Chateau Lloyd

A major figure in American Protestantism died last week and I had never heard of him before.   That's life in Catholic circles, I guess, but I was interested to see what he preached and it turns out he was an actual Nestorian as well as a Calvinist.

Also a Dispensationalist and believer in Cessationism, so four heresies in one.

Americans treat religion as just another product, and part of that is creating a brand and differentiating yourself from other brands.  Yes, there are established denominations, but those usually have some sort of hierarchy and one can reach the top only after years of work even then there is little actual power.

For those with a more entrepreneurial spirit, founding one's own church is the way to go, and there are many examples of successful preachers who started with a single small church and built a mighty empire thanks to their charisma, stage presence and ability to turn a phrase.

What these men (and they are overwhelmingly men) do not typically have is much in the way of theology.  Their goal is to differentiate themselves from other denominations, not push long-established truths.  This leads to further fragmentation in Protestantism as new (or old) doctrines have to be introduced.

That's how the long-forgotten doctrine of the Nestorians has risen from the theological graveyard.  Similarly, Calvinism isn't enough; there must also be Dispensationalism and Cessationism as well.

That latter belief is interesting insofar as it can be used to explain the paucity of Protestant miracles and dismiss the abundance of Catholic and Orthodox ones, which are attributed to the devil.  How miraculous healing in Christ's name facilitates evil is unclear to me, but it's the only cope they have.

Similarly, the need to denigrate the Blessed Virgin Mary and declare her an ordinary, unexceptional woman who had lots of other kids opens the back door to Nestorianism, because the natural conclusion is that Christ's human nature was separate from His divine nature.  Thus, a normal, unremarkable woman gave birth to a normal kid, and then the divine nature arrived separately after He emerged from the womb.

Adding in Dispensationalism also makes sense as it's a uniquely American creation and Calvinism seems to be gaining ground among Protestants as Mainline denominations stumble.  Calvinism is bracing, stern, and placed a heavy emphasis on condemnation, which goes against the popular grain.  It is a welcome contrast to "nice" Christianity.

This combination results in a stridently anti-Catholic belief system, which is also very American.

As with all empires, the succession is always a delicate time, and I'll be interested to see how that plays out.

During the pandemic, many bishops offered a dispensation from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass.  In many cases, this was because local authorities had imposed lockdowns, but there was also a great fear (especially among the elderly) that going out into any kind of gathering could lead to death by the dread disease.

But the Bishop of San Bernadino, Alberto Rojas, is taking this in a different direction, offering a dispensation to illegal aliens who fear arrest and deportation if they go to Mass.

This is a remarkable development.  In recent years, the US Catholic Bishops have been increasingly strident on violating American immigration law.  The continually declare it "broken" without once offering any suggestions for improvement.  This is because they cannot come out and declare that unlimited immigration is their goal because there is simply no doctrinal justification for doing that.  The Church has long recognized the rights of nations and kingdoms to defend their borders and to control who enters and joins their polity.

Much of the Old Testament is about Israel defending itself and trying to keep its identity among a host of larger foreign peoples.  The Catholic Church itself has been instrumental in defending Christian lands from Muslim invasions.  Were these actions wrong?

This also is an amazing declaration of civil disobedience, which normally the Church will authorize only in the gravest of circumstances.  People who enter the country - any country - without permission are breaking the law.  Why is the good bishop protecting them from the consequences of their action?  Again, is the bishop saying that American borders are now a nullity, and that there is a Christian duty to help anyone who wishes to enter?

A great many people - including the USCCB - has convinced itself that unlimited migration is a good thing, and that the clear, document hardships illegal aliens impose on the host nation either do not exist, or are simply a price that must be paid to do good works.  It is robbing Peter to pay Paul.  

Unlimited migration brings a host of diseases from unvaccinated populations, overstrains hospitals and schools, drives up housing prices and crushes wages, particularly among unskilled or semi-skilled laborers.  It benefits the upper classes with cheap servants, boosts profits for the rich, but wrecks the native poor.  It is harder to imagine a more cruel policy dressed up in virtue, but here we are.

The calendar cycle has conspired to place Fathers Day adjacent to June 14, which incorporates both Flag Day and the birthday of the United States Army.  The alignment is appropriate.

In our current era, all three have been disparaged by the elites of society.  Flags are just rags on a pole, more likely to be burned than protected.  The Army itself is a horrible, patriarchal organization that needs to be completely feminized and run on "green energy" to be worthwhile.

And fathers?  They are the absolute worst.  For most of my life I've heard sneering at The Patriarchy without any clear idea of what would feasibly replace it - or what exactly is wrong with it.  Spiritually speaking, it is a stand-in for the restraints of faith and custom, as well as biology.  This is why so many "feminists" demand that men who "identify" as women be fully treated as female, despite overwhelming and obvious evidence that they have a massive competitive advantage in athletics.

Oddly, these zealots are willing to burn down everything around it in terms of federal funding to keep their strange anti-faith in place.

The  250th Anniversary of the US Army highlighted the obvious: wars are a male activity, always have been, and always will be.  The post-war flirtation with gender integration has failed.

Similarly, the notion that shredding all moral and cultural restraints on women would make them happier has also been completely discredited.  Women have never been more miserable.

The answer to this problem is to return to what worked - intact families, faith, and tradition.  Much of the Boomer mentality was to throw away that which irritated them, and to hell with the consequences.  It is no wonder that their children and grandchildren are now rejecting the entire project.

This weekend encapsulates what is needed - a love of country, veneration of its symbols, and the importance of fathers as the protector of the family.

Storms swept through my state last week and my leafy college town took heavy damage from straight-line winds.  Several houses in my neighborhood had trees blown on top of them.  Chateau Lloyd was unscathed, but did lose power for about 20 hours.

The whole experience, from wailing sirens in the middle of a storm-tossed night to the eerie silence after it passed, free of any electric buzz, made a profound impression on my grandchildren, who were staying with us.

When the sun rose, I want to start our venerable generator but the fuel line had dried out and cracked (it uses propane) and so after fruitlessly calling about replacement parts, I went out to buy a new one.

By noon the replacement was up and running, and I breathed a sigh of relief that the foods in our refrigerator and freezer would survive.  After those appliances ran for while, we contemplated shifting the power elsewhere, since my generator is not a "whole house" variety.

The upshot of this time was a discussion about prioritizing power use, and how to best expend our limited fuel supply.  Should the outage last, we would turn the generator off overnight, knowing that the rejuvenated appliances would easily sustain and 8-hour pause.

We had been through this before, in the great ice storm of 2013, but of course winter is different than summer.  In winter, the fear is cold, not heat spoiling food.  The furnace was the primary focal point.

In both cases, though, we were forced to live with new constraints.  Power now had to be distributed via extension cord, and budgeted against the generator's capacity.

It is all too easy to take the flip of a switch for granted, and assume that our machine-dominated life is both normal and natural.  In the scope of human history, it is neither.

When the power came back - ahead of schedule - I led the family in a prayer and they embraced it with joy.  Certainly it was a welcome reminder to me to walk through life with much more gratitude for the little things.

The Episcopal church in the US never ceases to amuse.  In January, a parish priest decided to deny Communion to his congregation because he considered society to be too racist.

Now comes the news that the bishop in charge of refugee resettlement has decided it would be better to shut the whole thing down than fund the resettlement of a few dozen white South Africans.  They have a history, you see, and one the Episcopalians feel disqualifies them from aid.

Theologically speaking, this is not a recent development.  Particularly during the age of the slave trade, there was a Christian heresy that argued that black Africans carried the "mark of Cain" and were therefore accursed, fully deserving enslavement.  The Mormon Church adopted this concept and stuck with it until the 1970s, when a "new revelation" declared it to be void.

The concept is fully in alignment with predestination, and if people think the Problem of Evil is a tough nut to crack, the notion that a loving and merciful God has consigned most of humanity to hell without any possibility of escape is insurmountable.

It is one think to argue that evil exists because of free will and the constant tendency of humans to rebel against God.  Simply asserting that God is good in spite of the obvious injustice of damning people regardless of their actions is a much tougher argument to make, and in fact, I utterly reject it.

But it is of a pace with the complete collapse of the Church of England, which has been without an Archbishop of Canterbury since early January.  A vacancy that long in the Catholic Church would be a crisis and a scandal, and that it gets so little coverage proves just how irrelevant the Anglican Communion has become.

At several points this week, I intended to write something, but events invariably called me away from the keyboard.

I didn't resist because real life should take priority.  Each day I've gone to bed relatively early and immediately fallen into restful, healing slumber.

This Easter will be one of my busiest in years, and there remains much to be done today.  Indeed, the operational tempo around here is probably not going to  ease until June, but it is all positive, productive work.

In the wider world, the usual anti-Catholic antics took place, but they seem to be either ineffective or counterproductive.  The report that 40% of young adults in England go to Catholic Mass each week sent shock waves through the religious community.  By contrast, only 20% attend Anglican services.  While England is something of a basket case at the moment, its future within the Church seems bright.  I can't help think that the nonsensical attempt to ban silent prayer has people wondering what it is like.

I must be powerful stuff if you're willing to lock up old ladies over it.

France is having another banner year of adult conversions, and the final number seems close to 18,000, which is yet another increase over the previous year.  This trend has been going on for a while, and while 18,000 in a nation of millions seems paltry, it is happening year after year.  Indeed, much of Europe seems to be seeing similar trends.

The great exception, of course, is Germany, where the numbers of Lutheran and Catholic alike are crashing down.  The actions of the Catholic leadership can only be explained as either insane or demonic.  It is insane because all of the "reforms" they are pushing have already been tried by state Protestant churches for decades without any positive effect.  Indeed, the one comfort Catholics might derive is that they will soon outnumber the Lutherans because the rate of loss among Protestants is higher.

The other predictable result will be schism and excommunication, which is why I say it is demonic.  They know that Rome is not going to bend the knee on questions of core doctrine like sexual morality and the ordination of women.  

In a sense, this challenge has been coming for a long time, and presumably the liberal Catholics who dominate the upper ranks of the German Church see this is their last opportunity to ram through their long-desired 'reforms.'

Another miracle was announced this week at Lourdes, bringing the grant total to 72.  It should be noted that this list is far from comprehensive - these are only the most well-documented and completely inexplicable healings.  There are plenty more where people found healing, but it was within the tiniest margin of probability.  

Finally, archeologists working beneath the Holy Sepulchre have found evidence that there was once a garden on the site, closely following the Gospel  of John.  It is interesting that scientists constantly denigrate the Catholic Church, yet it tirelessly subjects its beliefs to scientific validation.  

Over the past few months, I've noticed the appearance of a strange new creature: the Calvinist Catholic.

These seems like an oxymoron, but as with so many things, contradiction can often coexist in the disturbed mind.

Catholic Calvinists are people who have bought fully into the idea that the Utterly Depraved are incapable of doing good.  One can never judge them by the fruits of their action, but only by their perceived motivations.

The Case Zero for this is of course Donald Trump.  Objectively speaking, Trump has been the most pro-life president of my lifetime.  Not only did his appointments overturn Roe v. Wade, but his subsequent actions (including recent executive orders), have further hammered abortion providers, forcing Planned Parenthood to close numerous clinics.

Yet when presented with these facts, one gets a remarkable set of excuses, such as Trump was motivated by DEI to hit Planned Parenthood, and the pro-life aspect was unintentional.  Similarly, his economic and governmental reforms are always characterized as chaotic and random even when it is clear that they are moving an a long-planned progression.

Maybe this is vanity.  Maybe the Catholics in question have much knowledge of theology and little of economics or politics.

It is tempting to write this off as the all-too-familiar Trump Derangement Syndrome, but these people are otherwise sensible and important voices in the Church.  It is illogical to expect them to change their opinion of Trump personally, nor should anyone ask that they do so.  He is a polarizing figure.

But when we move into the realm of policy, such distinctions assume a secondary character.  This is especially true when there is no moderate alternative.  The opposition has wedded itself to abortion without any limits at all, and their other policies are equally morally abhorrent.

When Trump is wrong, Catholics should speak out, but their criticisms will be much more effective when coming from voices that were hitherto friendly and supportive.  Simply carping at him non-stop, qualifying any praise while indulging in personal attacks are unwise and counterproductive.  It is also not particularly Christian.

Over the weekend someone recommended this lengthy essay about mental illness in general and delusional behavior in particular.  It is a long, repetitive read, and the summary version is that an increasing number of people seem unable to deal with reality and resort to creating delusions as a way of avoiding reality.

I think there are two reasons why this kind of behavior is even possible.

The first, and probably the easiest to fix, is that we live in a secular society driven by materialism.  As the pandemic lockdown showed, most of our elites regard religion as a secondary thing rather than a first thing.  Religion to them is a form of self-help, fine so long as it doesn't challenge the secular materialist worldview.

This is why the UK feels it appropriate to ban prayers near abortion mills.  Prayer is not a human right, it's a thing you are permitted to do only if no one else objects (unless you are Muslim, of course).

Restoring religion - and in particular, Christianity - to its rightful place at the center of Western civilization has seemed like an insurmountable challenge, but we are now seeing a wide-ranging revival, in part because Christians have ceased trying to be "nice" and are returning to moral language and moral condemnation.

Surging Bible sales are another indicator that people feel the "faith of things" has failed.

To bow before God is to be humble and remain grounded.  Christianity teaches a rational and ordered worldview, and also that good people can - through no fault of their own - experience bad things.  The key is to understand why, to learn from them, and continue in the faith.  I will say that I am having the worst Lent of my life.  Between sickness, a painful medical procedure with lengthy recovery, and the normal fasting, I'm not having a good time.

On the other hand, I'm having a great time, because this is some serious Lenten suffering.  What a blessing to offer up all this misery to God!  I have taken so much for granted and as I heal, I rejoice in so many small things.

This leads us to the larger problem, which is that society is increasingly alienated from actual work, and our connection with the natural world has been severed.  The woman in the essay is a programmer, which means her labor has no direct connection to her pay.  She pushes buttons and gets (digital) money in return.

This is a far cry from tilling a garden and watching it crow, or raising livestock.  All of her relationships are built around an artificial Californian society that was built in a couple of generations without any roots or continuity.  It is no accident that Hollywood dwells so much on suburban alienation.  Few, if any, have the sense of rootedness one finds in middle America.

As the lockdowns slowly lifted, I went to northern Michigan and sat on the beach at Rogers City, watching waves come crashing into the shore via a strong north wind.  I sat there for about an hour, watching the sun set over a vast sky and darkening horizon.  The enormity of it all exposed how futile it is think that we are worth of CIA surveillance or trans-national hit teams.  In the greater scheme, we are as insignificant as one of the rocks on the shore, and as fleeting as a frothing wave.

When you are in the world, interacting with it, you become aware of how many other stories are taking place around you.  The prayer intentions at Mass sketch out other hardships, deaths and illnesses.  The baptismal announcements and weddings also point to new things emerging, seemingly spontaneously.  You didn't will them, had nothing to do with them, yet there they are.

For a time, people are able to function in the abstract, God-free environment, usually because they are preoccupied with building up their wealth and status.  They are worshipping the god of the two-car garage, and it can be quite fulfilling at first.

But after a while, the pursuit of things and status rings hollow and is no longer fulfilling.  Without any spiritual formation or connection to tangible things, the mind will start roving, seeking meaning in any way it can.

The author stresses that people can't be forced out of a delusion, but there are two answers to this.  The first is that one can't replace something with nothing - you cannot take away one vision without another to replace it.

In addition, modern American society has uniquely evolved to cater to these people through cheap transportation, easy movement, and our boundless affluence.  Whether one mooches off of wealthy relatives or exploits public assistance, it's remarkably easy to start over, and repeat the cycle without learning anything, and the essay shows this quite clearly.

The American obsession with individualism - even when it is deeply harmful - buttresses this.  We used to lock people up for their own good, but that became viewed as totalitarian.  It is now seen as better to tolerate sidewalk encampments than put people in supervised living where they do various chores to renew their understanding how work is connected to fulfilment, and labor can have a tangible, immediate result.

Society itself now labors under several delusions regarding fantastic Russian conspiracies, hidden Nazi cells, and the notion than men can actually become women.  These beliefs substitute for actual faith, and lead to still further fantastic notions that allowing one's lawn to grow wild in May will please Gaia or something.

And yes, there is a spiritual aspect to this as well, because demons love souls in torment.  The wrath and energy that comes with these delusions helps sustain them.  It is like a drug, and a great many people are addicted to it.

The upshot is that these people don't have a single thing go wrong, and many of them have multiple factors that drive them into insanity and keep them there.  Reason is useless, and in many cases I think an exorcist is more effective than a therapist.

One of the most disturbing - and yet comforting - revelations of the past few months is just how much money is wasted on bogus aid programs.  It's disturbing because most people assuming that the US was incapable of Third-World level corruption.  We're not.

At the same time, it is comforting because we now know that there are vast amounts of resources that could be redirected to do immense good (or at least lowering the tax burden and reducing the national debt).

There is also newfound scrutiny being directed at the almost entirely useless "non-profit" sector.  Most of these organizations serve as pass-through recipients, who take a cut of whatever grant they get and then pass it on to others who then take a cut and pass it along again.

The mission statements of these entities is invariably open-ended.  They "advocate" or "raise awareness" or "build networks" and so on.  Their staff is well-compensated, with the CEOs living in luxury.  It was not always so.

Before women became preponderant in the office environment, actual charities were primarily staffed by volunteers, typically housewives whose kids had reached a point where they no longer demanded close supervision.  My grandmother was one of these women - having raised five kids, she now turned her attention to various societies and right up until her death, she was constantly busy organizing and attending meetings, events, and so on.

In those days, women gained status by having thriving families and doing good works (yes, she was Catholic).  To not contribute one's time was shameful.  How could you sit around the table at the country club without recounting your various activities, many of which you shared with your dining companions?

We have long since replaced this concept of charitable obligation with charity as an income generator, and the very uselessness of non-profits is held to raise them above grubby for-profit business, which of course are what powers the economy that keeps them afloat.

This shift is one of the engines that has powered Yard Sign Calvinism, which has no concern over whether any of their labor accomplishes anything, it is all about looking good and feeling good.  Pulling down hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary while running a food bank into the ground is the epitome of this mentality.

There is also the problem of where the money that isn't wasted on staff perks actually goes.  In the above example, some of it went to electioneering, which is clearly fraud.  

The fact is that we live in a fallen world, and one way to avoid aid being misused is to keep it close to home and under close observation.  Even nominally religious organizations can fall victim to a bureaucratic mentality.

As I have repeatedly pointed out, my parish bulletin is simultaneously asking for help in resettling foreign migrants while also lamenting the depletion of the food pantry and housing resources.  We are literally robbing Peter to pay Paul, all the while preening about our virtue.

Indeed, there is almost a perverse delight in this, as the Protestant work ethic is weaponized against native-born poor, who are condemned as lazy, ill-educated and of course racist, while those from overseas bear none of the sins of this blighted nation.

Our charities are increasingly uncharitable, designed to comfort the comfortable, and punish the suffering.  I see these discoveries as an opportunity to make a radical change, sweeping out the corruption and refocusing on truly good works.

On the Feast Day of St. Joseph last week it was announced that a major Planned Parenthood facility in New York City was closing down.

This is glorious news, and it highlights the need to press forward against the evil of abortion on all fronts.  It is well and good to lobby for legislation, or file lawsuits, but another key theater of the war is in the hearts of both workers and those seeking abortions.  I've remarked before on how strange it is that highly secular England bans prayer around abortion mills.  Note that this does not refer to open services, but simply standing silently can now land one in jail.

Clearly, the prayer makes the demons uncomfortable.  The British also seem troubled that women might change their mind, which is now an illegal form of coercion.  That admission gives the game away, because we know for a fact that many abortions are coerced, either by men who want to avoid child support or families who fear the scandal or burden of a teen mother.

I am often frustrated by Right to Life organizations that collect money but seem to have no real legislative strategy other than endless "trainings," but this is proof that street presence matters.

It also shows that the economics of abortion are shifting against its profiteers.  It would be nice to see more on this front, something similar to what happened in Lansing some years ago, when an abortion clinic's lease came up and a Catholic parish bought out the property, forcing the clinic to close.  The building was given an exorcism and now is a pregnancy resource center.

In recent years, the Enemy has played up the fears of women through lies about ectopic pregnancies.  These lies must be exposed and the reality of abortion made clear, as well as the sordid wealth gained from it.  As abortion demand falls, there will inevitably be pressure for tax dollars to sustain it.  This will only play well in the most lop-sided jurisdictions, and even there it will not be without controversy.  

In the mean time, we must continue our prayers, which are clearly proving efficacious.