Civil Commotion

I wouldn’t have ordinarily followed the link in a tweet like that but, Hey!, this is John Piper’s outfit, and Piper has overtaken Tullian Tchividjian as the go-to guy when you need to be reminded that you’re no damn good.

2. Luke 18:38: Have Mercy on Me

Pray, like the blind man begging roadside, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” For as long as we are in this life, sin encumbers every encounter with God in his word. We fail friends and family daily — and even more, we fail God. So it is fitting to accompany our opening of God’s word with the humble, broken, poor plea of the redeemed: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

There you go: You fail everybody every day. Even worse than failing your family and friends, you fail … You. Know. Who.

Never forget: You are lower than whale flop, your very existence is an offense against the Cosmos, you are an inexhaustible sink of putrescence. You are no damn good.

Here’s a video so garishly cult-like that I can’t believe it even got created.

If this cheery little tune gets stuck in your head, I recommend cleansing the inside of your skull with large doses of Janis Joplin.

In case of emergency:

• Most shocking of all is alledging the Sacred Scriptures to favour this wicked practice [slavery]. One would have thought none but infidel cavillers would endeavour to make them appear contrary to the plain dictates of natural light, and Conscience, in a matter of common Justice and Humanity; which they cannot be. Such worthy men, as referred to before, judged otherways; Mr. BAXTER declared, the Slave-Traders should be called Devils, rather than Christians; and that it is a heinous crime to buy them.

• These people are either too superstitiously religious, or too cowardly for arms; they either can not or dare not defend; their property is open to anyone who has the courage to attack them… The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up.

• When men yield up the exclusive privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

• Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

• When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.

• I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense.

• We have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months.

• THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

• It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.

  My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to “bind me in all cases whatsoever” to his absolute will, am I to suffer it?

• He who is the author of a war, lets loose the whole contagion of hell, and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.

• Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.

• It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.

• A body of men, holding themselves accountable to nobody, ought not to be trusted by any body.

• Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet; as if the way to God was not open to every man alike. Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.

According to Mother Jones, most of the attendees were Drake University students.

The queue stretched so far back that you couldn’t make out the end of it, and people waited in the cold for hours to get in (and many were ultimately turned away when the venue reached capacity). If Trump could muster this much support at a moment’s notice, you would think he should be well on his way to winning the Iowa caucuses. But on further inspection, the impressive crowd was composed largely of Drake University students, few of whom actually seemed prepared to caucus for Trump—or even to caucus at all.

“I’m just here cause I think he’s hilarious,” said one Drake student, who declined to give her name.

[ … ]

“We’ve had all these very serious events with random raffles and drawings, and then Trump shows up on campus and he gives out around 3,000 tickets on an app to an event happening in an auditorium that holds around 700 people.”

Every now and then a story comes along which exemplifies America’s plain-vanilla lunacy when it comes to religion.

Manhattan psychic released from jail after $700G ripoff

A Manhattan psychic had a bit of good fortune on Monday — she was sprung from jail after a $700,000 ripoff.

Pricilla Delmaro, 26, was sentenced to probation and released from Manhattan Supreme Court. She had pleaded guilty to grand larceny in November.

She got hundreds of thousands in cash and jewelry from a man who believed she could “remove a curse” from him, according to court papers.

Most of us can agree, I’m sure, that Ms. Delmaro belonged in jail; it takes an outright sociopath to rip-off a mentally ill man who believes he is cursed.

But how different is what she did from the goings-on in churches all across the country?

Does Ms. Delmaro claim to have access to special occult knowledge? She does — and so does the pastor of the little white church on the corner.

Does Ms. Delmaro coerce money from her victim with promises of misfortune if he doesn’t fork it over? She does — and so does the pastor of the little white church on the corner.

Can Ms. Delmaro offer a scintilla of objective justification for her claims? She cannot — and neither can the pastor of the little white church on the corner.

As a matter of fact, the only quantitative difference between Ms. Delmaro and the average pastor that I can see is that the pastor has somehow succeeded in bamboozling people into believing he deserves a public subsidy (via tax credits) for the exact same scam that put Ms. Delmaro in jail. Nuts. It’s just … nuts.