Book of Proverbs

Boast not for to morrow, for thou knowest not what the day to come may bring forth

That is from Proverbs 21:1

Boast not for to morrow, for thou knowest not what the day to come may bring forth

Tomorrow indeed is the inauguration day for Donald J. Trump, the president-elect of the United States of America. He won against all the odds, given how many people were against him. The good thing is that virtually all the people that a just man would want aginst him were actually against Trump, so those who did not trust the man certainly had the witness of his enemiest.

Given that I came out so strongly in favour of Trump, and the fact that I have described him as the best presidential candidate in the U.S. in 60 years, since Dwight Eisenhower that is, one might be surprised at my choice of title verse. There is good reason for that though.

The most worrying tendency with regards to Trump, a trait he exhibited even during the campaign, is his inexplicably harsh rhetoric against Iran. That is simply uncalled for as Iran is more or less the most peaceful state in the Middle East, barring Lebanon. It is a state which is rather predictable, and whose major enemies are also the major enemies of the Christians in the region. I do take Trump at face value when he says that the days of military intervention are over, and I hope that his rhetoric is in major part done to placate the zionists. That, however, brings me to the second part of what is worrying about him.

His support for Israel and the zionist agenda is very troublesome. While I have little doubt that Trump is smart enough to realise that a war against Iran would have very dire consequences, I am not so sure the zionists and the warmongers in his cabinet realise that. A Christian has no business taking the side of Israel over that of any other country in the region, a fact which would become obvious to evangelicals if they only took some time to study authentic Christianity, in particular the works of St. Paul. Whereas his Christianity can be questioned, I do not question the bloodthirst of the zionists and the neo-cons who hitch on to the zionist cause (although frankly it is difficult to know which is the tail and which is the dog on that particular beast) and I am afraid that if nothing else, Trump's excessively harsh rhetoric on Iran might embolden the zionists into a military confrontation with Iran, one which would make the misadventures of the past 20 years seem like child's play.

With those 2 misgivings out of the way, I must admit that for the first time in very long there is an authentic hope for peace. We have become used to the U.S. being on the wrong side of virtually every conflict over the last 20 years or so. In fact, if one knew nothing of the sides in any conflict, one only needed to ask which side the U.S. was supporting and more often than not, one would rightly conclude that they were the bad guys. With Trump there is hope that the U.S. might actually stop killing people abroad. I doubt it will stop entirely, but there is a good chance that it will be scaled back.

I am not particularly worried about Trump's tough rhetoric against China. He will know as well as anybody that China is not a military threat towards the U.S., so any conflict between the two will be in the form of a trade war. He will also know that the U.S. is no match for China in the only area which could see the two countries in conflict -South East Asia - and if he doesn't then surely the sensible cabinet and advisors that he has put together will be only too happy to let him know that. I am sure that his plan for "Make America Great Again" does not involve getting a very bloody nose in an area of the world of little value to his country in terms of nationaly security, so we can count on the U.S. and China to de-escalate any tensions long before any threat of military confrontation.

There is much that can be said about Trump's amicable attitude towards Russia, with the most obvious comment being that it is simple common sense. There is no good reason why the U.S. and Russia should ever have been enemies since the fall of the U.S.S.R., save for keeping the congressional-military-industrial complex well funded. On this point one must believe that Donald Trump is genuine because there were no political points whatsoever to gain from this move, given the anti-Russian rhetoric in his country.

It is probably the case that Trump realised the folly of this attitude, and decided that it is smarter to make Russia an ally instead of an enemy, especially given the fact that the only real threat to the U.S. is China, and the U.S. faces only destruction if it attempts to confront both those countries. Russia and China, of course, are allies, and Russia also has a lot of untapped potential so for a businessman developing trade relations with Russia only makes sense.

As for domestic policies, surely the war against the Catholic Church from the political front is over, for now. That only leaves the war against the Church from the Church's own hierarchy!

Given that the abortionists took such a hard line against Trump, and the fact that Trump is not one to back down from a fight, we can suspect that he will take the fight to them, which is good for all concerned. The media also seems set to continue its assault against him, and we can be happy for that as the media is likely to lose most of any credibility that it has left, especially given that the man has decided to side-step the media where possible and attack the media when necessary.

So...

Where there is no governor, the people shall fall: but there is safety where there is much counsel.

Synod 2015 approaches: All hands on deck!

Where there is no governor, the people shall fall: but there is safety where there is much counsel.

Thus says Proverbs 11:14, as rendered in the Douay-Rheims version. The Revised Standard Version renders it:

Where there is no guidance, a people falls; but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

This article begins my attempt to headline every article I write with a quotation from Sacred Scripture. There is much good in the Good Book and I hope this decision will force me to study it a bit more.

As I do not comprehend either ancient Greek or ancient Hebrew, I am at the mercy of translators. I felt compelled to include both English translations because although the RSV renders it in the sense I would have wanted for my piece - for it is the notion of "guidance" and not "governor" I wanted conveyed - , I have decided to use the Douay-Rheims because I deem it more trustworthy from a fidelity-to-the-deposit-of-faith point of view.

Speaking of "trustworthy"; "trustworthiness", indeed, is a good word for what is lacking in the Church hierarchy today, and it is precisely that which compels me to write a piece before the upcoming synod of 2015, ostensibly on the family. Anybody who has been paying a close eye on what is happening will know that there is much to be concerned about. The reasons for the concern are very obvious.

For quite a while, although not anywhere near as long as the neo-Catholics or professional Catholics, I was compelled to hold my tongue a bit and not name the enemies directly, instead hinting at them. The time for such subtlety has long since passed, and I am even ashamed that I have been forceful enough in fighting back against the assault that we see on the Catholic faith from high ranking prelates, including the very highest.

There is little trustworthiness for the hierarchy among the faithful, for the simple reason that the barque of St. Peter is headed at this moment in time not by a faithful captain seeking to steer us into calmer waters where "there is safety", as the Proverbs tell us, but rather by a pirate, seemingly intent on crashing the Church onto the rocks and that is, when he is not content with sinking her by blowing holes in her hull. We thus have a twin-danger; on the one hand destroying the ship up - sometimes covertly, other times quite overtly - from inside, but lest the crew manage to repair the damage quickly enough, the pirate insists on launching the barque of St. Peter full steam ahead towards the rocks, all the while choosing the most troubled waters as his preferred course.

I would give much to never have to mention Pope Francis on this website, but the situation forces me to join forces with other faithful Christians who have made no secret of their resistance to him, often at great personal cost. A man does not sit idly by while others fight his battles. For this reason I feel compelled to write a few words about Pope Francis and his Bergoglian mutiny before the synod. After that it is my sincere intention never to write about Pope Francis or his gang of co-conspirators ever again, or at least  until his pontificate ends - which I obviously hope will be very soon. Of course, my end could come before that of Pope Francis, in which case the words I shall have written regarding Pope Francis before the synod will have been my last on him and his gang.

What will hopefully follow is a 3-piece series of  articles detailing precisely why it is very obvious that we are in the days of papal piracy. In these I shall attempt to show that Pope Francis is following the blueprint perfectly of one who commandeers the barque of St. Peter with the intent of sinking her. That he will not succeed we can be sure of: Indeed, we have divine assurance. However, it is very likely that the waves he causes will throw many overboard, and the explosions he keeps hurling - growing in size with remarkable consistency - in trying destroy the Church from within will dishearten many onboard. As the Book  of Proverbs tells us,  "the people shall fall".

Now, one might ask: Given that so many high-profile Catholics have had their say on Pope Francis, what exactly do I bring to the table that is so important that I had to write about it? Well, as I have written previously, this blog is mainy for personal reasons, and I have hardly any visitors, so swaying public opinion is certainly not my intention. Still, what else can I do? I cannot exactly denounce Pope Francis from the high altar at St. Peter's Basilica, any more than I can lead a large protest to warn Pope Francis and his gang that many of us are onto him. What I can do, however, is try and give a proper analysis of the situation, such that when someone comes along and says that "Pope Francis has not said anything heretical", I can point out that he has. When someone comes out and says "Pope Francis is trying his best" I can point out clearly that he is not, or rather that perhaps he is,  but not his best in proclaiming the Gospel, rather in undermining it.

I can do this because I have a reading of Pope Francis like few others it seems, and truth be told he never fooled me for long. There is a remarkable consistensy to Pope Francis that only becomes clear once one stops deluding oneself that he is trying his best for the Church. One only needs intellectually honesty, some historical knowledge and a grasp a healthy dose of scepticism.

Let us, however, be honest, and perfectly clear: Pope Francis did not grow...

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