13-12-2019, 10:05 PM
After listening to the first of the above videos, it seemed to me that the speaker Chris Hedges spoke a lot of words but didn't really get to the point regarding anything.
As for my two cents---Karl Barth wrote that Calvin, (the most influential of Protestant theorists) was mainly responsible for bringing Christianity into synchrony with the Age of Enlightenment (Thomas Jefferson, French Revolution, Descartes, Newton, etc.).
Because the Calvinists harnessed the raw power that comes from true belief in rationalism, the Calvinists in Germany, England, Netherlands and the fugitive Huguenots from France basically took over the world in very short order.
The tiny country of the Netherlands founded the City of New York as well as ruled the massive group of Islands that we now know as Indonesia. And then it promptly took over England, too in the "Glorious Revolution of 1688) The Calvinist Netherlands was truly "the mouse that roared". And there was much more on top of that.
Calvinists in England brought in the Cromwell government which founded the British Empire. In Germany, Calvinists were influential in German unification under Bismark and all the results that came from that.
Calvinists in England and the US ended the gigantic empires of France and Spain which were based on the tunnel vision of the Catholic rulers and clergy that ran them. The the French and Spanish empires simply self-destructed. And for the same reason, the Anglican (legally established Church) also brought about the failure of the British Empire in America and was the main cause for the American Revolution. And then the American Revolution morphed quickly into the French Revolution.
And what was the secret of the Calvinists that still rules in the world today though the power of the US (mainly) and to a lesser extent Germany and the UK? The secret is this:
The mainline US Protestant Churches are the only religions in the world that believe that your religion is purely your own affair. And that your relationship with God does not really involve your relationship with any other co-religionists at all, necessarily or (much less) primarily.
You come into the world as an individual single human being and you will leave this world the same way. We are born one at a time and we die one at a time.
Clergymen don't like it, but the teaching of Jesus is clear. When he revealed the Lord's Prayer, he "looked up to Heaven" and prayed, "Our Father, who art in Heaven". That's right. God is in Heaven. In the Greek it says that Jesus look up to the Heavens. The Greek word is ouranos, which means the firmament, the Zodiac, the Milky Way, etc. etc. etc.
The speaker on the above video, Chris Hedges, spoke strongly against "utopians." Well IMHO there are some religions that are not mostly with God up in "Heaven" but they are PURSUING WORLDLY GOALS.
Too many people view their religion like a labor union. If you're Catholic, then maybe you can get a job through your Catholic network. And there are other religions that are heavy into networking for jobs and money.
If you're a Muslim in Iran, then your religion runs the goverment. So that will be of major benefit to you RIGHT HERE IN THIS WORLD. If you're an atheist in Iran, you may have to pay the price. Probably a nasty price at that!
The watchword is this--James 4:4 "Friendship with the world means enmity with God".
Ironically, the Calvinists believed in (or invented) the separation of Church and State. That means that worldly affairs are just that---affairs of the world. Godly affairs are basically centered outside this world. We will see God, if we do at all, AFTER WE LEAVE THIS WORLD AND GO ONTO ANOTHER. Some even interpret the Bible as stating the "Satan is the ruler of the World". That makes sense to me. God created the world, but Satan through the fallen man, rules it (unfortunately).
So the Calvinists i.e. our forefathers, the Pilgrims and the founders of New Netherlands (New York) were free of having the "monkey-on-the-back" which (for others) was THE LEGALLY ESTABLISHED RELIGION with all it's coercion. This freedom allowed the Calvinists to welcome to New York and Pennsylvania especially, any and all forms of "dissenters". They let the Jews, Catholics, Quakers, Lutherans and others alone, or at least tolerated them, which was more than the coercive religions would allow.
They had a religion that was (theoretically) free from coercion (though they didn't much like witches)!!!! It was a matter of individual conscience, not coercion.
In the Anglican and Catholic empires of England, France and Spain, they were ridden by the oppressive efforts of taxpayer-funded clergy to suck the financial blood from their parishioners. A clergy that is supported only by voluntary donations, not tax money, is obviously more likely to be somewhat humble. And I would say, closer to God and further from the world.
To sum it up, your religion should work for you, you shouldn't work for your religion. You should work for your fellow man, which doesn't mean you work for your religion. IMHO your religion should not be a monkey-on-your-back, but should rest on your shoulder as lightly as a feather.
As written 1 Corinthians 7:15 "...for God wants his children to live in peace and harmony". This quote is in the context that people shouldn't feel a sense of bondage which requires them to live in a bad marriage. I personally believe that people should't have to live under any kind of coercion which is the same as bondage IMHO.
And so, I would maintain, that the above principles, if observed, will handle the problem of "Christo-Fascism" pretty easily. It should be pretty obvious that Jesus would not approve of Fascism.
Or Auschwitz.
James Lateer
As for my two cents---Karl Barth wrote that Calvin, (the most influential of Protestant theorists) was mainly responsible for bringing Christianity into synchrony with the Age of Enlightenment (Thomas Jefferson, French Revolution, Descartes, Newton, etc.).
Because the Calvinists harnessed the raw power that comes from true belief in rationalism, the Calvinists in Germany, England, Netherlands and the fugitive Huguenots from France basically took over the world in very short order.
The tiny country of the Netherlands founded the City of New York as well as ruled the massive group of Islands that we now know as Indonesia. And then it promptly took over England, too in the "Glorious Revolution of 1688) The Calvinist Netherlands was truly "the mouse that roared". And there was much more on top of that.
Calvinists in England brought in the Cromwell government which founded the British Empire. In Germany, Calvinists were influential in German unification under Bismark and all the results that came from that.
Calvinists in England and the US ended the gigantic empires of France and Spain which were based on the tunnel vision of the Catholic rulers and clergy that ran them. The the French and Spanish empires simply self-destructed. And for the same reason, the Anglican (legally established Church) also brought about the failure of the British Empire in America and was the main cause for the American Revolution. And then the American Revolution morphed quickly into the French Revolution.
And what was the secret of the Calvinists that still rules in the world today though the power of the US (mainly) and to a lesser extent Germany and the UK? The secret is this:
The mainline US Protestant Churches are the only religions in the world that believe that your religion is purely your own affair. And that your relationship with God does not really involve your relationship with any other co-religionists at all, necessarily or (much less) primarily.
You come into the world as an individual single human being and you will leave this world the same way. We are born one at a time and we die one at a time.
Clergymen don't like it, but the teaching of Jesus is clear. When he revealed the Lord's Prayer, he "looked up to Heaven" and prayed, "Our Father, who art in Heaven". That's right. God is in Heaven. In the Greek it says that Jesus look up to the Heavens. The Greek word is ouranos, which means the firmament, the Zodiac, the Milky Way, etc. etc. etc.
The speaker on the above video, Chris Hedges, spoke strongly against "utopians." Well IMHO there are some religions that are not mostly with God up in "Heaven" but they are PURSUING WORLDLY GOALS.
Too many people view their religion like a labor union. If you're Catholic, then maybe you can get a job through your Catholic network. And there are other religions that are heavy into networking for jobs and money.
If you're a Muslim in Iran, then your religion runs the goverment. So that will be of major benefit to you RIGHT HERE IN THIS WORLD. If you're an atheist in Iran, you may have to pay the price. Probably a nasty price at that!
The watchword is this--James 4:4 "Friendship with the world means enmity with God".
Ironically, the Calvinists believed in (or invented) the separation of Church and State. That means that worldly affairs are just that---affairs of the world. Godly affairs are basically centered outside this world. We will see God, if we do at all, AFTER WE LEAVE THIS WORLD AND GO ONTO ANOTHER. Some even interpret the Bible as stating the "Satan is the ruler of the World". That makes sense to me. God created the world, but Satan through the fallen man, rules it (unfortunately).
So the Calvinists i.e. our forefathers, the Pilgrims and the founders of New Netherlands (New York) were free of having the "monkey-on-the-back" which (for others) was THE LEGALLY ESTABLISHED RELIGION with all it's coercion. This freedom allowed the Calvinists to welcome to New York and Pennsylvania especially, any and all forms of "dissenters". They let the Jews, Catholics, Quakers, Lutherans and others alone, or at least tolerated them, which was more than the coercive religions would allow.
They had a religion that was (theoretically) free from coercion (though they didn't much like witches)!!!! It was a matter of individual conscience, not coercion.
In the Anglican and Catholic empires of England, France and Spain, they were ridden by the oppressive efforts of taxpayer-funded clergy to suck the financial blood from their parishioners. A clergy that is supported only by voluntary donations, not tax money, is obviously more likely to be somewhat humble. And I would say, closer to God and further from the world.
To sum it up, your religion should work for you, you shouldn't work for your religion. You should work for your fellow man, which doesn't mean you work for your religion. IMHO your religion should not be a monkey-on-your-back, but should rest on your shoulder as lightly as a feather.
As written 1 Corinthians 7:15 "...for God wants his children to live in peace and harmony". This quote is in the context that people shouldn't feel a sense of bondage which requires them to live in a bad marriage. I personally believe that people should't have to live under any kind of coercion which is the same as bondage IMHO.
And so, I would maintain, that the above principles, if observed, will handle the problem of "Christo-Fascism" pretty easily. It should be pretty obvious that Jesus would not approve of Fascism.
Or Auschwitz.
James Lateer