Tucker

Okay, I admit it, I’m a fan-boy and Tucker Carlson is my crush. I subscribe to his TCN network, and before that I followed him on Fox News–and I was considering joining Twitter, now X.

I don’t agree with him 100% of the time–but pretty close.

My first recollection of him was over 15 years ago when he worked for either MSNBC or CNN. At that time I was not a habitual watcher of the cable news networks and tended to sample all of them. My first opinion was not favorable. He wore a bow tie and I tend to feel that most of that ilk are weirdos. I think of Louis Farrakhan and Bill Nye the Science Guy. However, one of my all-time favorite people, Harry Truman, sometimes wore a bow tie–and even FDR. But back in the 1940s and 50s it was more acceptable.

Eventually, I gravitated to Fox as I was becoming more and more conservative. I looked forward to watching Bill O’Reilly every night in the 8:00 time slot. About the same time in 2016, when O’Reilly was canned, I gave up cable. It was costing me a fortune every month and though I missed Fox and a couple other channels I started saving almost a hundred bucks a month.

When Tucker Carlson was announced as the new host in that time slot I remember thinking, “Well, that’s probably not gonna work.” The O’Reilly Factor was the most popular show on cable news for many many years and I didn’t see Tucker capturing the same audience. Boy, was I wrong.

Over the next couple years I’d occasionally catch Tucker Carlson Tonight when I was staying in a hotel and I was pleasantly surprised. I also had read that his ratings equaled and then surpassed O’Reilly’s–and it was becoming evident why. He was even more articulate and humorous than Bill’O–and his conservatism had also obviously evolved.

Then about two to three years ago I found I could watch him on YouTube a few hours after his telecast. Then following him became a nightly ritual. I could not go to bed without hearing what Tucker had to say about the issues of the day.

When he was fired I was shocked but not totally surprised. In a sense, he’d become bigger than Fox News itself. His opinions were expressed with a cutting edge so sharp that could possibly offend the higher up Fox produces and its owners the Murdoch family. Also, his views on the 2020 election Dominion voting machine controversy may have been helped cost Fox a huge settlement.

Tucker’s demise in Fox caused me to join Glen Beck’s Blaze network. I was thinking Tucker might eventually end up there. In any event he kept in touch with his fans doing independent telecasts that were immensely successful. He clearly had a market and a loyal following, and I like many others was more than ready to subscribe to his TCN network.

He’s had some terrific interviews with experts on Covid, the Ukraine war, the border crisis, RFK Jr, Alex Jones, Elon Musk, UFOs, Jan 6th and Vladimir Putin himself. –pretty much any topic of interest to myself and obviously many others. Of course, Wikipedia refers to him as a conspiracy theorist.

Recently, I saw an interview of him by noted podcaster Lex Fridman. Fridman is in his late-30s and was born in the old Soviet Union. His family moved to the US when he was very young, and his academic credentials are in high tech and computers. His podcast interviews are among the most successful on YouTube and other platforms. Fridman tried to pin Tucker down on the Putin interview and the war in Ukraine without much success. The bottom line was that even Fridman is a Tucker fan.

He is criticized on both the right and the left as a Vladimir Putin or Russian aggression apologist. Indeed, I can see why. He voices some justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The reason being our neo-cons pushing Ukraine’s membership in NATO–pretty much the equivalent of Soviet missiles in Cuba. He condemns Putin’s war but not nearly enough. He is right however in seeing congress pushing massive Ukraine aid as a windfall for our corrupt military industrial complex.

I think anyone interested in current events who is middle of the road neutral, or conservative would feel likewise about Tucker. His insights are brilliant and usually presented with cutting humor. He punctuates his clever/funny thoughts with a high-pitched giggle that took a while for me to get used to. But there are times when is humor is just a little too cutting. In fact, downright vicious. Like perpetually referring to CNN’s Brian Steltzer as “the eunuch” or calling various other talking heads like Karine Jean-Pierre or Chris Cuomo as “the dumbest person on TV.”

His mission statement is to “tell the unadulterated truth till the day I die.” Indeed, one gets the feeling that he is absolutely committed to telling his version of the truth without fear. I hope he has a great security detail as I’m sure there are many on the left that would like to rub him out. Since the death of Rush two years ago his voice is the most stringent and popular on the right.

His life story is one of the few that I envy. He was born into a well-off family and his early years were spent in Southern California. His father worked in the public sector and the family eventually moved to the DC area. He attended Trinity, an excellent small college in New England. From an early age his career has been devoted strictly to journalism. He married his high school sweetheart at a young age, and they raised four daughters. He appears to still be very much in love with his wife and quite happy with his domestic situation. His career success and accolades do not seem near as important to him as his personal life. However, he has said he’s 54 years old and had a great life and if it ended now, he’d feel okay about it–or words to that effect. In some way his secure home base gives him the freedom for his work.

He has two rural homes that he splits time between, one in Western Maine and the other in South Florida. He does most of his shows from studios in his homes. His garb is traditional semi-dressy casual–blue blazer with a handkerchief in the breast pocket and a striped tie. I get the feeling his wife picks out his wardrobe. For recreation he goes fly fishing and hunting with his retrievers. He has an enviable life. He’s a handsome successful man in his prime. Who wouldn’t want to be Tucker.

Anxiety, The Leap of Faith and Losing Control

The term “Leap of Faith” originated with the 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard. It had to do with believing in and trusting God when rationally it made little sense.

“Faith is stepping out into the unknown with nothing to guide us but a hand just beyond our grasp.” Frederick Buechner

For me personally, the leap of faith was stepping out into the unknown when my fear (anticipatory anxiety) was close to overwhelming.

I’ve written about this quite extensively in two of my books: The Unwelcome Blessing and DiosPsyTrek. The first book was about coping with depression and the second a collection of blogs, sketches and autobiographical reminiscences.

In a nutshell, when I was in my 20s, I suffered overwhelming generalized and situational anxiety and coped with my fears by drinking a lot. My first panic attack occurred when I was 21 and a senior in college, but by then I’d endured generalized anxiety for several years. In my late-20s and early-30s I was pretty much a functioning alcoholic. In my mid-30s I’d sobered up and in 1979, I had an unexpected born-again experience. I was married then and marriage had a lot to do with me quitting alcohol and then after finding the Lord my anxiety subsided considerably.

It was still there but it was a lot less. It mainly manifested in situation where I would feel trapped–like stuck in the middle of a long row in a theater, a long slow-moving line, traffic jams, elevators, tunnels and long bridges. Those could be frequent challenges but generally manageable or avoidable ones. My real bugaboo was flying.

My last flight had been in 1969.

I went 33 years without getting on a plane–from Aug of ’69 to Aug of 2002. Now I look forward to flights. How did that happen?

Well, for one thing I’m pretty sure God had plans for me and those plans involved flying. It all came to a head in July and Aug of 2002. My stepson Jeremy in California had been hounding me for a couple years to come out for a visit. I thought about driving and that would be about a four-day trip out driving and another four back and then a few days there and it would be quite an investment in time–about two weeks–and more than I wanted to be away. I even looked into taking the train, but the route and connections were not convenient.

Jeremy and his girlfriend were coming to Fla for a visit in July. I asked if I could fly back with them. Having him to hold my hand so to speak would make the trip a lot less scary. In an act of uncharacteristic optimism, I booked the flight.

Three days before the flight I was browsing at Books-a-Million and looking thru the Christiann section when I saw a book with an odd title: Ruthless Trust. It was by Brennan Manning an author with whom I was unfamiliar. After just glancing at a few pages, I knew this was the book I needed to read.

What I got out of Manning’s book was that whereas I believed in God, I didn’t really trust Him–at least not enough to get on an airplane. And as a Christian counselor I felt like a fraud. I needed to take the leap of faith and step out into the unknown trusting God with the outcome. Manning says that Jesus died for us and all we really had to give back to Him was our trust.

As for my fear of flying it was not a worry about crashing. I knew that flying was statistically much safer than driving. One was thousands of times more likely to die in a car crash on the way to the airport than on the flight. It was not the plane crashing that gave me angst it was not having any control over the situation. Up in the air one’s fate apparently rests in the hands of the pilots and mechanics–but of course it’s really the Lord who is ultimately in control. Our “control” in any situation is largely an illusion.

We flew out of Tampa on Aug 5th.in the early morning. I didn’t sleep much the night before and I was grateful to have Jeremy usher me thru all the airport security stuff that I was unfamiliar with post 9/11. We were not seated together on the flight but that was okay. I had a CD player with me and listened to classical music and gospel music for much of the five hour flight. Over Arizona we ran into some turbulence and that provoked some white knuckle moments, but an hour later we started to descend and when I saw the mountain peaks west of LA I started to feel like maybe we would make it safely there. And of course we did.

I had a great six-day visit. Flying back was on a late-night redeye. Jeremy flies a lot and enjoys it and that was somewhat infectious. He took me to LAX and made sure I got headed thru the right gate. The flight was 30 minutes late getting started and the pilot said there was an issue with one of the engines. I was tempted to bolt for the door but didn’t. On the four-hour flight back I was just too tired to feel much anxiety.

My next flight was 17 months later in Jan of 2004. It was a mission trip to the Dominican Republic with a team of about 15 primarily from St. Mary Magdalen church. Not only the flight, but the whole trip was way out of my comfort zone. I knew that we would be in an isolated village high in the mountains and worrying about what we would face was a major challenge for me. Once again, I had some anxiety, but it was manageable, and overall, the trip was a wonderful experience. So wonderful in fact that I now look forward to flying as I feel something really worthwhile is waiting at the other end. I suppose since then I’ve flown about 50 times, including four trips across the big pond to Europe.

Control is largely an illusion. It’s something we humans tell ourselves they have to have to keep anxiety at bay. We feel like if we have no control or if we give up control that fear will overwhelm us. We might have a panic attack, pass out, be rendered completely helpless or have a cerebral stroke. Who knows? This is what fear whispers into our thoughts. And I believe that “fear” is moderated by the demonic. When we are preoccupied with avoiding that which we fear we are unlikely to do much for God’s kingdom.

The first step in any 12-step program such as AA is admitting that one has no control over their addiction or behavior. Not only that, but that they are not God and that they have no control, period. The second step is choosing God or a higher power to restore one to “sanity” or wellbeing. And the third step is giving up control to God or that higher power.

I also believe that when one stops facing their fears in attempting to cope with them, they stop growing. They get stuck. The more they give in to fear, the more they live a life of avoiding opportunities for growth. Usually, their circle gets narrower and narrower.

At the core of much anxiety is the mild to moderate long lasting depression known as dysthymic disorder. Some nervous systems lack the neurotransmitter serotonin which underlies problems with anxiety, depression and addictions–and so in some cases medication can make a big difference. Most of the commonly prescribed antidepressants are SSRIs– like Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro and Paxil. They’re known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. With some of my clients an SSRI has made a huge difference in their ability to face their fear. The little jolt in optimism that the SSRI makes can give some folks the needed boost confidence.

But ultimately there is no substitute for facing one’s fear and anxiety. Serious Christians have huge advantage in that regard. They’re equipped and empowered to take the leap of faith, and we must keep in mind that our trust is the only thing we can give back to the Lord who gave everything for us.

It’s All Part of a Plan

This mess that our republic is immersed in is not an accident.

Joe Biden is clearly non compos mentis, and the signs were there as early as four years ago when he was “running” for president. His campaign was mostly carefully orchestrated videos from his basement. It was convenient to blame it on staying safe from Covid. However, when he did speak in public he showed signs of cognitive deterioration. And now his dementia is obviously far more progressed.

But even on his best days several decades ago he was a mediocre intellect. He succeeded thru some strange charm that withstood obvious falsehoods and plagiarized speeches. He conned his way into term after term in the senate from a small obscure state. In 36 years in the senate, he never authored any major legislation. Like the other democrat icon Chuck Schumer, he never really had a job as an adult. He was always a politician.

Being so cognitively vacant and physically fragile it’s obvious that someone else is pulling his strings. His closest handler is his wife, Dr. Jill. However, it’s highly likely that the real puppet master is Obama and leftovers from his regime.

Even with massive support from the mainstream media Joe’s poll numbers have become alarmingly low. There is a bit of panic in the democrat ranks–and so he does things like a photo op at the border and pretend that it’s a problem he wants to solve–and of course he blames Trump and the MAGA republicans.

However, the 9-million illegals that have flooded in under his regime has become impossible to ignore. But creating chaos was planned. It’s just that now it has started to affect not only border states like Texas and Arizona but also all the major democrat controlled sanctuary cities. Folks are figuring it out. Millions are spent on illegals while many American citizens remain needy.

Ditto the war in Ukraine. At one point bleeding Russia by spending billions bolstering up Ukraine seemed like a good idea and a wise investment. Now however we’re over two years into this war and its obvious Russia is slowly winning. Our economic sanctions against Russia have had no great effect. So, we are asked to throw more good money after bad. It’s over 75-billion and counting. However, our prime motive was always feeding the military industrial complex. So much of our huge investment is coming back to enrich major corporations. Our very immoral dilemma is that the longer we prolong the war via military aid the more thousands of innocent lives are lost. Once again, the general public has slowly figured it out.

Also, the first steps Biden took in 2021, was putting the US in a position where we were no longer energy independent. The price of gas has doubled since Trump was president and it has hurt most Americans in the pocketbook. And many folks have figured it out. The great climate change scam affects them nought.

Joe says the economy is healthy. It’s not. The so called “growth” is really just people returning to work post Covid. The massive giveaways during the Covid lockdowns were all part of the plan. Big government to the rescue.

The discrepancy in who the democrat Dept of Justice and the FBI chooses to persecute is all part of the plan as well. In May of 2020, George Floyd last words, “I can’t breath” became the rallying cry for thousands of acts of domestic violence in democrat controlled big cities. Sections of Minneapolis were burned to the ground. Dozens died. Nobody was held accountable. But folks who were in the vicinity of the Capitol on Jan 6 are held in solitary confinement for months.

The woke agenda has vitiated our military. Forcing career military personnel to take an unproven vaccine resulted in many reluctantly leaving the service. Also, it’s become apparent that what matters as far as leadership and advancement is one’s sex, color and political persuasion. The mediocre have risen to the top.

Current defense spending is inadequate in the face of a Chinese communist regime that is clearly focused on world domination. Folks rightfully wonder if we are still the world’s primary superpower. The Chicoms have infiltrated our universities and corporations and stolen out technology. They have fueled the fentanyl epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of our young people. And Joe treats them with kid gloves. He plays nice because they own him and his family–and once again more folks are waking up to that fact.

But, like everything else, a weakened military is part of a plan. It’s part of a plan by citizens who clearly hate their own country. Now who might that be? Whose father had dreams that a biracial son brought to fruition?

Tears

“Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, tears from the depth of some divine despair rise in the heart and gather to the eyes, In looking at the happy autumn fields, and thinking of the days that are no more.” ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Yesterday, for whatever reason, I was feeling quite emotional. Midday, I had a couple of crying jags. If I were younger and a woman, I could say I was premenstrual. But I’m not–even tho men have some kind of a cycle too.

The tears were set off by recollecting the lines: “hello young lovers whoever you are, be brave be faithful and true…” from an old Rogers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. My mother loved that show. But I’m not young and barely a lover. And then I thought of another song she loved from the same show: “Shall We Dance.” And the boo hoos started all over again.

Perhaps it was thinking about my mother and her tragic life that set the tears rushing to my eyes. She had a few good seasons in her life but overall, it was predominantly sad and tragic. She was seriously bipolar and had many hospitalizations. Her life was cut short at age 13 when her father was killed in an auto accident.

Anyway, I’m diagnosable too. I’m basically Bipolar Type II. Most of the time I’m in a mild to moderate depressed funk (called dysthymia) but then I have brief periods of feeling waaay too cheerful. But fortunately, I’m what’s known as a “short cycler”–going up and down in a matter of a few days or even hours. I go thru spells or cycles when I feel very emotional and because of that I’m sure I weep more than the average male. But sometimes my tears are tears of joy. Certain poignant strains of music can set me off–especially Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Mahler.

God gave us tears for some very good reason–but I’m not at all clear as to why. I’m sure many physiologists speculate but somehow, I doubt that their explanations are the real reason why. The real reason has something to do with God’s economy. There’s a passage in scripture where Jesus is described as praying with great sobs (Heb. 5:7). He also cried when he heard of his friend Lazarus’s death. It would be interesting to track down every reference in scripture to tears and crying. I’m sure somebody has done it.

Longfellow wrote: “Every heart has its secret sorrows which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad.” And: “There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.”

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more open in expressing my emotions. I’m sure when I was younger many thought my apparent impassivity was a type of coldness. In reality, I guess I was just protecting myself. I’ve had clients tell me that they hadn’t cried in years or that they could no longer cry because they felt if they ever started, they could never stop. To me, that has the ring of truth. I could relate.

In three months, it will be the 6th anniversary of my BFF Barb’s passing. Since then, I’ve had an avalanche of deaths in my life. Or at least that’s how it seems–and feels. The most recent being my good friend Stan on March 7th. And I could name them all but won’t.

Perhaps, in a very clinical sense, it’s just a function of getting quite old and having a very small family of origin.

Hidden and Revelatory

Sometimes it seems as though God plays hide and seek with humanity. A recent article by Russell Moore about the late Frederick Buechner got me to mulling that over. Both Buechner’s novels and speculations about our faith such as Listening to Your Life or Whistling in the Dark contain narratives about doubt and the hiddenness of God.

It says in scripture that no one has ever seen God (John 1:18, Ex. 33:20). Not only is he invisible but He also seems to play tricks on us in speculating about who we think He is. The long dialogues in the book of Job seem to point toward that.

I have many friends who appear quite certain that they know God intimately. Not only that, but they believe in the inerrancy of scripture. The past few years I’ve rarely felt convinced of either one. I currently talk to God all the time–and I believe He is listening. And twice He answered me. Now which part of the Triune God answered I’m not certain. When I had my “born again” experience in 1979, I think it was Jesus. I read the “Sinner’s Prayer” in a book by Tim LaHaye and He answered it in a very dramatic fashion.

In any event, it is Jesus who came to put a human face on God. And it is the Holy Spirit who connects us to all the parts. At least that’s what I currently believe about the HS. And I think it’s Jesus who we can know intimately. Do we access that intimacy most thoroughly thru scripture or thru prayer? I don’t have that answer. Perhaps it’s an individual thing.

Moses asks God to show him His glory in Exodus 33 and God shows him His goodness (His abundance) but doesn’t allow Moses to see His face. No one sees the face of God and lives. That begs the question why. And yet it seems that all of scripture is God revealing Himself to mankind.

It seems to me that God’s hiddenness is deliberate. He is a mystery that we must pursue. If we were given all the answers up front would existence have any point? The Bible would be quite short, probably less than 100 pages. God gave intelligent people insatiable curiosity. Einstein said, “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

Many years ago, I prayed passionately again and again for the “WHY” of it all to be revealed to me. And then one day there it was illuminated in a passage by the 19th century writer and clergyman George MacDonald and his comments on the opening lines of the Gospel of John: “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” God the Father made the earth and all of creation for the Lover part of Him, Jesus, to have something and someone to love.

Tucker, Putin and Hubris

Hubris: a translation from Greek for this characteristic: “excessive pride, violating the bounds set for humans.” It was always punished by the gods. In Greek tragedy hubris is often the protagonist’s tragic flaw that becomes their ultimate undoing.

This came to mind while I was watching Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with Vladimir Putin. I watched about the first 30-40 min of a couple hour interview. I’d seen enough and figured I’d see the media take on what was looking to me like a debacle.

It struck me as extreme hubris that compelled Tucker to interview arguably the most powerful man in the world on his home turf. What I observed was Putin lecturing Tucker—giving him a history lesson of why traditionally the Ukraine belonged to Russia. Tucker’s nervous laughter and attempts to interrupt the great dictator and clarify points did not go well. After about 30-40 min I couldn’t stand to watch more of this uncomfortable spectacle.

The following day I revisited it and watched the final hour. I was struck by how mentally acute and articulate Putin is–especially compared to his adversary President Joe Biden. Putin’s intel service has him well briefed about affairs in the USA. He knew about our border crisis, our economy and inflation. Once again, he monopolized the dialogue and had Tucker completely off balance. He even knew that Carlson had once applied for a job with the CIA.

I look forward to Tucker’s penetrating interviews, and I agree with over 90% of his positions on issues. He’s a contrarian who delves below the surface. He takes the mainstream media to task. However, I have not been that enthusiastic about his take on the Russia/Ukraine war. I agree with him that Ukraine is a corrupt dictatorship and that the media’s attempt to make Zelenskiy another Churchill is ridiculous.

However, I think Putin is a murderous thug who will go to any lengths to bring the old USSR back together. I’d heard, and Putin reiterated, that they had offered Ukraine peace negotiations. This would likely have resulted in Ukraine having to give up some territory with predominantly Russian populations such as Crimea and the eastern Donbas. It was the US and UK who rejected the idea of a settlement and so thousands more would die.

I ask why should we care about Ukraine’s borders? It is a European problem that affects us naught. What is really important is our southern border and the roughly ten million illegals who’ve invaded our country under Biden’s watch. Nevertheless, the majority of fools in congress care more about Ukraine.

Based on things I’ve heard and read, Tucker has seemed a bit too enthusiastically pro-Russian. However, he was the first journalist to offer an extended interview with Putin. I believe it is important that the US and NATO hear his point of view. It will be interesting to see how this interview ultimately affects Tucker’s brand, his reputation. It was needed but was it an exercise in hubris?

What I have seen so far in the media, both left and right, is that Tucker was taken to task, that he was a dupe, a useful idiot, etc. However, Partick Bet-David of the popular PBD podcast felt that Tucker allowed Putin to explain his point of view and that that was important–that it wasn’t meant to be about Tucker’s cleverness as an interrogator or as a journalist. It is not supposed to be about them, it’s about the story. I tend to agree, but Tucker’s reputation was dealt a blow. The mainstream right, the neo-cons despise him even more.

My personal opposition to prolonging the war is that hundreds of thousands of innocent people more will be slaughtered. And our continued involvement in it seems like a result of the military/industrial complex making billions off this carnage. Of course, when its finally over US contractors will be paid untold more millions to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure.

One major political figure who agrees with Tucker is Bobby Kennedy, RFK Jr. He is a vocal critic of our involvement in promoting this conflict. He opposes it on moral grounds, and he get the fact that our billions upon billions in support of Ukraine is a function of the military industrial complex and bought off politicians from both parties. The money would be better spent on fixing our infrastructure and helping our needy citizens. I heartily agree.

Ozempic, the Vax and Big Pharma

“When the aquarium is dirty you don’t medicate the fish, you clean the tank.” ~ Calley Means

In the past couple weeks, I’ve watched Tucker Carlson interview biologist Bret Weinstein on the unfolding Covid vax disaster and health educator Calley Means on diabetes, Ozempic and the culpability of bought off “scientists” and politicians in the medical industrial complex.

Because I tend to be a bit of a contrarian, as well as a scientifically trained experimental psychologist, I have been aware of the alarming rise in death rates amongst the covid vaccinated. You would not find this out by following the NY Times or the mainstream broadcast media. One has to dig a bit below the surface and look at the research as there has been a concerted effort to suppress the truth by our bought off media and politicians–and the results are quite clear: the vax caused mortality rates to rise in this country, especially amongst the young and the poor.

A recent peer reviewed article in the medical journal Cureus confirmed that fact. The mRNA vaccine developed by Pfizer and Moderna killed more people than it helped. The article called for the immediate suspension of its use in the young.

The vax did not solve any illnesses, it created them, and that plus the unintended consequences of social distancing has had a devastating effect on our society. By every measure we are considerably sicker in 2024 than we were in 2019.

Fairly effective treatments such as Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin were pooh poohed by the media for no better reason than they were endorsed by Donald Trump. The mainstream media and our medical/industrial complex killed hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions) of people. Of course, they will accept no responsibility. They simply ignore the emerging facts and change the subject.

Anthony Fauci was generally hailed by the media as a hero. In fact, he was a serial liar and a villain in our response to the covid epidemic. Thankfully, he’s now retired.

And now we have a new wonder drug called Ozempic. I’d heard the name but had no clear idea what it treated. When the ubiquitous pharmaceutical ads come on TV, I change the channel or turn off the volume. I thought maybe Ozempic was a treatment for acne or irritable bowels (IBS).

Then I watched Tucker Carlson’s eye-opening interview with Calley Means. He points out that obesity and Type-2 diabetes are an epidemic in the US. This is largely due to our extremely unhealthy diets chock full of genetically altered foods, supersized and loaded with high fructose corn syrup.

So, they make us sick, and then voila they provide the chemical solution. Ozempic to the rescue.

Ozempic is the product of Novo Nordisk a European corporation. However, nowhere in Europe is it approved for use. That alone should tell you something.

Basically, Ozempic works by paralyzing your stomach, your digestive system, and food passes thru without being absorbed. Once a Type-2 diabetic starts taking it they are urged to take it for the rest of their life. Yikes. It’s truly sad that our government, the FDA and the AMA are all in on this. They have been bought off by big pharma, just like with the covid vax.

In the summers of 2006 and 2007, I spent about five weeks in Spain and Italy. I do not recall seeing a single morbidly obese person–chubby people, heavy-set folks, yes, but no one that looked unhealthy. In returning to the states, I didn’t get out of the Orlando terminal before I spotted several gigantic lardasses waddling thru the concourse.

In 2011 and 12, I was in the UK for about three weeks. There I recall seeing two morbidly obese people. The diet in the UK more resembles ours than on the continent. In Europe they do not allow genetically modified foods and folks walk a lot more. A natural diet rich in fresh vegetables and more activity leads to better health. No need for lifelong “miracle” drugs like Ozempic. In any event, the health agencies that govern there have not approved it as they realize it’s toxic.

The USA has a medical/industrial complex that has supplanted heavy industry and manufacturing in our world. The medical/industrial complex buys off politicians and so-called scientists. We are only world leaders in food production, medical care and entertainment.

Our dying, effete society offers the world bread and circuses. Finis

Legion

I’ve written two books in the genre of spiritual warfare: Satan’s Top Ten Tricks (2007) and Jesus v. satan: The Message of the Wilderness Temptations (2010). In preparing to write those books I did extensive reading myself. The book that influenced my thinking the most was The Three Battlegrounds by Francis Frangipane.

Frangipane identifies the three areas of spiritual warfare as the mind, the church and the heavenly places.

I’d first heard about Frangipane’s excellent book from Jim Kohlmann in 1997, in an eight-week class he taught at Northland Community Church titled “Effective Spiritual Warfare”. He taught a nine-step process to identify and deliver oneself and others from oppressive spirits. He makes the point that believers who have the HS living in them cannot be possessed, but the demons live in one’s thought life. That class was my introduction to the topic of spiritual warfare.

In August 2022, I started taking a class at Lake Mary Church titled “Foundations.” It was taught by Pastor Shaddy Soliman. I’d started attending that church two months earlier. I did this as a result of the changes I saw in a friend of mine who’d taken the class twice. Ever the skeptic, I assumed Foundations was Christianity 101–and I thought I already knew all that.

In fact, it was basic Christianity but examined completely from a perspective of spiritual warfare. In the twelve-week class participants learn about 14 root spirits that are identified in scripture. At the end there is a daylong retreat that amounts to a deliverance from those oppressing spirits. I found the class to be eye opening and my experience with the retreat led me to believe that some of the participants truly experienced deliverance.

Even though I already knew a great deal about spiritual warfare I leaned even more from Pastor Shaddy’s excellent “Foundations” class.

This past Sunday Pastor Shaddy’s message was taken from the tale of the demoniacs found in Mark 5, Matthew 8 and Luke 8. Each gospel account varies slightly. However, the chief takeaways are (1) even evil spirits acknowledge the living God, Jesus –when atheists and other faiths don’t; (2) those possessed are self-harming; (3) evil spirits demand a living home. They don’t like hanging out in deserted spaces; (4) they fear being thrown out (exorcised); (5) a demoniac may be inhabited by dozens, perhaps hundreds or even thousands (legion) of spirits; (6) those merely tormented by spirits (the general public) are comfortable with them and resent offers to repent. Spirits recognize the threat, disguise themselves and fight back.

That’s why it’s called warfare.

However, according to C.S. Lewis neither ignoring demons nor having an excessive interest in them is healthy.

You’ve been warned. Be preoccupied with loving and serving God and your neighbors. .

Was Jesus Punished Enough?

Graham Cooke poses that question.

And he adds, “This is not a trick question. Did the Father pour out every bit of wrath and judgment on Jesus? 

Cooke’s further point: If God did not lay it all on Jesus at Calvary, if He left any room for additional judgment or punishment then we are all doomed. If there is any amount of anger remaining in God, any room left for judgement or punishment, then in this life no amount of good works or proper attitude can save us.

This is the essence of the “saved by grace” theology that underpins what most Protestants have believed for 500 years. But the “Good News” is just too good to be true and so we focus again and again on sin and on condemning messages and on judgment and on trying to be good.

Cooke’s statement about judgment and wrath is on a CD on our prophetic gifts recorded live at a presentation around 2007. A friend gave me several Graham Cooke CDs in 2011 and listening to them over and over shaped much of what I had come to believe about my faith. That is, that the Father placed us in Jesus and that the Father no longer sees us as we are but only sees the righteousness of His Son. We have been permanently cleansed. We are saved. We are home free. And our only response can be gratitude and trust.

Cooke says that we are currently living in a judge free space. There was judgment at Calvary and there will be the Final Judgment in eternity but that there is no longer room for judgment in this life. There are natural consequences for sin but not judgment. Yahoo!

But we backslide. The good news, the gospel, is just too good to be true, is it not? The world, the flesh and the devil gnaw away at the gospel, and we start to question our salvation, especially given some believers obsession with sin. The John MacArthur’s and John Piper’s of Evangelicalism derisively refer to folks like Cooke, Steve Brown or Andrew Farley as teachers of hyper-grace.

Of course, to them, the term “sinner” is much more descriptive and applicable than “saved.” But then we see in others what’s inside of us, do we not?

In the three synoptic gospels Jesus rails against sin and sets impossibly high standards for us. However, like The Lord’s Prayer some of the focus is on forgiving others so we will be forgiven. Also, His lectures about sin all are before Calvary and the Resurrection. I’d heard other believers make that before and after distinction and it never made sense to me until now. Something did dramatically change at the Cross.

A few weeks back, tiring of the rancorous obsessions of talk radio, I randomly dug out an old Cooke CD and plugged it into my car’s sound system. I hadn’t listened to any of them in at least five years–and perhaps much longer. And my theology has suffered. I often felt like I was drowning in despair and not awash in gratitude.

Oh, a part of me still believed it intellectually, but I was not feeling it. I am, after all is said and done, a sinner. That’s how I’d been feeling of late, compliments of the accuser. The accuser is the little demonic voice in our thoughts.

So, when I plugged the randomly selected Cooke CD in, there it was, the answer to my growing despair. Was Jesus judged and punished enough?

Yes, He was.

The Gauntlet of Greeters

To echo the opening lines of Anna Karenina: “Every dying little church dies in its own way while every megachurch is successful in the same.”

They start in the outer reaches of the parking lot smiling and waving and telling you to enjoy the service, and by the time you reach the sanctuary you’ve run the gauntlet of four or five robotic greeters and finally an usherette wants to help you find a seat even though there are plenty to pick from for those who arrive on time.

A projected digital clock counts down to zero, the house lights dim, and lasers and spotlights illuminate the dozen or so singers and musicians who constitute the “worship team.” The team gyrates in front of a projected backdrop of colorful graphics. The “praise” music is loud and the lyrics exceedingly repetitive and somewhat trite. The bass is heavy–and due to the congregation being 60% Latino, the drummer tends toward a salsa beat and rhythm.

The sanctuary slowly fills and 20-minutes into the service very few seats remain.

You will not hear great old hymns like “Thou Who Was Great Beyond All Splendor” or “Lord of All” or even “Blessed Assurance.” About as traditional as the cookie cutter megachurch gets is a version of “Amazing Grace” with slightly altered lyrics.

And for congregants who do not attend in person all services are available on-line and on Facebook compliments of Covid.

Meanwhile several blocks down the street some little denominational church is slowly dying. The 30 or 40 senior citizens hopefully scan the sanctuary looking for folks under age-50 or young families. Their church may have reimagined themselves to get away from First Baptist or St. Luke’s Presbyterian or St. John’s Methodist, etcetera and may now have some snappy church-hip name like “Identity” or “Real Life.”. However, the congregants are respectful: they have arrived on time. Their church may have replaced the worn hymnals with a projection system. They may even offer the service on-line–or maybe not. Many little churches keep trying, but they can’t compete with the ecclesiatainment and synergy the megachurches offer. They don’t offer life-groups or recovery programs or specialized Bible studies.

Many keep trying but to little avail. It’s just a matter of time before they close their doors, as young people, Gen-Z, as they’re known, no longer attend church. And if they do it’s to the thriving nondenominational urban megachurch where they can disappear into the crowd and no one will hardly notice if they stop attending.

Some days it fills me with sadness to note the changes in our nation’s moral/religious landscape, and on other days it seems fitting since the Holy Spirit left the building long ago.