I Shall Not Live by Lies

_{Barry Arrington

June 19, 2020

Intelligent Design}

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A man is not a woman, and anyone who says or implies otherwise is a liar.

On June 15, 2020, this lie prevailed in the Supreme Court of the United States of America. This lie is now the law, and it will be enforced with all of the terrible power of the government.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn said this about lies:

Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.

And he said this about refusing to surrender one’s soul to a terrible lying government:

It will not be an easy choice for a body, but it is only one for a soul. And if we get cold feet, even taking this step, then we are worthless and hopeless, and the scorn of Pushkin should be directed to us:“Why should cattle have the gifts of freedom? Their heritage from generation to generation is the belled yoke and the lash.”

This day I vow to defy this lie that has become law. I will never participate in the lie. I will never say a man is a woman, and I will never imply it by using feminine pronouns to refer to him. I call on you to join me. And if you refuse? Solzhenitsyn again:

And he who is not sufficiently courageous even to defend his soul — don’t let him be proud of his “progressive” views, Let him say to himself: I am in the herd, and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and warm.

Comments

F/N: Interview with a man seen in earlier videos standing armed, with his wife at his house, in a gated community in St Louis, in the face of a Red Guard mob. He reports that he, his wife and family, house and even dog were threatened, and that he was "doxxed" and attacked online, with death threats beginning within minutes of the confrontation. KFkairosfocus_{June 29, 2020
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Red Guard tactics: people showing up for a prayer vigil at the statue of St Louis in the city named after the saint,, including an elderly man were beaten by members of an angry mob. The mob were smearing as racists and as alt right. Of course, this is clearly a hate crime. From Twitter posts as linked (yes, not taken down yet as violating "community standards"), the mob are proud of their persecution of people peacefully praying. This is a sign of the demonic chaos that is going on. I'll bet this will not get 24/7 wall to wall coverage. KFkairosfocus_{June 29, 2020
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F/N, in a related development to the OP, Minneapolis' local government has voted to abolish and replace the police with some alphabet soup department that somewhere in its bureaucratic labyrinth proposes licenced peace officers. In context, obviously, ideological enforcers. Meanwhile, on the public dollar, they are to be protected by private security. The Rubicon has been crossed and cannot be un-crossed. This will not end well. And no, I will never surrender to, "Mr Smith, what is two plus two" regardless of who backs compelled ideological lying with threat or use of force. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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EG, your credibility, for cause, is nil. It's over. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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KF, why would I care about who you were named after? Why should it be of any relevance? If it really matters, I was named after two friends of my father who were killed on D-Day, fighting to free Europe. And, as it turned out, the brother of one of my namesakes was charged in the 70s for pedophilia. Am I any nobler and my points more relevant because I am named after two freedom fighters, or more suspect because the brother of one was a pedophile? I have already said here that I oppose the illegal toppling of statues and monuments. Anyone who gets caught doing it should be charged. However, I do not oppose the open discussion about whether some statues should be removed, whether some should be relocated, and whether some should be appended with further context. In Ottawa we have a famous statue of Champlain on a point with an astrolabe in his outstretched arm, overlooking The river. There was discussion for several years of the native “Indian” that was on his knees at the feet of Champlain. Although the artist intended it to honour the fact that the natives provided assistance to Champlain, the native was removed because it was viewed by many as showing the indigenous people being subservient to the Europeans. I didn’t have a problem with that decision. A more humorous aspect of that statue, which adds appropriate irony, is that Champlain is holding the astrolabe upside-down. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepean_PointEd George_{June 27, 2020
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EG, your behaviour speaks for itself, especially your clinging to empty accusatory talk-points in the teeth of corrective textual evidence and discussion, relevant history and the underlying political dynamics at work. You don't realise what liberty cost, who its friends were, why and what it would cost again to rebuild it, once we have to claw our way back up out of the maw of the vortex of tyranny. By now you know that I bear the name of a man born a slave, who rose to eminence and only a generation after the Abolition of 1834 - 38, was kangaroo courted and hanged on false accusation of fomenting rebellion, a name I inherited due to family tradition. The cost of liberty and what was paid by decent -- and yes, Christian -- men and women to win it, is literally written into my name. That, is a memorial the Red Guards and their sinister backers cannot topple. And, when, today, I see the attempt to topple the statue of a French King who sincerely sought to follow St Francis of Assisi . . . even as a Protestant, I went to a school named after him and learned to deeply respect that gentle Italian's legacy . . . who was recognised by his church as a saint in his own right [something extraordinarily rare, though not unique] that stirs deep lessons. Especially when I see an ill advised city treasurer trying to smear those seeking to pray at the monument as KKK. We are in mortal peril as a civilisation and too many would throw away a heritage won at great price, paid for in blood and tears. Sadly, you have shown yourself to be one of such. You would be well advised to think again, but it is clear that you have no intention to do so. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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.
Don’t hold back. Tell me what you really think of me :)
Perhaps he realizes, as a black man -- that given the explanations you've clearly provided of your worldview on these pages -- that the only reason black people in America have any human right whatsoever is because the white people in America decided to give it to them. I suspect he finds that kind of explanation repugnant. Of course, that was before you told him that you feel sorry for his wife if she is not getting laid like your wife, but it was after you lied to him about being a Christian who supports ID because of your great faith in God. All things considered, I think he's "held back" fairly well.Upright BiPed_{June 27, 2020
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KF
EG, you are now clearly shown to be a manipulative troll, with zero credibility. Given that what you are enabling is precisely what is undermining what buittresses sustainable liberty, you are also an enemy of liberty and ironically an enabler of ideological subjugation and enslavement.
Don’t hold back. Tell me what you really think of me. :) But frankly, I don’t understand your rancour over me stating two sets of easily confirmed facts: 1) the bible has verses that condone slavery and verses that oppose it. 2) the bible has been used to both condone slavery and to oppose it. Given your inability to discuss the subject of slavery without making it personal, maybe we should drop the subject. Might I suggest other subjects like the impacts of biblical interpretations on the subjugation of women and the persecution of homosexuals?Ed George_{June 27, 2020
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F/N: one consequence of discussions like these, is that they tell us a lot also about the general want of reasonableness of the sort of ideologues that back the imposition of evolutionary materialistic scientism and its fellow travellers. In that context, we can readily and freely conclude that the issue with the design inference is not its failure to make the core case that design may be properly inferred on empirical signs, but that we deal with closed minded, domineering ideologies that seek to create a colour of legitimacy for power and agendas of subjugation that go with that power. Where, as such ideologies have to take such a resort is itself a strong sign that they are enemies of reason, reasonableness and sound civilisation. On the design inference, I suggest we take a stand on the recognition of string data structures in the living cell bearing algorithmic, alphanumeric (so, goal-directed, linguistic) code. The best explanation for such is obvious, intelligently directed configuration. That such is so vehemently and too often vituperatively objected to and attacked by ideologues who have already shown themselves to be no friends of responsible reason, tells us all we need to know. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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EG, you are now clearly shown to be a manipulative troll, with zero credibility. Given that what you are enabling is precisely what is undermining what buittresses sustainable liberty, you are also an enemy of liberty and ironically an enabler of ideological subjugation and enslavement. I'll bet you did not even give a good fifteen minutes of serious thought to how we got to the freedom you take for granted even as you undermine it. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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Acartia Eddie does know about dancing- not the Fred Astaire type of dancing, though. More of a twerking worm, type of movement. Money clearly condoned the buying of slaves in some cases and yet freed them in others. Is there any wonder that it was used by people to both buy and free slaves?ET_{June 27, 2020
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All of the rationalization and dancing doesn’t take from the fact that the bible clearly condones the practice of slavery in some verses and opposes it in others. Is there any wonder that it was used by Christians to both promote and oppose slavery?Ed George_{June 27, 2020
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ET, Philemon shows Paul using his recently inherited money to free Onesimus. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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F/N: Let me clip a pivotal text that allows us to understand the circumstance in a dictatorship -- exactly what the Imperium was -- where accusation of fomenting slave uprising could literally cost you your head:
1 Cor 7:21 Were you a bondservant[d] when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) 22 For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. 23 You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.
Compare that, penned from Ephesus c 55 AD, with Philemon. The priority is on being free in God and serving God. The extension to not being slaves of men is clear but if you are in that state, do not let it eat you out from within. So, too, do not get involved in futile rebellions. The echo of 6,000 crosses lining the Appian Way is clear enough. It would take a long time before a type of polity compatible with sustainable general freedom could be built. And we are tearing down its buttresses today. Fools, we are. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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There are two other incontestable facts. Some people used money to buy slaves while others used money to free slaves. This is one of the many contradictions of money.ET_{June 27, 2020
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youEG, you are ducking the force and twice over historic impact of Philemon, as I took time to draw out above. Your unresponsiveness tells us that you are simply trying to play taint and dismiss games. Where, as we speak this OP is about evidence that there is a live attempt to resubjugate us, which requires destabilising the cultural buttresses for sustainable freedom with order that the Christian inheritance and particularly the scriptures undergird. Your continued irresponsibility is duly noted. KF PS: I have no doubt that people tried to manipulate Bible text, whether to suit an agenda of subjugation or in forlorn hope that at least some message would get through. We know that there were efforts to frustrate or even criminalise literacy for the enslaved, a sure sign that the objectors were clearly aware of the overarching liberating effect. Indeed, your identification of the exodus narrative shows that YOU know it too. The attempts to hang dissenter missionaries after the Baptist War uprising in Jamaica showed the same. The slave testimony showed that the slaves understood the liberating trend of the text and the counsel of text and missionaries not to rise up in futile uprisings on ill informed rumours. But enough is there that out of your own mouth you know that you are trying to undermine the liberating message you know to be there. That's further reason why your credibility remains nil.kairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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DS, read Philemon (it is clipped above), to get an understanding of how hard it can be to overcome ingrained facts of life. Then note my comment about how we got to freedom in general, including from being not only subjugated but enslaved. I have engaged in a fairly serious 101 above. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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LoL! Just because some Christians used the Bible to do one thing and others used it for something opposite, doesn't mean there are contradictions in the Bible. The contradictions are clearly with the people using it. As for editing the Bible- that has been done many times in the past to suit someone's wants and needs.ET_{June 27, 2020
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There are two incontestable facts. Christians used scripture to defend the practice of slavery and other Christians used scripture to oppose slavery. This is one of the many examples of contradictions within the bible. But, one of the things that I find interesting (in an evil way) is the slave bible. When people made attempts to convert slaves to Christianity, they were often given a redacted version of the bible. Things like Moses leading the Israelites to freedom were removed.Ed George_{June 27, 2020
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PS: I'm guessing the answer is "yes". I just want to check my understanding.daveS_{June 27, 2020
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KF, Does this mean that a person who is a Christian in the sense that s/he has accepted Jesus as his/her savior (and consequently has had his/her life transformed) could also approve of slavery? That is, s/he could believe it is consistent with the transcendent code of morality?daveS_{June 27, 2020
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DS, strawman. You are overgeneralising in a loaded way from a situation where we have showed that general abolition of slavery, policing same and not destabilising economy and society are feasible. A situation with sustainable freedom pivoting on constitutional democracy buttressed by the impact of exactly the gospel ethics that so many clearly seek to overthrow. I doubt that they have ever studied say Plato's parable of the ship of state and the context of Athens' collapse to understand why democracy was thought to be a dangerously unstable and capricious form of government. Without buttressing, anarchy will threaten and we will see collapse into the vortex of tyranny. As the latest mini case study over in Seattle just showed. Frankly, the most prominent Montserratian in history, Evangelical former slave Olaudah Equiano, who bought his freedom here in 1766 and went to the UK, did not at first believe that overall emancipation was possible. He in fact worked with an ameliorative experiment in Central America. It is later that he became an advocate for Abolition. The real issue is not slavery, it is sustainable liberty and frankly, with Red Guards on the rampage demanding subjugation and with scheming backers of same working behind the scenes, that is under peril. Hence, the cry of the heart in the OP. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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I sense that this is leading up to "no true Christian could approve of slavery".daveS_{June 27, 2020
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MS, you know full well that "Christian" has multiple senses, and that a culture is Christianity-influenced and has people identified as Christian is very different from life transformation and addressing what will be a contentious debate with all the blindness of polarisation at work. In that context, it is no accident that the antislavery society's motto was taken from the epistle just cited. It is further quite clear that the dynamic of freedom with sufficient order to be sustainable historically comes out of the impact of gospel ethics on civilisation. The current undermining of that buttress can have but one result if it succeeds, so undermining stability that we will again find ourselves under general subjugation, and that under fundamentally nihilistic ideologues. The ongoing attempt to abolish the police is a terrible warning sign of where that is liable to end up. KFkairosfocus_{June 27, 2020
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Can only stay up for a few minutes, but wanted to answer EDTA before I go to bed. EDTA: The Christian church had nothing to do with the British and American abolitionist movement? Christians were on BOTH sides of the abolitionist movement. The abolition movement was made up of Christians and the pro-slavery movement was also made up of Christians. Honestly, who else was there? Britain and America were overwhelmingly Christian countries in those days. In both countries, just about every organization, both good and bad, was Christian.MatSpirit_{June 26, 2020
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EG, Before I further comment on your attempted toxic side tracking, I must refocus, as the issue of freedom is very much on the table as the OP indicates right from its headline. Compelling someone to violate conscience and other first duties of reason under penalty of state power acting under colour of law is a demand for improper subjugation. Indeed, enslavement of the soul, with body to follow as states tumble into the vortex of tyranny. In short, your toxic distraction fails as it is an enablement of real enslavement through trying to taint a proved buttress of liberation and freedom through turnabout accusation pivoting on amateurish exegesis and highly selective, biased examples that are designed to polarise and cloud responsible balanced thought. Of course, to address this, I again need to make reference to the government challenge captured in my alternative political spectrum. In effect, there is a repeller pole, anarchy and/or state of nature that is so chaotic and dangerous in praxis that it pushes to imposed order. Where of course, want of effective policing means pirates will freely kidnap into slavery. (Note, such attracts a death penalty in the OT and is deemed incompatible with salvation in the NT.) This snap-back to order and safety tends to the vortex of tyranny under autocrats or oligarchies, that for most of history could only be tempered by creating a lawful state that based on a corpus of just and ameliorative laws offered some redress. That was the situation until only several centuries ago, and it is why the Common Law system and Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis as well as the Mosaic code were such key advances. What made the difference? As already noted, the invention of printing, wide circulation of the Bible (which contains the Mosaic code and a considerable body of ethics with Divine Sanction) , the ferment of the Protestant Reformation, increasing literacy and advances in standard of living allowing creation of an increasingly aware public. By 1650 - 1700, this opened up the possibility of democratising reform, leading to the first modern Constitutional Republic of significantly democratic character. One buttressed by the social-cultural factors and forces of Evangelical awakening. Such, stabilised democracy and made it sustainable. Unsurprisingly, this is precisely the cultural buttress that today's Red Guards and their backers seek to break down. The slide into enslaving tyranny is predictable, should the long march of culture form marxism through our civilisation's institutions succeed. Which, is telling about the dirty power game that is already in play all around us. A game that, frankly, your rhetoric enables. Which is why it needs to be exposed and corrected. Bear all of this in mind, as we snap back for the moment to 61 - 62 AD as the Apostle Paul -- an appeals prisoner under threat of capital punishment literally chained to guards -- prepares to send an escaped slave and now repentant thief back to his master. In doing so, he pens the manumission letter that shattered the foundations of slavery and oppression:
Philemon Greeting 1 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister [--> "Am I not a woman and a sister" -- 2nd motto, Antislavery Society] and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philemon's Love and Faith 4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.[a] 7 For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. Paul's Plea for Onesimus 8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,[b] whose father I became in my imprisonment. [--> brotherhood and fundamental equality established "en Christo"] 11 (Formerly he was useless to you [--> pun on his name, Useful, allusive to theft], but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant[c] but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother [--> am I not a man and a brother, Antislavery Society motto] —especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. 17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. [--> recognition of considerable capital loss, compensation . . . destabilising the economy would defeat the point] 20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you. Final Greetings 23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. 25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
So, why didn't this instantly effect abolition of slavery everywhere, waving a magic wand? The answer is patent, save to the utterly irresponsible, see the discussion on the rise of freedom. The only system of government that can sustainably maintain general freedom including abolition is a constitutional democracy stabilised through a sound culture. Which will invariably be rooted in ethical theism and the influence of the sort of gospel ethics just laid out in Philemon. So, as we see those who hold it in contempt and are busily undermining it, we can conclude that they are serving the cause of subjugation under a fresh tyranny, one that will create a new ideological enslavement. So, let us take due warning and rescue our civilisation before it is too late. For, you see, ideological enslavement and subjugation are far more widespread and a far more clear and present danger than the 20 - 40+ millions reckoned as in slavery today. Hundreds of millions still languish in chains and in the so-called free world powerful ideological forces of subjugation are at work. But unsurprisingly, it is what, historically, is foundational to sustainable liberty that is under concerted attack. "When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design . . ." KFkairosfocus_{June 26, 2020
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EG, you try to double down on a gross error on exegesis by trying to taint and thus to hope to "disqualify." That C18 - 19 slaves had allotments and could earn some money at weekend markets has precisely nothing to do with that there is in the Bible recognition of a fact of life and amelioration c 1440 BC that will hold back the worst of what is there given hardness of our hearts; and that heart-softening, democratisation and economic advance will take many generations of transformational change to outlaw much less eliminate. Which latter is not accomplished today. Apparently, there may be 20 - 40+ million enslaved people today. The linked refusal to reckon with the implications of the organic connection between evangelical awakening and the rise of abolition is also telling. KFkairosfocus_{June 26, 2020
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Again Acartia Eddie ignores the economic impact of war. Would you rather be enslaved or wiped out?ET_{June 26, 2020
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KF, they both are attempts to rationalize slavery to make it appear less evil. It is evil today, it was evil in the 1800s, and it was evil in biblical times. I understand your wishes to make the biblical condoning of slavery less evil than the southern confinement of slavery in the 1800s But they are both the owning of human beings with the legal (and in the biblical case, God given) right to beat them and pass them on to your children. Rather than God saying that you can buy, trade and pass along slaves, that you can beat them as long as they don’t die within a few days, why didn’t he simply say that it was wrong to own people?Ed George_{June 26, 2020
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EG, did you even notice that I spoke to scriptural issues and contexts, esp c 1440 BC? The attempt to plug in kitchen gardens/allotments for new world chattel slaves is about 8,000 mi off in space and 2200 years off in time and cultural situation. KFkairosfocus_{June 26, 2020
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