical and juridical space." It is our job to discern the way the truth and the life and to stay in the Catholic Church and stay out of the anti-Church.
I left the following comment in response:
Thanks for this thoughtful response to my post. Our only real point of disagreement is the role of the Church in salvation. You believe the church is essential to salvation. I, on the other hand, do not.
Contrary to what you allege, this belief does not emanate from spite, but from the conviction that God would not arrange things in such a way as to make staying in the Church essential to salvation. And I say this as someone who still attends Mass regularly and whose son serves as an altar boy every Sunday.
We appear to agree on the importance of personal discernment within the RCC, but very few Catholics I know seem to understand the deeper implications of what this individual discernment within the RCC means and where it leads. A recent comment by Bruce Charlton provides some clarifying insight on the matter:
"Catholics such as yourself claim to be obedient to 'the church' yet everything you do shows that you personally are discerning, picking-and-choosing, within the RC church - even to the level of disobeying the Pope and obeying only a small, selected-by-you minority of Bishops and priests within the church.
This seems to be In Fact a very different way of behaving than a Catholic of 400, 200, 100 years ago. Indeed, I think it is impossible to be a Catholic in the old sense - probably because the RCC (top to bottom, everywhere) is so incoherent and changeable that traditional simple obedience is unattainable.
My point is that you (and all serious Roman Catholics in 2021) apparently Just Are discerning (picking-and-choosing), on personal grounds, all the time, within the RCC; and that this practice invalidates your 'timeless' arguments concerning the nature of the RCC and its place in the scheme of salvation."
Dr. Charlton's observations concerning discernment among Roman Catholics touches upon the larger issue of consciousness. Like it or not, Roman Catholics do not think about, understand, or relate to the Church in the same manner Roman Catholics did in the past. This in itself poses a serious challenge to the "timeless" concept of the Church being sole avenue to the way, the truth, and the life.
And this does not even address the concept of the anti-Church within the Church - that the RCC itself has changed decisively in the past century, which once again poses a serious challenge to the "timeless" arguments concerning the nature of the Church and its necessary role in salvation.
Like Ann, I believe Catholics can attain salvation through the Church, and I am confident Catholics like Ann can still achieve salvation with the Church.
Unlike Ann, I am convinced that salvation is also attainable outwith the Church. Moreover, that the increased level of personal discernment required to attain salvation within the Church is a testament to this reality.
And yes, I still believe that any Christian who blindly obeys church authority in this time and place is setting himself or herself up for trouble.
June 24, 2021
Despiritualization is Dehumanization
How people think about, understand, and relate to God, others, and themselves. That is my basic definition of human consciousness. And I believe how people have thought about, understood, and related to God, others, and themselves has changed dramatically over the course of linear time, which implies that I believe human consciousness to be evolutionary and dynamic rather than fixed and inert.
Throughout most of history, human consciousness remained a spiritualized consciousness. More specifically, past humans were aware of and believed in the existence of the supernatural. Moreover, they thought about, understood, and related to others and the world around them through the primacy of the spiritual. The spiritual, not the material, underpinned the very fabric of reality for the vast bulk of human history.
Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once observed that "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." I suspect this observation would ring true for most historical humans right up until the beginning of the modern era, in which the primacy of the human gradually replaced the primacy of the spiritual.
Yet early belief in the primacy of the human still depended on viewing humans as spiritual beings living in a world that was at once both natural and supernatural, but over the course of time the belief in humans as spiritual beings began to fade, taking with it the innate, spontaneous, and "natural" belief in the spiritual world and the supernatural. The primacy of the human eventually became the primacy of the material in which humans were mere and accidental participants.
Contemporary human consciousness is generally a despiritualized consciousness. Modern people do not think about, understand, or relate to God at all. Furthermore, they do not believe in the spiritual nature of anything, including themselves.
If pressed, I suspect most moderns would cite a worldview laced with humanist remnants of a bygone era: the individual and collective potential of human beings to establish and promote values, dignity, and purpose via human agency supported by experience, rational thinking, reason, and compassion that does not rely upon and is completely independent of any belief in the supernatural.
I believe the early humanists, be they Christian or secular, helped human consciousness evolve beyond the obedience mode of consciousness that had dominated the West for about 1500 years. This was the path of viewing humans as being capable of spiritual experiences. The late humanists harmed human consciousness by locking human consciousness into a mode of autonomy that was meant to be a transitional phase rather than a final destination. Eventually, humans became nothing more than humans having human experiences, which set off a series of ongoing crises over what human even means.
The despiritualization caused by humanism should have eventually led to a period of acute respiritualization. By turning away from God and focusing on solely on themselves humans should have eventually recognized the dead end of "material humanity" and rediscovered themselves as true spiritual beings with an innate divine center that was directly, lovingly, and personally aligned with God and others. But it never happened - not on a large-scale anyway. Instead, humans became grounded in the human-and-only-human.
As the connection to the spiritual continued to dissolve, the perception of what a human is became perverted and distorted. By denying the spiritual nature of humanity, the "humanization" of humanity rapidly degenerated into dehumanization.
Dehumanization is often defined as the denial of full humanness of others via the stripping of dignity and positive human qualities. It is sometimes contrasted with personification in which non-human things or creatures are assigned human qualities. Unlike conventional dehumanization, which is usually perpetrated by one individual against another individual or group of people against another group of people, contemporary dehumanization via despiritualization is perpetrated by the individual against himself or herself.
By denying the existence of the spiritual, contemporary people deny the existence of their own spiritual nature - a spiritual nature that is utterly inseparable from and indispensable to what it means to be human. By rejecting the reality of God and their own divine selves, modern people basically reject the sources from which all positive human qualities, values, and dignity emanate.
Humans who deny that they are spiritual beings also deny the meaning, purpose, and ultimately, reality of the human experience in which they are immersed.
Their core reality as spiritual beings cannot fully engage in the human experience they are having because the "human" aspect of the experience has been overly-distorted, inverted, and muddied.
Rather than participate in a genuine human experience, the spiritual beings embedded within hearts of all contemporary humans are subjugated to a dehumanized experience in which the potential for spiritual learning is severely obstructed.
Thus, moderns are not humans having spiritual experiences. Nor are they spiritual beings having human experiences. Instead, they are spiritual beings having dehumanized experiences.
They are having dehumanized experiences because human personality has been solidified and objectified.
We, as spiritual beings, use or should use the human experience to establish a personal relationship with God, others, and ourselves.
Despiritualization hinders this by stripping away the personal aspects of the human experience. In other words, the spiritual beings immersed in the human experience attempt to connect with other spiritual beings in mortal life but cannot.
The only solution is respiritualization. Without respiritualization, whatever is human about humanity will continue to erode until the very notion of humanity is pushed beyond the brink of spiritual viability.
Identity lies at the core of the kind of conventional dehumanization practiced by resentful and murderous regimes of the past. Fittingly enough, identity also lies at the core of dehumanization via despiritualization.
People who reject their identities as spiritual beings risk losing the very essence that makes them truly human.
Note added: I firmly believe all human beings are spiritual beings - and this applies even when the human beings in question deny their own reality as a spiritual beings. Thus, at the most fundamental level, I continue to think "highly" of despiritualized people even when they themselves do not.
Further note added: I am inclined to believe that this process of self-dehumanization among moderns is a big part of things coming to a point - that the souls having human experiences at the present time have been given an unprecedented opportunity to discern good from evil in order to begin the process of respiritualization.
Nevertheless, modern humans have thus far remained extremely committed to the choice of despiritualization, which entails the process of dehumanization noted above could have much more time and space to run.
More simply, the seemingly endless degeneration of the human experience should trigger some kind of collective spiritual awakening. The fact that it hasn't yet reveals just how despiritualized human consciousness has become, which begs the question as to how much more dehumanized the human experience can become.
Throughout most of history, human consciousness remained a spiritualized consciousness. More specifically, past humans were aware of and believed in the existence of the supernatural. Moreover, they thought about, understood, and related to others and the world around them through the primacy of the spiritual. The spiritual, not the material, underpinned the very fabric of reality for the vast bulk of human history.
Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once observed that "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." I suspect this observation would ring true for most historical humans right up until the beginning of the modern era, in which the primacy of the human gradually replaced the primacy of the spiritual.
Yet early belief in the primacy of the human still depended on viewing humans as spiritual beings living in a world that was at once both natural and supernatural, but over the course of time the belief in humans as spiritual beings began to fade, taking with it the innate, spontaneous, and "natural" belief in the spiritual world and the supernatural. The primacy of the human eventually became the primacy of the material in which humans were mere and accidental participants.
Contemporary human consciousness is generally a despiritualized consciousness. Modern people do not think about, understand, or relate to God at all. Furthermore, they do not believe in the spiritual nature of anything, including themselves.
If pressed, I suspect most moderns would cite a worldview laced with humanist remnants of a bygone era: the individual and collective potential of human beings to establish and promote values, dignity, and purpose via human agency supported by experience, rational thinking, reason, and compassion that does not rely upon and is completely independent of any belief in the supernatural.
I believe the early humanists, be they Christian or secular, helped human consciousness evolve beyond the obedience mode of consciousness that had dominated the West for about 1500 years. This was the path of viewing humans as being capable of spiritual experiences. The late humanists harmed human consciousness by locking human consciousness into a mode of autonomy that was meant to be a transitional phase rather than a final destination. Eventually, humans became nothing more than humans having human experiences, which set off a series of ongoing crises over what human even means.
The despiritualization caused by humanism should have eventually led to a period of acute respiritualization. By turning away from God and focusing on solely on themselves humans should have eventually recognized the dead end of "material humanity" and rediscovered themselves as true spiritual beings with an innate divine center that was directly, lovingly, and personally aligned with God and others. But it never happened - not on a large-scale anyway. Instead, humans became grounded in the human-and-only-human.
As the connection to the spiritual continued to dissolve, the perception of what a human is became perverted and distorted. By denying the spiritual nature of humanity, the "humanization" of humanity rapidly degenerated into dehumanization.
Dehumanization is often defined as the denial of full humanness of others via the stripping of dignity and positive human qualities. It is sometimes contrasted with personification in which non-human things or creatures are assigned human qualities. Unlike conventional dehumanization, which is usually perpetrated by one individual against another individual or group of people against another group of people, contemporary dehumanization via despiritualization is perpetrated by the individual against himself or herself.
By denying the existence of the spiritual, contemporary people deny the existence of their own spiritual nature - a spiritual nature that is utterly inseparable from and indispensable to what it means to be human. By rejecting the reality of God and their own divine selves, modern people basically reject the sources from which all positive human qualities, values, and dignity emanate.
Humans who deny that they are spiritual beings also deny the meaning, purpose, and ultimately, reality of the human experience in which they are immersed.
Their core reality as spiritual beings cannot fully engage in the human experience they are having because the "human" aspect of the experience has been overly-distorted, inverted, and muddied.
Rather than participate in a genuine human experience, the spiritual beings embedded within hearts of all contemporary humans are subjugated to a dehumanized experience in which the potential for spiritual learning is severely obstructed.
Thus, moderns are not humans having spiritual experiences. Nor are they spiritual beings having human experiences. Instead, they are spiritual beings having dehumanized experiences.
They are having dehumanized experiences because human personality has been solidified and objectified.
We, as spiritual beings, use or should use the human experience to establish a personal relationship with God, others, and ourselves.
Despiritualization hinders this by stripping away the personal aspects of the human experience. In other words, the spiritual beings immersed in the human experience attempt to connect with other spiritual beings in mortal life but cannot.
The only solution is respiritualization. Without respiritualization, whatever is human about humanity will continue to erode until the very notion of humanity is pushed beyond the brink of spiritual viability.
Identity lies at the core of the kind of conventional dehumanization practiced by resentful and murderous regimes of the past. Fittingly enough, identity also lies at the core of dehumanization via despiritualization.
People who reject their identities as spiritual beings risk losing the very essence that makes them truly human.
Note added: I firmly believe all human beings are spiritual beings - and this applies even when the human beings in question deny their own reality as a spiritual beings. Thus, at the most fundamental level, I continue to think "highly" of despiritualized people even when they themselves do not.
Further note added: I am inclined to believe that this process of self-dehumanization among moderns is a big part of things coming to a point - that the souls having human experiences at the present time have been given an unprecedented opportunity to discern good from evil in order to begin the process of respiritualization.
Nevertheless, modern humans have thus far remained extremely committed to the choice of despiritualization, which entails the process of dehumanization noted above could have much more time and space to run.
More simply, the seemingly endless degeneration of the human experience should trigger some kind of collective spiritual awakening. The fact that it hasn't yet reveals just how despiritualized human consciousness has become, which begs the question as to how much more dehumanized the human experience can become.
