You can say this for the migrants demanding more free stuff from City Hall: They’re fast learners about the new American ethos of endless entitlement.
Schooled and led by far-left activists, they arrive here within days of illegally crossing the southern border and claiming asylum, then start agitating for better accommodations in pricey neighborhoods.
The only thing I would add to Goodwin’s statement is that this is simply the umpty-umpth example of Roman Catholic immigration/economic/political theory in action. Get ‘em in, keep ‘em in, put ‘em on the dole. That’s Rome’s game plan for “Romanizing America through Illegal Immigration.”
Note what Goodwin says about “demanding more free stuff from City Hall.” Whenever Rome starts in with one of its sentimental sob stories about standing in solidarity with asylum seekers and migrants of one sort or another and talking about a nation’s “obligation to accommodate migrant flows,” what they mean is that you have an obligation to fork over your hard-earned money to support people who trash your city and protest they’re not getting enough free stuff from you.
This in no way, shape, or form is Christian charity. Christian charity is about giving one’s own goods. Rome, on the other hand, traffics in stolen virtue. The Pope, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, etc. all love to talk about humane they are while spending your money to support demanding people who have contempt both for you and your home country., people who are taught by these same bishops, cardinals, and popes that they are entitled to your goods.
A group of migrants from Venezuela planned their next steps at the Downtown El Paso Greyhound station after they were released to the streets as part of an effort by the Border Patrol to control the population at its El Paso Central Processing Center. The men gave their consent to be photographed. (Cindy Ramirez/El Paso Matters)
In his book Ecclesiastical Megalomania: the Economic and Political Thought of the Roman Catholic Church, John Robbins argued that the Thomistic principle of the universal destination of all goods is so important in Catholic thought that all rights are subject to it. (Robbins, 1999)
This principle, the universal destination of all goods, is the idea that when God created the world, he gave it to man collectively. Robbins calls the universal destination of goods “original communism.”
One of the implications of the doctrine of the universal destination of all goods is that property rights are not absolute but can be overridden by other concerns. In Rome’s social teaching, need is the ultimate factor in determining rightful ownership. John Robbins explains it this way, according to Rome, “Whoever needs property ought to possess it. Need makes another’s goods one’s own. Need is the ultimate and only moral title to property.” (Robbins, 1999)
The Roman Church-State is fine with private property up to a point, but when things get serious, need is all that matters. If your neighbor needs something, and you have a surplus of what he needs, he can take it, and it’s neither a sin nor a crime for him to do so.
Robbins quotes Pope Paul VI writing in his encyclical On the Progress of Peoples:
…each man has therefore the right to find in the world what is necessary for himself. The recent Council [Vatican II] reminded us of this: “God intended the earth and all that it contains for the use of every human being and people. Thus, as all men follow justice and unite in charity, created goods should abound for them on a reasonable basis.” All other rights whatsoever, including those of property and of free commerce, are to be subordinated to this principle. (Robbins, 1999)
A group of migrants from Venezuela planned their next steps at the Downtown El Paso Greyhound station after they were released to the streets as part of an effort by the Border Patrol to control the population at its El Paso Central Processing Center. The men gave their consent to be photographed. (Cindy Ramirez/El Paso Matters)
It may come as something of a surprise to many people to hear that Rome is at the very heart of America’s ongoing immigration crises. While Joe Biden’s policies are the proximate cause of this immigration disaster, what is not appreciated is that the Biden Administration’s immigration practice is really the practice of Rome’s destructive immigration doctrine, which is itself based on the false theology and philosophy of the Roman Church-State.
But despite Rome’s involvement, both theoretical and practical, in America’s immigration mess, almost no scrutiny is brought to bear on Rome’s role. In his book American Democracy & The Vatican: Population Growth & National Security, Stephen D. Mumford went into some detail on how Rome successfully suppressed criticism of itself. Wrote Mumford, “Every city editor in the United States knows of the unofficial Catholic censorship of American news, but almost all publishers avoid discussion of the phenomenon out of fear of reprisals. The Church frequently succeeds in intimidating the most powerful newspapers by using organized protest and boycott, even though in many cases the facts suppressed have great social significance.” (Mumford, 1984)
A group of migrants from Venezuela planned their next steps at the Downtown El Paso Greyhound station after they were released to the streets as part of an effort by the Border Patrol to control the population at its El Paso Central Processing Center. The men gave their consent to be photographed. (Cindy Ramirez/El Paso Matters)
Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?
Matthew 20:15
A few weeks back, I received a text message from Tim Shaughnessy, a friend and Reformed brother who lives in El Paso Texas, about an emergency with a church he pastors. El Paso sits in the far west of Texas, right across the US-Mexico border from the large Mexican city of Juarez. The Rio Grande forms the border between both cities and both countries. Knowing El Paso’s location, and if you follow the news at all, you won’t be surprised when you hear what the emergency was.
Tim’s church had been meeting at the Rescue Mission of El Paso, and the chaplain of the mission called up Tim on a Saturday and told him that his church would not be able to use the mission’s building for services on Sunday. The city had been dropping off migrants at the mission and the entire facility was packed with people and full of cots. Given the vast scale of the current flood of illegal aliens pouring across America’s southern border, doubtless the loss suffered by Tim’s church could be multiplied many times over.
The current immigration disaster started with the inauguration of America’s second Roman Catholic president, Joe Biden, in January 2021 and shows no signs of letting up. Indeed, by some reports, the flood of illegal aliens, far from subsiding, is getting worse.
Since I mentioned El Paso earlier, let’s look at a few immigration-related headlines from just this one Texas city.
These stories all paint a picture of one American city being overwhelmed by illegal aliens with little hope of relief. Indeed, migrant numbers historically are higher as we move into fall and cooler weather comes to the region making passage safer for those seeking to enter the United States illegally. As Tim said in his message to me, “Our city is overwhelmed right now.”
That, one could say, is an understatement.
But while America is being overwhelmed with a flood of illegal aliens, it’s important to keep in mind that this flood is not some force of nature, but the result of deliberate policies put in place by the current president and his government. On his first day in office, Joe Biden signed an executive order pausing the construction of the border wall. And this was not the only action taken by the president and by other Democratic government officials across the nation to make it easier for migrants illegally to cross America’s southern border, to make it harder to deport them, and indeed, even to reward them once in the United States.
To give you some idea of how Biden has encouraged illegal immigration to America, a quote from the article “The Border Crisis Comes to a Once-Quite part of West Texas” will suffice. In this piece, journalist Todd Bensman interviewed a “human smuggling guide” whose name was given as Jose Antonio. Antonio referred to Biden’s immigration policies as la invitación, the invitation.
Indeed, one would have a hard time coming up with a better name than la invitación to describe the immigration policies of Joe Biden in particular and the Democrats in general. To show just how committed the Democrats are as a party to forcing American taxpayers to support illegal aliens, consider the response of the field of democratic presidential candidates in 2019 to a show of hands question about whether their health plan would cover “undocumented immigrants” – the proper term for “undocumented immigrants” is “illegal aliens.” The response of all ten of the Democrats present was to raise their hands “yes.” You can see the video here.
There is no provision in the Constitution, the Supreme Court’s ruling notwithstanding, for the federal government to fund anyone’s “health plan,” not even health plans for the American people. And if it is unconstitutional, and more to the point, immoral for the federal government to use tax dollars to pay Americans’ doctor bills, how much more is it unconstitutional and immoral for the federal government to use tax dollars taken from the American people to pay medical bills for foreigners who have violated America’s immigration laws?
So, ask yourself this question: If you tell people to go ahead and break America’s immigration laws and we’ll reward you with fabulous cash and prizes, do you think you will get more immigration law-breaking or less immigration law-breaking? If you said, “more immigration law-breaking,” go to the head of the class.
Queen Athaliah Orders The King’s Children to be Killed by Harmen Jansz Muller, Hadrianus Junius, and Gerard De Jode.
And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.
II Kings 11:1
Today I’d like to wrap up our look at Jehoiada’s righteous interposition on behalf of the legitimate Davidic line of kings and the people of Judah.
As we’ve discussed so far, the purpose of this series is to look at an important but largely ignored Biblical doctrine known as the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. Last week we defined the doctrine of the lesser magistrate using Matthew Trewhella’s book The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates. In his book, Trewhella gives the following definition of this doctrine,
The lesser magistrate doctrine declares that when the superior or higher civil authority makes unjust/immoral laws or decrees, the lesser or lower ranking civil authority has both a right and duty to refuse obedience to that superior authority. If necessary, the lesser authorities even have the right and obligation to actively resist the superior authority (1).
It’s important to define and discuss this doctrine because Christians in the West find themselves in situations where more and more they live under governments that are openly hostile to them. Good is now evil and evil is now good. In some places, Christians can find themselves prosecuted for quoting what the Bible says about homosexuality, while satanic transgender activists are free to recruit kids for their perverted cause.
Here in the United States, we have a situation much like what Judah faced under Queen Athaliah, an illegitimate government that goes out of its way to implement evil policies. Athaliah was a murderess and promoter of Baal worship. Joe Biden works tirelessly to implement the Vatican’s globalist agenda via his climate change policies, unprecedented illegal immigration, attacking the Americans’ Second Amendment rights, fanning the flames of war in eastern Europe, the promoting sexual perversion, and accusing patriotic, Christian Americans of sedition when they speak out against his evil.
When faced with evil government dictates, some Christians will point to Romans 13:1 – Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities – and argue that there is no legitimate or almost no legitimate reason for Christians ever to push back against evil government commands. If a governor says that you have to shut down your church due to Covid, you shut down your church due to Covid, and that’s just that. Anything else is unrighteous rebellion. That this is a widespread opinion can be seen by the number of churches that bent their knee when told to close their doors “to stop the spread.”
On the other hand, there are some people who hold that primate rebellion is a justified response against a tyrannical government. There are several instances where the kings of Judah and Israel were murdered by political opponents. Oddly, young king Joash, whom Jehosheba and Jehoiada saved, would later be murdered by his servants. But the murder of Joash, even though Joash had clearly deviated from the paths of righteousness later in life, is clearly condemned in the Scriptures.
So we see that neither blind obedience nor private rebellion is the Christian answer to dealing with tyrannical governments. The Christian answer is the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. A doctrine we see modeled quite well by the righteous high priest Jehoiada. Jehoiada hid the young, rightful heir to the throne of Judah for six years. After that period had elapsed, he organized a military guard, brought the seven-year-old Joash out in public, and made him king.
That’s where we left off last week. Let us now consider the beneficial effects of Jehoiada’s actions and what lessons American and other Western Christians can take from his example.
Tammany Hall as a ferocious tiger killing democracy by Thomas Nast, Harper’s Weekly.
“We are Republicans, and don’t propose to leave our party and identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been rum, Romanism, and rebellion. We are loyal to our flag.”
Dr. Samuel D. Burchard
Last week brought with it a couple of major events, neither one of them good for America. In the first place, there was the passage of the comically, propagandistically names Inflation Reduction Act, an Act guaranteed to increase, not decrease inflation. Not to mention an Act that sics 87,000 new IRS agents on the American people – more specifically, it sics them on the middle class and small businesses that don’t have the legions of tax lawyers and accountants to fight back against the IRS – an Act that implements parts of the liberty destroying, World Economic Forum, Vatican approved Green New Deal, and an Act that manages to extend Obamacare subsidies passed as part of Covid relief.
In short, it’s another unconstitutional boondoggle that will do exactly the opposite of what it claims it will do.
Then there’s the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. Many writers have rightly compared this raid to the sort of thing one would expect in a banana republic. Given the disturbing trend of both the Democrats generally, and the Biden Regime in particular, to politicize justice, this raid must be seen as a continuation of their attempts to outlaw their political opponents.
One can find many articles in the mainstream and even alternate conservative and libertarian press denouncing both the Inflation Reduction Act and the raid on Mar-a-Lago. But none of them, in this writer’s opinion, get to the heart of the matter.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Exodus 20:16
As much as I try not to let it happen, the constant drumbeat of lies promoted 24/7 from every corner of our civilization gets to me from time to time.
And I really find it is the constant lying about everything all the time by everyone in official positions of power that gets to me the most.
Politicians, CEOs, university presidents and professors, schoolteachers, school administrators, and school boards, federal government officials, state and local officials, legacy media outlets, churches, doctors, hospitals and medical officials, law enforcement, lawyers and judges, entertainers, athletes and professional sports leagues, bankers, and tax-exempt foundations. In short, every institution in America has become a lie factory dedicated to deceiving us all and promoting a false view of the world.
But the Bible commands Christians not to lie and deceive others. In the Ten Commandments, we are told, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Paul repeated this idea in his epistle to the Ephesians, writing, “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour.” The Lord Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The devil, Scripture tells us, is the father of lies. And as imitators of Christ, his people are called to walk in the truth. And no lie is of the truth.
[W]here the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
– 2 Corinthians 3:17
Writing as I am on this day, July 3, 2022, it’s hard for my thoughts not to turn to Independence Day as Americans celebrate the 246th anniversary of the founding of the American nation.
I don’t remember a time when Independence Day was not one of my favorite days on the calendar. Growing up in the 1970s, I recall the focus on the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976. I was ten years old at the time. Not old enough to understand or appreciate the full significance of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and the Constitution, but old enough to realize that the acts and the words of the founding fathers had created a new nation committed to the protection of individual liberty to an extent never before accomplished.
One lesson about the formation of the United States that I did not learn until years later was just how much it depended upon the Protestant Reformation kicked off by Martin Luther over 250 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
This idea – the notion that the United States and the history of limited government and economic liberty historically, if not presently, enjoyed by its citizens is a by-product of the Reformation – would likely come as a surprise to many Americans today, even those who attend churches that claim to be Reformed.
I could go on, but these headlines, typical of legacy media’s decade-plus-long assault on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, give the reader a fair example of the kind of hate Orban faces from news organizations.
The occasion of the latest media meltdown over Orban was his fourth consecutive election victory on 4/3/2022.
The BBC article summed up the EU’s opinion on his election win thus, “You could almost hear the collective thud of EU hearts sinking on Sunday night as Viktor Orban made his victory speech.”
Ah, the sound of globalist heads exploding. Now that’s music to my ears.
Lux Lucet 