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Post by cato on Nov 20, 2020 19:04:15 GMT
This morning two related things happened to me. Someone sent me photos of a catholic secondary school known to me. Formerly run by religious it has a good academic record. It's front reception is now graced with several rainbow flags and posters proclaiming it to be a safe LGBT space.
Children deserve to be protected from bullying of any type as far as possible but this kind of display is another sign of a new orthodoxy. I wonder would any teacher in this school dare to explain Christian marriage , human sexual morality or gender differences? Would their principal back them or sack them if they did?
There was no welcome banners for the 90% + of heterosexual students in the school, no religious emblems or national flag. I wonder how diverse and welcoming this school is to children from a traditional religious background?
Rod Dreher the author of the Benedict Option has been working on a manual for Christian dissidents in a world of increasing soft totalitarianism in the US and the west. Live not by Lies is a fairly short book , just published ,based on the experience of Christian dissidents in the Soviet bloc persecuted and marginalised for their faith in Christ. My copy arrived today. I 'll post more on it as I read it.
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Post by Tomas on Nov 20, 2020 20:06:54 GMT
Rod Dreher manual for Christian dissidents in a world of increasing soft totalitarianism in the US and the west. Live not by Lies is a fairly short book , just published ,based on the experience of Christian dissidents in the Soviet bloc persecuted and marginalised for their faith in Christ. My copy arrived today. I 'll post more on it as I read it. Highly timely! I wish to read such a one too. Communist dictature experiences has become more and more... relevant? Several people I know has admitted more or less open that what we see happening now is akin to the bleak repressive systematic control over lives from the East. Cf. also the last generation of Holocaust victims posting witness views on the similarities to their destroyed years under totalitatian Nazi rule. |
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Post by cato on Nov 20, 2020 20:50:03 GMT
I have been meaning to post on Dreher for a long time. I follow his blog at the American Conservative website. Dreher believes our civilisation is in much worse state than most Christians or conservatives realise.
He is a bit of a Jeremiah but Jeremiah also had a lot to be pessimistic about. Dreher has no illusions about the Church as a bastion of resistence either. He does offer hope and solutions however. All may not apply to us but in many ways we in Europe and Ireland are in an even direr situation than the U.S.
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Post by hilary on Nov 20, 2020 20:58:55 GMT
Brian Nugent also has a book out "Communism is the Virus" - a slim book packed with hard facts and references. I bought two copies and hope to get a few more. I thought about leaving them eg at the back of the church but probably won't as I'd be caught on camera - best to give to the priest maybe. Tried to give one to a relative but it was politely declined!
Another book on the theme, I think, is by Dr Sukharit Bhakdi and his wife.
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Post by Séamus on Nov 21, 2020 3:31:12 GMT
This morning two related things happened to me. Someone sent me photos of a catholic secondary school known to me. Formerly run by religious it has a good academic record. It's front reception is now graced with several rainbow flags and posters proclaiming it to be a safe LGBT space. Children deserve to be protected from bullying of any type as far as possible but this kind of display is another sign of a new orthodoxy. I wonder would any teacher in this school dare to explain Christian marriage , human sexual morality or gender differences? Would their principal back them or sack them if they did? There was no welcome banners for the 90% + of heterosexual students in the school, no religious emblems or national flag. I wonder how diverse and welcoming this school is to children from a traditional religious background? Rod Dreher the author of the Benedict Option has been working on a manual for Christian dissidents in a world of increasing soft totalitarianism in the US and the west. Live not by Lies is a fairly short book , just published ,based on the experience of Christian dissidents in the Soviet bloc persecuted and marginalised for their faith in Christ. My copy arrived today. I 'll post more on it as I read it. I notice a John McManus was brave enough to write a piece through Irish Times News service criticising Harry Styles decision to crossdress for Vogue(it came up in my phone in Perth but I suspect this current phone service monitors preferences). I've been reading CSLewis' That Hideous Strength- the social engineering by the intellectual class was spot-on. I wonder did it start in his day or was he purely visionary? |
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Post by cato on Nov 21, 2020 13:07:36 GMT
[/quote]
I notice a John McManus was brave enough to write a piece through Irish Times News service criticising Harry Styles decision to crossdress for Vogue(it came up in my phone in Perth but I suspect this current phone service monitors preferences).
I've been reading CSLewis' That Hideous Strength- the social engineering by the intellectual class was spot-on. I wonder did it start in his day or was he purely visionary?[/quote]
I would assume based on various media stories about whistle blowers that everything electronic - phone , text , e mail can and is recorded and stored somewhere by someone. Intelligence agencies and business love collecting data. Processing that and using it against people is another story but the Chinese social credit system is a sinister example that Dreher writes about.
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Post by Séamus on Nov 23, 2020 1:46:30 GMT
This morning two related things happened to me. Someone sent me photos of a catholic secondary school known to me. Formerly run by religious it has a good academic record. It's front reception is now graced with several rainbow flags and posters proclaiming it to be a safe LGBT space. Children deserve to be protected from bullying of any type as far as possible but this kind of display is another sign of a new orthodoxy. I wonder would any teacher in this school dare to explain Christian marriage , human sexual morality or gender differences? Would their principal back them or sack them if they did? There was no welcome banners for the 90% + of heterosexual students in the school, no religious emblems or national flag. I wonder how diverse and welcoming this school is to children from a traditional religious background? Rod Dreher the author of the Benedict Option has been working on a manual for Christian dissidents in a world of increasing soft totalitarianism in the US and the west. Live not by Lies is a fairly short book , just published ,based on the experience of Christian dissidents in the Soviet bloc persecuted and marginalised for their faith in Christ. My copy arrived today. I 'll post more on it as I read it. DC Comics has reportedly added a non-binary character to it's collection as a companion to The Flash. Note that simply having a homosexual hero is no longer enough. I noticed an actor's interview in today's paper in which he humdrum-ingly spoke of his own father's double life, concluding "he came out to me when he was 63,then when his partner died when he was in his early 80s, he went back into the closet because he was a Catholic and thought it was a mortal sin" 'Went back into the closet' might actually mean going to confession and living a Catholic lifestyle,but that would be pretty unprintable I'd imagine. |
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Nov 23, 2020 8:46:53 GMT
Perhaps the most chilling part of That Hideous Strength is the idolization of experts and technocrats, no matter how grotesque or inhuman the measures they demand. How right he was!
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Post by cato on Nov 23, 2020 9:30:59 GMT
Perhaps the most chilling part of That Hideous Strength is the idolization of experts and technocrats, no matter how grotesque or inhuman the measures they demand. How right he was! Of course given our fighting Irish spirit, our great education system and vigorous media debates we would never agree to conform blindly to unelected experts in Ireland. |
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Nov 23, 2020 9:36:25 GMT
Perhaps the most chilling part of That Hideous Strength is the idolization of experts and technocrats, no matter how grotesque or inhuman the measures they demand. How right he was! Of course given our fighting Irish spirit, our great education system and vigorous media debates we would never agree to conform blindly to unelected experts in Ireland. It's quite depressing to think how our ancestors were defying the savagery of the Black and Tans a hundred years ago this year. I wonder how they would view us today? With horror, I'm guessing. |
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Post by cato on Nov 23, 2020 10:12:27 GMT
Of course given our fighting Irish spirit, our great education system and vigorous media debates we would never agree to conform blindly to unelected experts in Ireland. It's quite depressing to think how our ancestors were defying the savagery of the Black and Tans a hundred years ago this year. I wonder how they would view us today? With horror, I'm guessing. I noticed two things over the weekend in relation to the Bloody Sunday anniversary. The post office announced the flying of a Trans flag over the GPO for this weekend . Yes you read that correctly. We are also going to have a Winter Pride. That used to be called Advent. I received a call from someone asking me about Irish Trans history and specifically anything to do with the war of Independence. It was a short conversation. A prominent Irish Islamic cleric tweeted that the sacrifices of 1920 helped bring about the wonderful Islamic prayer ceremony the GAA facilitated earlier this year. The tweets from Irish people many prominent atheists applauding this great insight were a priceless insight into the vaacum at the heart of Ireland in 2020. So there you are. Trans rights and Islam. Our main nationalist political parties would have snorted in derision a couple of decades ago if anyone had made these connections. Now they are semi official self evident truths. |
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Post by cato on Nov 23, 2020 10:40:55 GMT
The Islamic cleric is Dr Ulmar Al Qadri if you want to read the tweets.
He also jumped on the Repeal bandwagon 2 years ago by joining the great and the good in urging us to vote Yes. Other Islamic clerics in fairness contradicted him in public but got little press coverage. There's a a good bio about him on Wikipedia.
Live not by lies.
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Post by rogerbuck on Nov 23, 2020 16:52:14 GMT
Quickly to say, I feel a blessing from this thread. Mirrors much that I am with this week and you are encouraging me to finally check out Dreher and the Benedict Option/Live not by lies. I look forward to hearing more of your impressions of it, Cato.
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Post by cato on Dec 9, 2020 18:05:35 GMT
I finished this book a few weeks ago. Its the sort of book that sticks in your head. It's not a comforting read and it gives no false hope. In ways it's a prequel to the Benedict Option he wrote a few years ago.
The book is easy to read and at only 200 odd pages doesn't demand a lot of time to finish. It is inspired by Christian dissidents in the former Soviet bloc states who say that current developments in the USA and the West in general resemble The ideological control of the old communist system where people were forced to believe and conform to objective lies propagated by the party and state.
The first part deals with the progressive take over of education and culture and certain professions. Wokery and the cult of victimhood are deeply hostile to tradition, history and God. Many isolated people find meaning in these new ideologies which strangely ignore real issues with economic and educational injustice. It's a new religion or crusade without the biblical God or historical Christianity. Indeed many of their fellow travellers within the churches now believe we are more compassionate and just than even Christ.
Technology means it's easier to monitor and silence dissent and economically and socially destroy those who err publically from the new doctrines. The Chinese social credit system which maintains rigid supervision of the Chinese population is less likely to happen here but private companies can wield huge powers over people who voluntarily hand over power and personal information be it on Facebook Twitter WhatsApp etc.
The second part of the book describes the very brutal persecution of Christians in the former communist bloc. This is an important story I would like to know more of. Most westerners especially but not only the young ,know less and less about the vicious and cruel crimes committed by the followers of Marx. There are one or two tales told here that will truly horrify you. This is an important book that argues things are profoundly bad and will get worse but if we copy the faithful Christian remnant we will survive.
Dreher tells us "You have to live in a world of Lies, but it's your choice whether that world lives in you". Probably the most important book in a long time.
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Post by cato on Dec 9, 2020 18:12:19 GMT
Coincidentally Position Papers published by Opus Dei in Ireland is now concentrating on books that analyse our current crisis from a Christian /traditional perspective. James Bradshaw gave a positive review of Live not by lies in the November edition. It's a journal that's worthy of your support.
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