The real term could be Democrats whose principles I don’t agree with.
And then there is the term “globalist.” Which, according to some means someone who wants The United States to be absorbed into a one world government. But a globalist might simply mean someone who wants peace among nations with all working toward the good of the nations and peoples.
I have told my story before about a ministry that turned toward dark terms partly because of a book the leader wrote, When The World Will be as One. That was someone who had a very definite definition of globalism. It included as he put it, the Jews (money changers) Jesus chased out of the temple who supposedly went out into the world and became the international bankers.
And then we could think about the “enemy within.” Now that could mean extremist groups in the United States, like The Proud Boys or it could mean American citizens who disagree with political leaders. One is something to worry about, the other is not an enemy but friends of so many who care about democracy.
This leads to Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny. His 9th chapter begins with this:
Be Kind To Our Language:
“Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.”
Okay, I need to take a lot of that advice—I spend too much time on the internet. And I could read a lot more.
Snyder lists some books that would be helpful, writing, “Any good novel enlivens our ability to think about ambiguous situations and judge the intentions of others.” Snyder goes on to list some good books to read, And some of my grandchildren will be pleased to hear one is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Another helpful suggestion is made to Christians. They, “might return to the foundational book, which as ever is very timely. Jesus preached that it ‘is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. We should be modest, for ‘whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”
Further: “And of course we must be concerned with what is true and what is false: ‘And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,’”
Now of course Jesus does go on to state that God can make it possible for the rich man to enter the Kingdom and that would be a change of heart, the regeneration of a lost soul. One who becomes willing to give up all for the Lord. And truth should be capitalized since Jesus is the Truth who gives new life and makes us free, free to live a redeemed life. Free to care for the poor, the needy, the prisoner, the immigrants
.
7 comments:
Hello Viola,
I am grateful you are publishing this series. I hope some of the seeds you are planting germinate and yield good fruit.
I know something about Globalism in practice in my profession. It is the idea that if we allow the economies of the Nations to become intertwined, we become more dependent on each other, and therefore less likely to go to war with each other. A light version of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) as a deterrence. That’s a good thing. Nationalistic and isolationist economies give us the illusion of more self-reliance and allow us therefore to, say, bomb another country back to the stone age with conventional weapons, without suffering any self-harm in doing so; making us therefore less restrained in our aggression towards one another. That’s a bad thing. But tyranny wants that liberty. So, tyrants are against globalism. And demonize it they will.
Unfortunately, as we learned with Covid, being too reliant on each other, to the point of say relying on China to produce our toilet paper and surgical face masks, can be a problem if there is a pandemic and we need to suspend international commerce to save millions of lives. And it did not stop Putin from invading Ukraine, or the US from invading Iraq, or the Hamas from starting a war with Israel. International aggression will have it’s day no matter what.
The ”Deep State” are those members of the functioning organs of the Government who take their sworn allegiance to the Constitution as a higher priority than their assumed allegiance to the POTUS or any political party. They are non-partisan. And they are the stops we rely on to protect us from any POTUS who goes rogue. Obviously, they are a problem to said POTUS. And again, must be demonized. I believe the so called “Deep State” is what saved us from a Trump dictatorship the first time. And that is why he is systematically dismantling those institutions and forcibly removing their leadership in favor of elements that swear allegiance only to him over the Constitution. Including, he hopes, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
You might have noticed that starting with Trump’s own swearing in, it is now fashionable not to lay your hand on the Bible when taking an oath of office that requires swearing allegiance to the Constitution. It is a clear and intentional message of defiance to the rule of Law that has defined America over the last 250 years.
A final comment: About the Truth setting us free. It is a tangible freedom. Free to do what? Free to not be blindly loyal to human leaders. Free to discern, choose, and risk not doing the wrong thing. Free to be loyal to Jesus in every circumstance.
Jodie Gallo,
Los Angeles, CA
The term Deep State is problematic. I firmly believe that the term was chosen for it's negative connotations. Yet, I also firmly believe that there is (at some level) an inherent tendency of a bureaucracy to act in ways that preserve the bureaucracy itself, not to fulfill the end of the bureaucracy (the functioning of the government in this case). I tend to think that this is more about self interest and self justification than evil intent, yet self interest in a position of public service seems to contradict the point. After many conversations with family members who worked for the federal government, I have no reason to doubt the existence of bureaucratic inertia that serves the bureaucracy rather than the people, nor do I doubt that there is a significant number of bureaucrats who've been employed for over 20 years who are just holding on to rack up the automatic raises, and more retirement benefits, while preventing younger and more motivated employees from moving up into positions of greater responsibility.
Further, I'd argue that the Deep State is present in the legislature as well. Both in the staff, who often outlast the elected official and end up with more power than they should, and those who spend decades in office while financially benefiting from their positions.
Unfortunately, I believe that this is the result of human nature and is definitely not a partisan issue. It's why I've reluctantly come to believe that term limits might become necessary to clean house and bring in new blood. I'm also convinced that a good housecleaning in the bureaucracy is probably healthy every so often. The notion that these jobs are so complex and difficult that they can't be handled by those without the experience of doing those jobs just doesn't pass the smell test.
When we live in a society that has abandoned Truth for something else, it's hard to go back.
While I'm pretty sure Trump did swear his oath of office on a Bible, I'll note that this trend started in the court system quite a while ago, and has expanded to people being sworn in with various other religious texts.
"While I'm pretty sure Trump did swear his oath of office on a Bible"
You can fact check it. He did not lay his hand on it. He kept it down to his side.(I bet with his fingers crossed)
Jodie
Again, given the fact that swearing on a Bible has been all but removed from public life, I'm not sure how worked up I'd get about this specific instance.
After a quick look at the video, the ask by the Chief Justice was "raise your right hand". Again, I'd prefer to maintain the tradition, but given that it's been largely abandoned I'm not going to read much into this one instance.
So it you still don't think it was a bad choice to let Trump win?
I'm not sure what your point is. Scripture tells us that YHWH is sovereign over all of the temporal governmental leaders and the time they lead. Do I think YHWH made a mistake? No.
Do I think the voters made a mistake? It's too early to tell.
My approach to presidents is that it's unlikely that any single president can cause irreparable damage in one term, and hope that every president can accomplish at least some good things.
Post a Comment