August 11
To Heidelblog and Carl Trueman for the video interview in which Trueman talked about technology. I commented on most of the video on the YouTube channel but not on what he reported was why people chose Clinton or Trump in the 2016 Presidential election.
Youtube interview with Trueman:
I provided a response to most of Trueman's interview. But his comments on Trump vs Clinton were unwarranted. It wasn't technology that explained the voting for the 2016 election. Rather, it was the various scope of concerns people had. Those who prefer more homogeneous communities have a more myopic scope and preferred Trump. Those who prefer heterogeneous communities have a wider worldview that keeps them from being so preoccupied with what is happening to them, preferred Clinton. But many of them prefer Clinton not necessarily because of what Clinton offered. Rather, it was because of the threats that Trump brought. And the current state of our nation is largely due to the realization of those threats.
In one of his comedy shows, Lewis Black reported on a news story that said that 13% of the people polled preferred to have a giant asteroid hit the earth and destroy civilization as we know than to have either Clinton or Trump in the White House. I think I see their point.
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August 12
To Heidelblog and Nicholas Batzig for the portion of his article that was quoted in a Heidelblog post. His article was about Christians seeking greatness.
Nicholas Batzig's full article can be found at:
Not all employers of trendy phrases are self-motivated are merely trying to score points with their audiences. But for those who are, or should I say for those of us who are since, as James said, we all stumble in many ways, it is part of the territory of being human. As for power, some seek it honestly want to use it for good. Others are more self-motivated, In fact, being self-motivated is a problem all of us Christians have to face about ourselves and struggle with.
I think that even the smallest desire for greatness, whether it is achieved by the selfishly motivated or the spiritually pure is problematic. For in striving for it, either by self-promotion or sincere service to others, causes the process of facing our own sinfulness to result into a conflict of interest.
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To Bradley Birzer and his article on how Jackson believed that both whites and Native Americans were equals and that white Americans had a greater claim to the Native American land that Native Americans had. This was posted in the Imaginative Conservative blog.
We white Americans, especially conservatives, have an inordinate need for affirmation, approval, and perhaps even adoration from ourselves and others for our principles and values. But all too often, when our own words are betrayed by actions, we rely solely on our words to define us. We do not offer the same courtesy to all others.
And so President Jackson believed that whites and Native Americans were equals? Did he also believe that Native Americans had the same claim to their land which Americans had their own? Did he believe that Native Americans share the land with white Americans? And yet, according to Birzer, Jackson believed that whites and Native Americans were equals. Doesn't that sound somewhat familiar to the oldie but goodie, 'separate but equal'?
Should we mention that, at that time, American citizenship was only available to free whites? At least that is what the Naturalization Acts of 1790 and 1795 stipulated. And that remained in effect until the passing of the 14th Amendment. But that Amendment only offered citizenship to Blacks while equality was still not even on the horizon.
Women were not granted the right to become independent American citizens until the early 1920s while Native Americans could not become American citizens until 1924.
Meanwhile for us fine, upstanding religiously conservative white Christians, how we want to be perceived by both ourselves and others often conflicts with our history--both personal and corporate--national in this case-- histories.
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August 14
To Heidelblog and Stella Morabito for the portion of her article that was quoted in a Heidelblog post. Her article was about whether the Federal Government should step in to help people with loneliness.
Stella Morabito's full article can be found at:
https://thefederalist.com/2023/07/28/beware-of-bureaucrats-wanting-to-be-your-bff/
The article cited is simply a rebellious reaction to somewhat needed government intervention by someone believes that small government is ALWAYS the solution. And what that belief in small government implies is that the small government approach is omniscient.
And so the article employs hyperbole to represent past and present government actions while ignoring the past about Covid. That past about Covid included necessary lockdowns to battle a pandemic than overwhelmed health resources in b0th European and American cities.
The 'Bah Humbug' mentality that the Trump Administration expressed to the pandemic left the nation in shambles and enabled America to be one of the leading nations in death rates from Covid (see https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n439 ). One has to wonder about the sincerity of religiously conservative Christians when they tell those who are woke to submit to the government because those in the government are ordained by God while they struggled with a simple lockdown meant to curb a dangerous pandemic. One could also ask if the conservative selectivity in terms of when who should submit to the government is part of a larger game. For example, the Senate Intelligence Committee had released a report on Russian meddling in the U.S. Part of that report stated the following (see https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/press/senate-intel-committee-releases-bipartisan-report-russia’s-use-social-media#:~:text=Statement%20from%20Chairman%20Burr%3A&text=By%20flooding%20social%20media%20with,institutions%20and%20our%20fellow%20Americans. ):
'By flooding social media with false reports, conspiracy theories, and trolls, and by exploiting existing divisions, Russia is trying to breed distrust of our democratic institutions and our fellow Americans.'
Why would religious conservative participate in such a venture. It might be because before the invasion of Ukraine, a significant number of religiously conservative Christians saw the relationship between the Church and State in Russia as model for America. For example, Franklin Graham had been praising Russia's measures against the LGBT community.
Of course the above is hopefully a more imaginative explanation for why conservatives, especially religiously conservative Christians, have been reacting to the past Covid lockdown and current government actions the way they have been.
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