Month: February 2019

Rep. Omar Speaks Truth to Power and Pays the Price

Newly elected Representative Ilhan Omar is being accused of Tweeting anti-Semitic slurs for speaking the truth:  AIPAC (the American Israel Public

Rep. Ilhan Omar

Affairs Committee) is among the most powerful lobbying organizations in this country.

Working in coordination with the Israeli government, AIPAC deploys sizeable financial and public relations resources in order to destroy any and all congressional voices that are critical of Israel.  They don’t hesitate to destroy the political careers and personal reputations of anyone with sufficient moral backbone to criticize Israel’s inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people.

Please watch the 4-part Al-Jazeera documentary, “The Lobby,” to see for yourself how insufferably dishonest pro-Israel lobbying groups can be.  I have discussed it in a previous post, “Discover Why Pro-Israel/Zionists Groups Fought to Stop You From Seeing This Documentary.”  You will find embedded links to the documentary there as well.

Two recent articles also provide helpful information with some historical context to the campaign of public shaming Rep. Omar has suffered for speaking the truth.  They are:

“Pro-Israel Lobby Caught on Tape Boasting That Its Money Influences Washington,” by Ryan Grimm at The Intercept.

“Democratic Party Insiders Create Group to Promote Israel to Progressives,” by Alison Weir at MPN News.  This well-researched piece is particularly apt in that Weir highlights AIPAC’s influence within the upper

Rep. Rashida Tlaib

echelons of the Democratic Party specifically designed to stop politicians like Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from ever criticizing Israel.

The two excerpts below come from the two articles mentioned above.  The first is from The Intercept, the second is from MPN News.

First excerpt: “A debate about the power in Washington of the pro-Israel lobby is underway, after Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., responded sharply to reports that Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was targeting both Omar and fellow Muslim Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan.

“Omar quoted rap lyrics — “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” — to suggest McCarthy’s move was driven by the lobby’s prolific spending. Asked specifically who she was referring to, Omar responded, “AIPAC!”

“The debate over the influence of pro-Israel groups could be informed by an investigation by Al Jazeera, in which an undercover reporter infiltrated The Israel Project, a Washington-based group, and secretly recorded conversations about political strategy and influence over a six-month period in 2016. That investigation, however, was never aired by the network — suppressed by pressure from the pro-Israel lobby.

“In November, Electronic Intifada obtained and published the four-part series, but it did so during the week of the midterm elections, and the documentary did not get a lot of attention then.

“In it, leaders of the pro-Israel lobby speak openly about how they use money to influence the political process, in ways so blunt that if the comments were made by critics, they’d be charged with anti-Semitism…  

“…Without spending money, Ochs argues, the pro-Israel lobby isn’t able to enact its agenda. “Congressmen and senators don’t do anything unless you pressure them. They kick the can down the road, unless you pressure them, and the only way to do that is with money,” he explains.”

Second excerpt:  “Some Democratic heavy hitters have formed a new pro-Israel organization focused on progressive Democrats. The new group, “Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI),” is the latest in a long line of groups working for Israel in the United States.

“New York Jewish Week reports that the group was formed “to counter the drift

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accompanied by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, May 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

— if not dive — away from support for Israel within the party.” Israel partisans are concerned at the growing support among Democrats for Palestinian human rights, as awareness of the situation has grown in recent years.

“Numerous humanitarian agencies have documented Israeli human rights violations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Christian Aid, the International Red Cross, and others.

“In addition, videos of Israeli settlers destroying Palestinian crops, Israeli soldiers beating people, including children, and killing unarmed protestors have become increasingly available on the Internet.

“This has had a perception-shattering impact.

“For many years surveys showed that more Americans sympathized with Israel than with Palestinians. But growing knowledge of the region among progressive Democrats has now reversed the numbers within that group. A 2018 Pew survey found that “nearly twice as many liberal Democrats say they sympathize more with the Palestinians than with Israel.”

“In addition, the New York Times reports, Israel partisans were jolted by the election of  Representatives Ilhan Omar (MN) and Rashida Tlaib (MI), who support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) who has called the occupation of Palestine a humanitarian crisis.”

History tells us that AIPAC, with the covert support of the Israeli government, will  do everything it possibly can to defeat these brave, new congresswomen when they run for reelection.  The current character assassination of Rep. Omar is only the first volley of pro-Zionist dirty tricks.

I can’t vote for any of these women, but I have written them letters of support, thanking them for their honesty and encouraging them not to give up.  I hope that you may take similar steps yourself.

Senate Committee Unveils How BigPharma Steals From and Extorts Consumers

Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna expose the fact

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

that the lion’s share of pharmaceutical research for the development of new drugs is funded by the National Institute for Health not by the drug companies themselves.  Watch the video here.

In other words, the long-standing argument used by pharmaceutical companies,  insisting that they had no choice but to charge high prices for their medications in order to recoup the initial investments demanded by

Rep. Ro Khanna

their own research and development, has always been a lie.

No. These companies have used our tax dollars, invested into the publicly funded scientists working for the public good at the N.I.H., to develop new drugs for their private, commercial benefit.

They then lie about the costs of their own research in order to justify the extreme price gouging that prevents many people from being able to afford the medications that they need.

It’s class warfare, again, folks.  Class war in the land of crony capitalism.

Big corporations exploit the little people both coming and going.  It’s like paying a huge cover charge, first, to get into the dance, and then being mugged by the same bouncer as you exit out the back.

 

Anya Parampil Reporting From Caracas, Venezuela

Anya Parampil is another young, investigative journalism I highly respect.  She is also reporting from Caracas, Venezuela about the massive crowds of pro-Maduro, pro-Chavez,  pro-Bolivarian government supporters standing

Anya Parampil, investigative journalist

in lines that stretch for blocks, as they wait to sign a public petition demanding that the United States stop meddling in their country’s internal affairs.

Please, take a few minutes to watch Ms. Parampil’s video report here.  Listen to the voices of Venezuelan men and women who support their president and plead with the world’s leaders not to undermine their government or agitate for war.

Reports such as these (also see the post linking to Max Blumenthal’s Venezuelan coverage) demonstrate how grotesquely dishonest are the monotone refrains for regime change in the mainstream media.

Here is a good test case illustrating how extremely propagandistic are the major American news outlets.

Max Blumenthal Reporting from Caracas, Venezuela

The independent, investigative journalist, Max Blumenthal has reported

Venezuelan’s stand in line for blocks waiting to sign the new petition opposing US intervention in their country

extensively on the unfolding situation in Venezuelan at his news site The Grayzone Project.

He is now reporting from Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.  Check out the recent video segment posted on his Twitter feed here.

Max’s headline reads:

“I’m at Simon de Bolívar square in Caracas where Venezuelans are lining up for blocks to sign a declaration denouncing US intervention and imperialism. One man waiting just told me: ‘Please put in your picture that we’re not invisible and not being paid.’

“…Lines stretch for blocks. Maybe some other western media is here but I haven’t seen them.”

I am grateful to intrepid reporters like Max and his co-workers who bring us the other side of this important story; the side that U.S. news outlets will never report; the side that our government wants to hide; the side which highlights American aggression in the pursuit of American greed and self-interest.

This is the side that the American church ought to be defending….there’s no two ways about it.

 

A Christian’s Personal Meditation on the Appeal of Suicide

I learned at church this morning that a member family had lost their teenage son to suicide.  As a parent myself, I think that I can sympathize — though not truly empathize — with their grief; a pain from which they will never fully recover.

As someone who has grappled with clinical depression for all of his adult life, I can also sympathize — and perhaps even empathize — with the turmoil of the young man who took his own life.

I have been wrestling and praying for a long time now about whether or not I would ever tell you, dear reader, about the day when I tried to do the same thing.

I have decided that I will, soon, but not today.

Instead, I simply want to share a reflective piece that I wrote some months ago when I was in the midst of another depressive episode.  I have attempted to describe the way I felt at the time.

My description may not be helpful to anyone else.  Everyone has his/her own emotional diction.  Mine may not be yours.  Perhaps it’s too schmaltzy for your taste, like the really, really bad teenage poetry that was thankfully lost (or torn up) long ago.

But, for those who are left behind after a suicide; those who can’t understand why the person they loved so dearly would ever do such a thing; here is one man’s description of how he feels when he is teetering on the edge and wanting to jump.

Please understand.  I am not offering excuses or justifications for suicide.  Heaven forbid!  Far from it.

But I know that suicide leaves the living with desperate, unanswered, often self-accusatory, questions: “Why?”

Only the deceased can answer that question adequately; but, then again, maybe they couldn’t either.  Maybe that’s part of the reason they are gone…I don’t know.

Sometimes depression doesn’t leave cogent answers behind.

Here are my reflections on how I feel when I wish I could be dead:

It’s the loss of cohesion that tips me off. 

I can feel the entire polar ice-shelf shift within me.  Acres of my psyche split off and fall away, silently sliding into the bottomless, black sea leaving barely a ripple.  I don’t know where it goes or why.  All I experience is a deep, darkness within.

Nothing to see here, folks. Just move along…

The actual break goes unnoticed.  I can’t say when it began.  But I feel like a man consciously unconscious, suddenly aware that he is sinking, drowning.  I try to reach out and gasp for air, clamoring for a shard of daylight, the tip of an iceberg.  But I remain submerged, my body growing numb, buried beneath a placid surface reflecting nothing.

My feelings are disconnected from reason.  The two have no relationship.  At least, that is how it feels.  My core is frozen, drifting where it will, no longer secured to anything solid or rational.

I am completely alone, even as I am surrounded by people who love me.  Their love just doesn’t matter.  Not to the way I feel, anyway.  Not to the way I see myself.

Life is meaningless, and no amount of self-talk can change that now.  It’s too late for another counseling session.  All of life has been a colossal waste of time and effort adding up to nothing.

I learned long ago never to “share” these thoughts or feelings with just anyone.  Too many accuse me of self-pity.  Buck up and soldier on, they say, not realizing that’s all I’ve done for much of my life.

Stop focusing on yourself; look outward, they insist.  But wherever I look all I can see is a panoply of reasons for despair.  A human parade of pain, suffering and hopelessness.

Tell the coroner that I killed myself with an overdose of self-pity.

The undertow has me now.  I recall the many times I swam hard against the current and briefly managed to remain afloat.  But I can’t remember that stroke now that I need it again.  How did I do it?, I wonder.  Perhaps that was my dream self.  I have no psychic muscle-memory to bring me towards shore. 

There is no shore.  Only blackness.

Nothing matters.  My strength is spent.  It’s not only the unremitting tragedy of life, the futility and aching sadness of this world that pulls me under, but the unbearable weight of nonstop resolve required to keep me above the surface of despair.

My mind can repeat its therapeutic S.O.S. till kingdom come: “You know none of these things are true! There is no good reason for you to feel this way! Count your blessings; count them one by one; count your many blessings, see what God has done!”

I do review my blessings, repeatedly.  I know I have many.  I haven’t completely lost my mind, after all.    I do not forget what God has done.  But recollection occurs far, far away, in the distance, beyond the horizon.  Memory has no relation to my current drowning.  Recollection is the resurrection of dead, dusty data.  What difference does any of it make right now?

I am adrift in a dark ocean, going nowhere, meaning nothing, too tired to tread water any longer.

This is the peculiar burden of living.  Dying takes only a moment of surrender before the void, then peace.  Whereas living is a voracious, unsated beast always demanding more.  More energy.  More effort.  More human contact.  More expenditure when all reserves are empty. More than I have left to give.

What the hell does life expect?  It has sucked me dry till my insides are a wasteland, an arctic desert with nothing more to give and no more interest in receiving.  How much more can God require?

I am already gone. I began to leave a long time ago.  My further absence will be grieved temporarily, but not for long.  Soon, I will be forgotten, as I have forgotten myself.

Believing in heaven is the blessed  curse.  It doesn’t keep me rooted.  It makes me want to go, sooner rather than later.

There is no good reason to stay.

If you are now or have been considering suicide, please call the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.

Or talk to a friend, a loved one, even a complete stranger.  But whatever you do, please do not harm yourself.  Reach out, get help, even as you feel that no one can help you.

There is a God who loves you desperately.  His son, Jesus Christ, can and will heal you and make you whole.  He has done it for me.

How Bad Theology Can Lead to Spiritual Masturbation

I stumbled upon a good collection of articles discussing the gruel-thin, emotional foolishness that characterizes so much of the music and singing that passes for “worship” in many evangelical churches today.

The articles are listed below, all making good points:

“3 Reasons Contemporary Worship IS Declining, and What We Can Do to Help the Church Move On“

“8 Reasons the Worship Industry Is Killing Worship“

“Masturbatory Worship and the Contemporary Church“

“’M’ Worship, Exhibit A: Bethel Church Worships Themselves” (complete with an accompanying video to illustrate the problem)

Allow me to add a few observations of my own.

  1. Much of the problem, I believe, is due to deliberate theological ignorance among church leaders, especially so-called “worship leaders” (typically, a person who couldn’t give you the Biblical definition of worship or praise if his/her life depended on it; sadly, their employment status never seems to depend on it).  When Biblical and theological foundations are abandoned, foolishness always ensures with predictably damaging consequences.  You can count on it.
  2. I have made my own humble attempts to address these problems by offering occasional studies in the Biblical theology of praise, worship (here, here, here, here and here) God’s holiness (here, here, here, here, and here), and few book reviews discussing the “juvenilization” of the American church (here and here).
  3.  A widespread, disastrous confusion about both the goals and the distinctly different, intended audiences of (a) seeker-targeted services vs. (b) seeker-sensitive worship (an absolutely horrible idea, regardless of its apparent “effectiveness”) has been a main driver of these problems.  See my post addressing the issue here.

 

How the New Captain Marvel Illustrates Both Toxic Feminism and Original Sin

Michael McCaffrey has an interesting op-ed on the RT Question More

The next generation’s Captain Marvel

website entitled, “Toxic femininity: ‘Badass’ US women demand right to torture and kill for Empire… just like men.”

McCaffrey provides a good analysis of where and how mainstream feminism has gone wrong through its blind endorsement of America’s cultural/economic status quo.

I have copied an excerpt below and encourage you to read the entire piece.

First, however, I want to add what I believe is a more fundamental problem that has always dogged the heels of secular feminism — the Biblical doctrine of original sin.

Yes, woman are and always have been as sinful as men.

That means that women are as prone to selfishness, violence and destruction as men continually show themselves to be.  They may pursue their goals by different means, at times.  But the corrupted ends remain the same.

The oft repeated refrain, “If only women were in control of the world, THEN we would see the end of war, famine, and all manner of evil!” has always been a patronizing Utopian dream, as ignorant as it is blind.

Didn’t these feminist champions pay attention to the presidencies of Golda Meir in Israel, or Indira Gandhi in India?  How about Hillary Clinton’s gleeful laughter over the brutal murder of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi at the hands of an angry mob?

Have they willfully ignored the current debacle of president Aung San Suu

Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Prize winner turned patron of Rohingya genocide in Myanmar

Kyi in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) as she blesses her military’s Rohingya genocide?

Below is the excerpt of McCaffrey:

“Thanks to a new wave of feminism and its call for equality, it isn’t just toxic men who can kill, torture and surveil in the name of US militarism and empire, women can now do it too!
“This past weekend was the third annual Women’s March, which is a protest originally triggered by Donald Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election that encourages women across America to rise up against misogyny and patriarchy.

“As sincere as these women are in their outrage, in their quest for power they are inadvertently reinforcing the immoral and unethical system that they claim to detest. This is most glaringly apparent when this new feminism boldly embraces the worst traits of the patriarchy in the form of militarism and empire.

“The rise of #MeToo, Time’s Up and the anti-Trump Women’s Movement, has brought forth a new wave of politically and culturally active neo-feminists. This modern women’s movement and its adherents demand that “boys not be boys”, and in fact claim that the statement “boys will be boys” is in and of itself an act of patriarchal privilege and male aggression. The irony is that these neo-feminists don’t want boys to be boys, but they do want girls to be like boys…

“…Other toxically-masculine women in government are also being hailed as great signs of women’s empowerment.

“Gina Haspel is the first female director of the CIA and women now also hold the three top directorates in that agency. Ms. Haspel proved herself more than capable of being just as deplorable as any man when she was an active participant in the Bush-era torture program. No doubt the pussy-hat wearing brigade would cheer her “competitiveness, dominance and aggression” when torturing prisoners… most especially the traditionally masculine ones.”

Tell Your Elected Officials You Want Peace in Venezuela

The Alliance for Global Justice is leading a world-wide campaign for Peace in Venezuela today, Feb. 7, 2019, in coordination with an international conference occurring in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Their letter begins:

“Today in Montevideo, Uruguay, nations from throughout the world, hosted by Uruguay and Mexico, are meeting “to establish the basis for a new dialogue mechanism that includes all the forces in Venezuela, in order to help restore peace in that country.” Shamefully absent is the Trump administration and its ordained “interim president” Juan Guaido. Instead, the Trump administration is threatening to invade Venezuela and Guaido is calling on the military to betray their oath to the Constitution. The number of voices in Congress raised against Trump’s illegal regime change policies is insignificant.”  (emphasis mine)

This link will take you to the webpage that allows you to contact your elected officials to let them know that you oppose the US backed regime change in Venezuela.

Please write your Senators and Representatives today.

The same link also reproduces an excellent article by Michael Weisbrot at The Intercept entitled,  “Trump Sanctions, Regime Change Strategy in Venezuela Can Only Cause More Violence and Suffering.”

Below is an excerpt highlighting the degree to which American imperialism serves the purposes of class warfare around the world.

Case in point:  the forces now working to unseat Maduro are primarily white and well off.  Whereas, Maduro’s supporters are overwhelmingly brown,  Indian, poor and marginalized:

“Venezuela is polarized along political lines and has been ever since Hugo Chávez was elected president in 1998 and launched his Bolivarian Revolution. The opposition’s attempt to overthrow Chávez in a military coup in 2002, aided and abetted by officials in the George W. Bush administration, as well as the opposition leadership’s vacillating willingness to accept the results of democratic elections in subsequent years laid the groundwork for many years of distrust.

“Venezuela’s political polarization, however, also intersects with a great chasm that permeates most of Latin American society: a division by class and race. As in most of the Americas, the two are correlated. In the opposition protests that have occurred over the past decade, one could see these differences in the clothes worn by pro- versus anti-government protesters and in their skin tones. The opposition crowds and their leaders have been considerably whiter and from higher income groups than Venezuelans who supported the government. In the most recent protests, there has been an increase in anti-government actions in working-class and poor areas in Caracas, but the class and racial divide between Chavistas and opposition has not gone away.

“Another line of Venezuelan polarization is the belief in sovereignty and self-determination. The Chavistas have made independence from the U.S. a centerpiece of their agenda, and their government, when it had money, pursued policies in the hemisphere that sought more independence for the region as well. The opposition and enemies of the Chavista governments, by contrast, have worked closely with the U.S. government for the past two decades — as can be seen in the coordination of this latest attempted coup. Washington’s intervention aggravates the polarization along the lines of sovereignty, and opens the opposition to charges of alignment with a foreign power — and a power that has historically played a terrible role in the region. To appreciate the animosity that this would create, think of how much ill will has been generated in the U.S. by Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election, and multiply that by a few orders of magnitude.”

Christian Prayer vs. Magic, Part 3

(This is the third installment in a series of posts examining the differences between magical thinking and Christian prayer.)

Human beings tend to be result-oriented creatures.

I doubt that any society is more result-oriented than the United States.  As Americans, we tend to think, whether consciously or not, that the best way, the right way to do things is the way most likely to produce the desired results.

What behavior or principle is most useful for achieving my chosen goal?  That’s the question.

When I organize my life around answers to that question, I have become a utilitarian. (I know.  I’m not being precise.  I am omitting the importance of maximizing benefits for as many as possible, but this isn’t a philosophy paper.)

Utilitarianism is at the heart of magical thinking and its practices.  The goal of magic is always to achieve a desired result – to make someone fall in love with you; to have a successful business trip; to win the bet; to be cured of an illness; to receive god’s blessing by being promoted at work.

So, why not stay at home and pray for these things by yourself at the household shrine?  Didn’t the ancient spirits hear personal prayers?  Why go to the trouble of paying for a magician’s help?

Well, you pay the magician because he/she is the expert in knowing how to use the proper techniques for getting what you want.

Ancient magicians and their patrons saw the universe as if it were a cosmic harp.  The magician was the well-practiced harp player.  He understood that if you can pluck the right cosmic strings in the proper order with the correct

The alchemist’s workshop. Alchemy, the ancient precursor to modern chemistry, was an early form of magic

timing, then the world will sing the specific tune that the magician wants to hear.  Those connections are entirely predictable IF you know the necessary way to “pray,” how to cast the right spells, repeat the proper incantations, and position your body accordingly.

The New Testament book of Acts tells a brief story about a magician named Simon who offers an example of magical thinking.  It appears in Acts 8:18-20:

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!

Simon was thinking like a typical magician.  He assumed that when the apostle’s laid their hands on others and they received the Holy Spirit, he was witnessing an impressive new magical technique; something he hadn’t seen before.  So, he responds predictably.  Magicians regularly bought and sold their techniques to each other.  Archaeologist have uncovered libraries of books and manuscripts where descriptions of these techniques are stockpiled with instructions for how to use them effectively.

Peter’s indignant response captures a classical confrontation between two very different world-views.  He knows that the Holy Spirit’s appearance is not due to a human skill in practicing the most effective way to pray while using the correct placement of one’s fingers.

No, the apostle understands that the Holy Spirit is God’s gift given to His children because they need Him.  Christian prayer is not magic.  There is no “technique” for us to master.  The apostle was not a magician.

The most common magical techniques included:

Repetition – key words, names, titles, phrases and letters of the alphabet were said over and over again until repeated for the proper number of times.

Repetition led to persistence – asking for something repeatedly until “getting it right” was essential to striking the right chord, so to speak, so that the cosmic spirits heard the tune they were waiting for.

I suspect that Jesus had these techniques in mind when he told the disciples:

When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8)

Sometimes the effectiveness of a magical prayer was a matter of proximity.  In other words, some prayers/spells/incantations had to be spoken in the

A magical amulet with Greek inscriptions

vicinity of its subject.  Love spells, in particular, were only effective when uttered near the object of one’s affections.  Love potions, poured into the appropriate vial, had to be buried near the person’s home, preferably close to the entry way, if they were to work.

It is easy for us moderns to read about these ancient methods of playing the cosmic harp with large doses of incredulity.  But you might be surprised at how many modern, evangelical Christians have kept these magical techniques well oiled in the American Utilitarian church.

Years ago, I bumped into an old friend who had left the church we once attended together.  I asked how she was doing and if she was attending a new congregation somewhere.  She burst with excitement as she described her newfound church home which had finally taught her how to pray properly.

After years of offering what she described as “powerless prayers” for the conversion of her neighbors, she had now learned that “powerful prayers” had to be spoken immediately in front of a neighbor’s doorway.  Only when the prayers were proclaimed directly at the home’s front door could they penetrate the hearts of family members.

Folks, that is magical thinking par excellence.

Here is another example.

As a college professor, I was always happy to stay in touch with former students after they graduated.  I once received a letter with an accompanying brochure from a recent graduate asking me to pray for his involvement in a large evangelistic campaign to be launched that summer in a major U.S. city.

The brochure was emblazoned with a colorful picture of a hot-air balloon floating over the countryside.  Inside was a detailed description of the various preparations underway for the summer’s events.  Of course, the central activity was prayer, but not just any kind of prayer.

They were relying on balloon-powered prayer – I kid you not.

The brochure cited Ephesians 2:2, which explains that before following Jesus, the Ephesian Christians “followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”

So, because the devil and his minions apparently lived up in the atmosphere according to Ephesians, and because effective, confrontational prayer must happen in close proximity to its subject, the obvious thing to do – or so they thought – was to bind the interfering demons from the wicker basket of a hot air balloon.

I don’t need to tell you how upset I became upon reading how far my former-student had been misled into unbiblical, thoroughly pagan, magical thinking about our Lord Jesus.

Christian prayer is not utilitarian; therefore, it does not depend on technique.

Christian prayer is possible because of the disciple’s personal relationship with our heavenly Father.  And because the Father cannot be manipulated, nor does he have any interest in manipulating us, there are no special techniques that make some people’s prayers more powerful than others.

Christian prayer is a personal conversation between Father and child.

What type of father tells his daughter, “I will only respond to your requests or questions if you walk into my presence backwards, repeat the words ‘daddy please, daddy please, daddy please’ in six consecutive stanzas, and then kiss me three times on each cheek.”?

I’ll tell you:  A psychotic, control-freak of a father.  But that does not describe our God.

Learning to grow in genuine prayer involves matters of spiritual development and maturity, which we don’t have space to take up here. (Again, I recommend reading my book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door: A New Testament Theology of Petitionary Prayer).  Such maturation occurs as a result of spending more and more time with Jesus, becoming more intimidate with our Father in heaven so that we increasingly share in the mind of Christ, living obedient, sacrificial lives.

Growing as a person of prayer has nothing to do with becoming a better technician.

Huge Pro-Maduro Rallies Today in Venezuela

Today the streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities were filled with huge crowds of pro-Maduro/anti-imperialist rallies.  A site that you will

Massive pro-Maduro/anti-imperialist rallies were held today throughout Venezuela

never see on corporate, mainstream news outlets in this country.

While American talking heads insist that Maduro is an unpopular dictator, the Venezuelan people say otherwise.

I don’t know how to copy video from Twitter, so I have supplied a few of the many links I have found today.  Take a look at the vast crowds of pro-government supporters here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Yes, president Maduro also has many opponents.  So does Donald Trump.  And….?

U.S. officials and their media puppets want the American public to believe that U.S. (military) intervention will rid Venezuela of an unpopular dictator, hated by a majority of his people.

If we all swallow that lie, then we are placated and will remain docile when we subjugate, undoubtedly with bloodshed, another nation for our own selfish, national interests.

In addition, would a real dictator allow anti-government rallies to be led by the upstart, US/CIA backed contender for his presidency?  I don’t think so.  A dictator would have arrested Guaido and his fellow opposition leaders long ago.

In any case, the one thing followers of Jesus Christ may never be is placated and docile in the face of evil, especially when that evil is being committed in our name by our country.

Citizens of God’s kingdom will stand up and say, “No!  This action is wicked and ungodly.  It is completely unacceptable.  We will not condone such evil with our silence.  We will speak and work to stop our government’s unwarranted, illegal use of force.”

Call your elected representatives and tell them, Hands Off Venezuela!