Cultural Spectacles and the Eternity in Human Hearts

From Breakpoint.org (Feb. 10):

This past weekend, a pair of events drew global audiences. The Opening Ceremonies of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LX in San Francisco are the most recent installments of events that have become contemporary cultural flashpoints and feature the clash of worldviews.

Thankfully, this year’s Opening Ceremonies were tame compared to recent Olympics, especially the debauched 2024 Paris debacle. This time, Grammy-winner Mariah Carey performed the Italian classic “Volare,” invoking much online discussion centered about whether she was lip-syncing. With that as the biggest controversy, parents could breathe a sigh of relief and say to themselves, “Well, at least it wasn’t Paris.”

And it’s a good lesson for future host nations: avoid overt desecration of things much of the world considers holy. Instead, as the iconic Olympic rings came together in the arena, NBC announcers noted how these games focused on “harmony between seemingly dueling ideals,” symbolizing an emerging global unity.

Seattle fans are happy, but the pre- and post-game buzz of the Super Bowl had far more to do with the dueling halftime shows than the game itself. The NFL’s official halftime show was headlined by Bad Bunny while an alternative show, produced by Turning Point USA, was described as entertainment “without parents having to worry about shielding their children’s eyes.” That’s been a very real concern since the infamous 2004 “wardrobe malfunction” and several provocative performances since. Many also noted the irony of Kid Rock being the family-friendly alternative, but he was. The Bad Bunny performance featured homoeroticism and, for those who understand Spanish, sexually charged lyrics.

As expressions of worldviews, both the Opening Ceremonies and the Super Bowl, in distinct ways, demonstrate a reality of the human condition. God made people to yearn for something larger than themselves. This longing, which can take the form of athletic struggle and triumph, national pride, or an idealized vision of global harmony, is embedded in humanity’s created nature. As C.S. Lewis observed in Mere Christianity:

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. . . If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

The Olympic ceremonies reflected this human longing specifically. The theme of peace and the joining of the rings presented a dream for harmony and unity that recalled the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, in which John Lennon’s “Imagine” served as a theme song of the Opening Ceremonies:

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

The song, which is often played at nostalgic cultural moments, captures the utopian vision of progressivism: a world without borders, conflict, or transcendent authority, in which humanity is perfectible and human nature is inherently good. Of course, the dissonance between the song and the reality of the human condition, especially given the nation hosting those Olympics, was palpable. At the time, Beijing was actively persecuting Uighur Muslims, clamping down on churches, and violating the 50-year agreement about Hong Kong.

In fact, from the Tower of Babel onward, history is full of the futility and dangers of seeking unity above everything else. Often, it is sought by replacing God with government. Scripture describes how God “put eternity into man’s heart,” and how creation “groans” waiting for Christ’s redemption to be complete. So, what humanity actually longs for is not a utopia, but for our Creator. When that longing is sought outside of Christ, it manifests in what is profane, idolatrous, and futile.

Unity and cooperation are high ideals but remain fleeting and incomplete when pursued apart from God. Christians have the opportunity to bring clarity and meaning to these human longings. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, “Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” Christians who are anchored in the truth of what Christ has accomplished and the assurance that He is making all things new are empowered for faithful engagement in this world.

Lewis captured well the paradox that intentional and continual looking to the eternal “does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history,” he continued, “you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

Humans always hunger for more meaning, purpose, and transcendence than fleeting spectacles such as the Olympics or the Super Bowl can provide. Today, in addition to the deep-seated longing etched into every human heart are the failed utopian visions that promised what they could not deliver. Thus, Christians have both the opportunity and responsibility to respond with courage and clarity to point people to the true Reconciler, the Prince of Peace. Only Jesus Christ can fully satisfy the eternity God has placed within us. [source]

Amen.

Abuse of Power Part 1: FDR

[David] Burnham [formerly a New York Times investigative reporter] writes that “confidential government documents prove . . . that . . . Roosevelt [FDR] and the officials around him did not hesitate to mobilize the IRS in efforts to destroy the careers of individuals they had decided were enemies. The records even show that on one occasion an inquiry from Eleanor Roosevelt prompted Treasury Secretary [Henry] Morgenthau to order a tax investigation of a conservative newspaper publisher who had become one of the Roosevelt administration’s leading critics.”

Roosevelt was particularly hostile toward Andrew Mellon, a former Republican Treasury secretary and successful businessman. “Probably the single most brazen display of the Roosevelt administration’s willingness to use the tax agency for political purposes,” declares Burnham, “was its attack on Andrew Mellon, the millionaire capitalist who served as the Republican secretary of the treasury from 1921 to 1932. . . . Elmer L. Irey, the first director of what is now called the Criminal Investigation Division, acknowledged that Treasury Secretary . . . Morgenthau ordered him to develop serious tax charges against Mellon even though he knew that the just-retired treasury secretary was innocent. It seems unlikely that Morgenthau would have mounted such a campaign without the approval of FDR.”

Mellon was harassed for years, with false charge after false charge filed against him. In the end, “all criminal and civil fraud penalties the Roosevelt administration had brought against him” were dismissed.

Burnham explains that Roosevelt “was a driven man who did not hesitate to adopt questionable tactics to maintain his power.” “The Mellon case was hardly the only occasion on which the Roosevelt administration mobilized the tax agency for political purposes. From his very first moments as the Democratic presidential candidate in 1931, for example, Roosevelt had understood that Huey Long . . . represented a genuine political threat.” “The administration’s deep concern about Long was translated into action exactly three days after Morgenthau became Roosevelt’s treasury secretary . . . , when Morgenthau ordered . . . Irey, the man he had instructed to go after Mellon, to launch a second campaign against Long.”

Source: Unfreedom of the Press (2019) by Mark R. Levin.

19 Black Americans Explain Why They’re Conservative

From The Daily Signal.com (June 22, 2020):

These are difficult times, and Americans are looking for guidance on how to make sense of the most divisive issues we face. When it comes to race in America, Heritage President Kay C. James says that conservatives should be leading the civil rights movement.

That’s why The Daily Signal reached out to African American conservatives to ask why they are conservative. Here are their responses.

1. W.B. Allen: Good Sense Needs No Explanation

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My political conservatism is an effect or consequence, not a cause.

I am an American patriot, informed by a deep appreciation of the human significance of the advance in human affairs occasioned by the founding of the United States. For the first time in human history, the idea that mankind in general was capable of self-government had been realized.

Moreover, the fulfillment of the promises attending that realization have been made manifest in the consistent progress of civilization in the United States, in which the power of the individual and the value of self-agency, informed by the security of religious conviction, have steadily reinforced real material progress and the opportunity for moral progress.

For those reasons, it is a matter of prudent judgment that one’s political exertions should ever be careful to reinforce and not to undermine the foundations of the hopes invested in the political constitution of this nation.

The United States was formed as a lamp unto the world, and whatever undermines the power of the United States to perform that role constitutes an impediment to human happiness.

If it is conservative to wish to preserve the “last best hope of man” on earth, then such conservatism is the effect of devotion to liberty. No one could do otherwise, if guided by good sense and a due appreciation of the values of faith, freedom, and responsibility.

W. B. Allen, Ph.D., is the chief operating officer of UrbanCURE.

2. Brian Bledsoe: Most Fair for All

As a conservative who happens to be Black, I’m typically asked why I am a conservative. So here’s why.

I’m a conservative because the most innocent among us should be given the chance to live.

I’m a conservative because you shouldn’t be punished for being successful.

I’m a conservative because securing our borders against those who seek to come here illegally should be as commonsensical as securing our residences.

I’m a conservative because we need to defend the Second Amendment more than ever from the constant and vicious attack on our right to bear arms.

I’m a conservative because speech should be free whether I agree with it or not.

I’m a conservative because I stand against the deceptive allure of an all-controlling government by way of socialism, which threatens everything that made this country great.

I’m a conservative because we should remain forever vigilant in advocating limited government.

Leftists will argue that being conservative goes against what they perceive is in my self-interest. I’m a conservative because the principles of conservatism are the most effective, realistic, and fair for all—regardless of individual outcome.

Brian Bledsoe is a Heritage Action Sentinel from Texas.

3. The Rev. Arnold M. Culbreath: Not Sellouts, but Solutions

We are living in turbulent times. Racial tensions run high, and intensified feelings, conversations, shouts, and pressure reverberate across the land. And in the midst of all this, a wide variety of perspectives abound.

Being Black in America is not easy. However, I remain hopeful and work to make America better every day. As a pastor, Army veteran, business owner, and national ministry leader, I strive to model what being a Christian, socially conscientious, Black man in America looks like, while frequently facing racism and exclusion in the process.

In spite of the odds, I have labored long and participated in initiatives that help hopeless and hurting people, and programming that moves past rhetoric to get real resources to people in need. Things like after-school feeding programs, grocery giveaways, the First Step Act, opportunity zones, free help to women in crisis pregnancies, and more.

These principles need not be defined or confined by polarizing labels such as left or right, conservative or liberal. The question is: Does an initiative strengthen and lift impoverished and disenfranchised people and communities that need it most?

If so, collaboration is desperately needed to serve those ravished by a pandemic, shaken by injustices such as the brutal killing of George Floyd and many others at the hands of police, racial upheaval, and socio-economic disparities, and we need it now.

In order for this to occur, name-calling and marginalizing of viewpoints must stop. It’s much more helpful to stop viewing me and others like me as “Uncle Toms,” but as fellow team members. Not as sellouts, but as solutions to the problems.

This is our country, and our world, so let’s work to make it the absolute best that we can together.       

The Rev. Arnold M. Culbreath is the director of ministry engagement at the Douglass Leadership Institute.

4. Michael E. Kerridge: Reasonable Human Imperative

If anyone is willing to step away from the noise and cacophonic discourse that now compromise political discussion, we can begin to see that conservatism is not just an opposing or competing ideology. It is a human imperative wrought in the will and psyche of every reasonable person.

I am a conservative because personal initiative favors personal economic freedom. I oppose excessive government control of business and the subversion of the traditional family structure. I fully endorse and favor a free-market economy and the rule of law.

The values inherent in the individualism of my grandmother that spawned four generations of conservative thought and action embodied the sentiment that “all are created equal,” and that government does not bestow anything on anyone.

The entrepreneurship, individual effort, and hard work that made all of my grandmother’s efforts and her life rich and full have influenced and spawned generational success. This makes me a “reasonable man,” a reasonable person.

The family is a microcosm of what works best for all of mankind. We realize that God created us male and female, that we are to train up our children and equip them with self-confidence, discipline, and respect for all that is good and right.

This fortifies our society with reasonable people who think critically about their impact and legacy for their families, their fellow citizens, and their society.

Only this actually works for all concerned.

Michael E. Kerridge is a Heritage Action Sentinel from Florida. [read more]

The world’s largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor is up and running

From Pop Sci.com (Dec. 4, 2023):

Japan and the European Union have officially inaugurated testing at the world’s largest experimental nuclear fusion plant. Located roughly 85 miles north of Tokyo, the six-story, JT-60SA “tokamak” facility heats plasma to 200 million degrees Celsius (around 360 million Fahrenheit) within its circular, magnetically insulated reactor. Although JT-60SA first powered up during a test run back in October, the partner governments’ December 1 announcement marks the official start of operations at the world’s biggest fusion center, reaffirming a “long-standing cooperation in the field of fusion energy.”

The tokamak—an acronym of the Russian-language designation of “toroidal chamber with magnetic coils”—has led researchers’ push towards achieving the “Holy Grail” of sustainable green energy production for decades. Often described as a large hollow donut, a tokamak is filled with gaseous hydrogen fuel that is then spun at immense high speeds using powerful magnetic coil encasements. When all goes as planned, intense force ionizes atoms to form helium plasma, much like how the sun produces its energy.

Speaking at the inauguration event, EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson referred to the JT-60SA as “the most advanced tokamak in the world,” representing “a milestone for fusion history.”

“Fusion has the potential to become a key component for energy mix in the second half of this century,” she continued.

But even if such a revolutionary milestone is crossed, it likely won’t be at JT-60SA. Along with its still-in-construction sibling, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Europe, the projects are intended solely to demonstrate scalable fusion’s feasibility. Current hopes estimate ITER’s operational start for sometime in 2025, although the undertaking has been fraught with financial, logistical, and construction issues since its groundbreaking back in 2011.

Experts alongside Simson believe creating sustainable nuclear fusion would mark a revolutionary moment that could ensure an emissionless, renewable energy future. Making the power source a feasible reality, however, is fraught with technological and economic hurdles. Researchers have chased this goal for a long time: The world’s first experimental tokamak was built back in 1958 by the USSR.

While researchers can now generate fusion energy at multiple facilities around the world, it is usually at a net loss. By advancing the technology further at facilities like JT-60SA, however, industry experts think that it is only a matter of time until fusion reactors regularly achieve net energy production gains.

In the meantime, another possible road to fusion energy is making its own promising gains. Earlier this year, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Northern California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieved a net energy gain for the second time using what’s the inertial confinement fusion method. In this process, a high-powered laser is split into 192 beams that then hit a capsule containing a pellet of tritium and deuterium. The resultant X-rays generate pressure and temperatures that then initiate fusion.

No matter which process—be it tokamak reactors or ICF lasers—a successful nuclear fusion facility could play a major role in finally shifting humanity away from fossil fuels. [source]

America should be trying this. But the Left is too obsessed with wind turbines and solar energy. Fusion energy is much cleaner and safer than fission energy.

3 Things Republicans Need To Do Between Now And November To Win The Midterms

From The Federalist.com (Jan. 28):

The Republican majority in the U.S. Congress may be at risk in the 2026 midterm elections. This is hard to believe, given recent approval polling on the Democrat Party. Last month, reputable Quinnipiac pollsters reported congressional Democrats hit a record low job approval of 18 percent, with 73 percent disapproval — the worst since tracking began in 2009.

Still, the Republican majorities in the Senate and particularly the House are at risk in the upcoming midterm elections if the base of the Republican Party is not motivated to vote. Historically, the president’s party generally loses seats in the midterms, particularly in the House. If this happens, the reform agenda of the Trump administration would be constrained, if not derailed. President Donald Trump says he will campaign this year for Republican candidates, but more importantly he needs to do several things to get out the vote, protect his agenda,  and even increase the Republican congressional majority.

Most important, Trump needs to deliver on three major unfinished initiatives: First, fix the integrity of our national elections by mandating voter IDs, one-day vote casting and counting, and replacing digital voting machines with paper ballots. Second, make sure public officials and powerful private-sector figures who have committed felonies are visibly and successfully prosecuted in the next few months. Third, use all legal tools and precedents to arrest and prosecute perpetrators of mass felony crimes and reestablish law and order in blue cities and states that are experiencing urban lawlessness and industrial-scale fraud.

Fixing the Integrity of U.S. Elections

The fundamental reason why election integrity is of paramount importance is that the whole basis of the United States is the sovereignty of the people. It is the DNA of America. The legitimacy and moral authority of the country come only from the people, who express their preferences for their local, state, and national government officials through free and fair elections. When there is vote fraud and election irregularities, the moral authority of government is compromised, causing the people to disrespect and distrust their own government.

The moral authority of United States is also critical in maintaining regional and world order and peace. There are times when the most crucial factor in prevailing against corrupt regimes and dictatorial foreign governments is the moral authority of the United States. When the U.S. loses it moral authority, as it did during the Biden administration, its deterrent power is compromised and foreign adversaries are emboldened.

Prosecuting Felonies

One function of our law enforcement and justice system is to punish lawbreakers. However, the more important function of law enforcement is the deterrence of other lawbreakers and the prevention of escalating crime.

What has most greased the skids of America’s decline toward the ways of banana republics is the emergence and acceptance of two-tiered justice and attendant cronyism and political corruption.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the pass given to the Clintons, and particularly former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who destroyed, concealed, and covered up records and documents on paper and digital devices with the intent to impede or obstruct the investigation of a matter about which she was subpoenaed and under investigation by the U.S. Congress. Hillary’s crimes were felonies, punishable by fines and imprisonment up to 20 years, according to 18 U.S. Code 1519. Then FBI Director James Comey let Clinton off with no sanction or penalty.

In the last year of Barack Obama’s first presidential term, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to respond to the militant insurrection at the U.S. embassy’s diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the death of four Americans, including then U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. In fact, Clinton succeeded in deflecting accountability, failure, and penalty by sending then-Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice to promote and repeat a fabricated story of causality for the Benghazi humiliation and tragedy on all the major TV network Sunday talk shows.

When Trump succeeded in the 2016 upset presidential election against favored candidate Clinton, a cabal to undermine President-Elect Trump was organized by Obama. Included in that cabal were the FBI’s Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, DNI Director James Clapper, and National Security Advisor Rice. It could be argued that this unthinkably bold seditious act was undertaken by these very people because of the legacy of prior unaccountability and the two-tiered justice system that had become the norm.

Restoring Law and Order in American Cities

The modern sanctuary city movement to provide safe haven to illegal immigrants began in the 1980s during the surge of  Central American refugees into the U.S.

According to radical left training manuals from the Conference on Alternative State and Local Policies in the late 1970s and 1980s, there was an agenda to radicalize city and state government to transform America. The radicalization of targeted “blue” cities and states dovetailed with the sanctuary city movement. And today there are about 20 large cities and 13 states that have adopted sanctuary status with policies, laws, and regulations that impede enforcement of federal law and federal immigration laws in particular.

In addition to huge sums of money funding radical political change at the state and city levels, over the last few decades radicalized state and city government leaders have increasingly embraced defunding the police and been corrupted through public funding kickbacks. They have also become increasingly militant in using their authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

The pent-up frustration with unaccountability for questionable elections, seditious high crimes by the political class against the American people, and the radicalization and breakdown of law and order in a growing number of cities demoralizes American citizens. Trump needs to make sure these three areas are dealt with promptly and decisively to ensure that America remains an independent constitutional republic.

Failure to deliver in visible ways on these three problem areas would surely demoralize the Republican base and depress voter turnout and put Republican congressional majorities at risk.  A Democrat majority in the House would not only derail the Trump agenda but would lead to impeachment 3.0 and conditions that would threaten the integrity and continuity of the United States. [source]

Good advice.  Hopefully, the Republicans will take the advice and stop being the Washington Generals to the Dems.

Trade Victory

From Bill O’Reilly.com (Feb. 3):

Big win for the world as the Trump administration solidifies a trade deal with India. That country will stop buying Russian oil, which will hurt Putin, and start purchasing US and Venezuelan oil.

Unless Jeffrey Epstein once bought US oil, chances are you will hear little about the trade victory with India. It’s almost like the Marx Brothers are in charge of the American press these days: “Hello, I must be going.”

The media is locked in on ICE and Epstein in order to continue damaging Trump with the midterm election later this year.

The absolute focus of the vast majority of media reporting is to assure a democratic victory. That’s it.

In a way, it’s kind of shocking, the abdication of any journalistic fairness.

In fact, the horrid cliché comes to mind: it is what it is.

But it shouldn’t be. [source]

Another win!  And if it helps stops the Russia-Ukraine war, even better.

How the Church Has Been Good for Women… and Other Ways It Is “Essential”

From Breakpoint.org (Aug. 9, 2022):

Throughout Church history, church attendance and overall religiosity have been higher among women than among men. That seems to be changing, especially for younger generations. According to new data, the long-existent church gender gap, which shows up in both religious affiliation and church attendance, has now flipped.

However, the headline is not that more men are connecting with the Church. The story is that more women are disconnecting from the Church.

A number of factors have contributed to this demographic shift, not least of which are recent scandals of sexual impropriety and abusive leadership among prominent pastors and Christian leaders. Also, education and ethnicity seem to play a significant role in the religious identification of millennial women. “Among white respondents,” a recent Christianity Today article summarized, “women are 9 percentage points more likely to say that they have no religious affiliation compared to white men,” but “there’s no real difference in the share of male and female nones among Black, Asian, and other racial groups.”

Another factor, Dr. Abigail Favale argues in a new book The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory, is the rising influence of feminist thought, what she calls “the gender paradigm” in evangelical circles. Or as a colleague recently put it, describing the deconstruction process of a few of her friends, “It’s all about ‘resisting the patriarchy.” That kind of language points to the paradigm which Dr. Favale once herself subscribed. She now believes it to be incompatible with a Christian understanding of male and female, sex, and gender.

Even so, the feminist paradigm has quite successfully framed Christianity and the Church as misogynist, patriarchal, and harmful for women. The same paradigm idealistically reframes pagan religions and cultures as being pro-woman, at least until Christianity gained prominence. This narrative, however, doesn’t match the historical realities.

First, in contrast to ancient paganism, monotheism provided women with more freedom than polytheistic religions with goddesses did. In cultures dominated by the latter, women were limited to roles performed by the goddesses, and not always all of them. In fact, the “role” designated for many women by pagan religion was temple prostitute, a tool of men’s worship.

In ancient Rome, women were permitted to engage in business, but their primary role was in the household. Men had public roles, but women engaged in domestic work were subservient to their father or husband. As in other historical periods, elite women had more options. However, the vast majority of women were seen as not much better than slaves.

Twelve was the legal age for girls to marry in Rome. If not married by 20, women were generally marginalized. Though divorce was available to both men and women, husbands caused most divorces since women rarely had other financial means. Ex-wives and widows were often left destitute.

In contrast, Christianity saw women as the spiritual and moral equal of men. Women and men shared the same created dignity, the same problem (sin), and the same solution, Jesus. As result, women in the Christian community had a higher status and more freedom than women in the broader Roman world.

The Christian rejection of divorce and sexual double standards, and its insistence on strict monogamy reflected this. Further, women were given more choice about whom and whether to marry and tended to marry later than their Roman counterparts. While widows were encouraged to remarry, the Church provided aid for those who did not or could not.

The Church also rejected abortion and infanticide as murder, meaning that women were not subjected to dangerous surgical procedures, and girls were not “discarded.” Thus, there were proportionately more women in the Christian community than in Roman society as a whole.

Because of Christian attitudes and behavior toward women, more women converted to Christianity than men, and many men who converted did so under the influence of their wives. Eventually, Christianity transformed the status of women in the Roman world. Unfortunately, as Greek ideas were adopted within the Church, elements of pagan misogyny were as well. For example, some Church fathers placed blame for the Fall entirely on Eve and ignored the Apostle Paul’s putting the blame on Adam.

Nonetheless, Christianity did more to improve the status of women than any other historical force. Even today, as the Gospel spreads around the Global South, the status and freedoms enjoyed by women are being raised. The treatment of women is just one example of how the Church has been an essential force for good in the world.

There are others, even in an age that often labels the Church “non-essential.” Don’t buy it. [source]