RLL 30 Happy New Year 2020! A Look Back and a Look Ahead

ThornCrown Network iconThornCrown Network

0 views

0 comments

00:25
You're listening to radio looks lucid. I'm your host Steve Matthews. Thanks for joining me for episode number 30 Well today's
00:31
January 1st 2020 and it's been What I checked it's been
00:37
I don't know. I guess what about eight months since I did my last podcast So what is it you do a podcast once a year and I guess that's good enough, right?
00:45
Well, no, actually it isn't good enough. You know what I when I started this podcast Several well,
00:51
I hate to admit this but it's been about three years since I started doing this podcast I had intended to do it once a week.
00:56
Well, as you can tell I'm only up to episode number 30 I haven't exactly met that goal So, you know, it's it's funny you know you start doing things and You want to want to make something good happen and then kind of life gets in the way and that's sort of what's happened to Me here over the past past few years and I really you know, this is kind of a dangerous thing to say
01:15
I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, but I have made a resolution to do better on my podcasting frequency here in 2020
01:22
So this is a pretty good day to get started on that right? It's January the 1st 2020 kick off a new year and Lord willing
01:29
I'd like to be able to do this at least once a week So I'm saying that on a podcast that we see you can hold me to it
01:35
If I start falling off you can send me and send me comments. Hey Steve, where's your podcast? In fact, I've already had a few people comment on that and they've they've asked me to do additional podcasts
01:44
So I'm really kind of I'm glad to be back in the back in the saddle again So to speak and to be doing this and again,
01:51
Lord willing. I hope to be able to do this much more consistently here in 20 2020 this is an awful lot of interesting things going on well, you know one of the things when you
02:03
You do a sort of end of year beginning of the year type of a podcast. It's it's always
02:09
Kind of a convenient time to look back on where you've been over the past year and and maybe make some plans plans for the new year as well and You know one of the things
02:19
I was just kind of going back and going over some of the The things that I've written on my blog over the last year and there's quite a bit of material out there
02:28
I I got I know those are probably somewhere around 60 posts out a little bit more than that I think actually so I was writing at least once a week and and just kind of looking over The post
02:40
I guess I would say that they kind of break down into two roughly three major categories.
02:45
You know, that is Matters dealing with Christian faith Matters dealing with politics matters dealing with economics and maybe a little bit of culture thrown in there as well
02:56
You know One of the things that I wrote about quite a bit in in 2019 was the
03:02
Roman Catholic Church I have to admit I find the subject of the Roman Catholic Church or the
03:08
Roman Church State is As John Robbins would call it. I find that an endlessly fascinating subject for a couple reasons number one, it's
03:19
It's extremely relevant. It's very relevant. I mean the the Roman Catholic Church is just constantly in the news
03:27
Number one, so I mean it's it's very influential Number two is that despite the fact that it's constantly in the news
03:36
It's substantially ignored by by Protestants There's very little commentary done on the
03:43
Roman Catholic Church and maybe I'll even add a third reason in there I said to maybe I'll add a third reason in there
03:49
And not only is the Roman Catholic Church in the news and influential not only is that influence substantially ignored by Protestants, but number three the
04:00
The effect of what Rome does is incredibly evil And of course, that's what we would expect now one of the the things that I've talked about quite a bit on the blog and I make no bones about saying that as I believe that the the
04:16
Church of Rome is Is the Babylonian harlots mystery Babylon the mother of harlots as as the
04:23
Apostle John said in in Revelation You know and we saw this this woman who rides the beast. He was amazed.
04:29
He marveled at her This is the woman who's drunk with the blood of the Saints. And of course, that's that's the Roman Church State And it has an incredibly evil influence on the world
04:40
It's one of the things I've talked about when it comes to Rome is that the Roman Church State is really the original globalists
04:49
They really are the original globalists these guys, you know, it's kind of interesting when you you know, if you follow if you consume anything
04:59
You know any amount of sometimes what's called the alternate press or the the the independent media, you know, and Yeah, I'm thinking out here about maybe some of the big names just as an example, you know, somebody like say say
05:11
Alex Jones, for example, or Some of the other independent nude site news sites out there
05:18
YouTube channels bloggers this you know podcasters this type of thing. Yeah, you listen to these guys and You know, they talk quite a bit about globalism they talk about George Soros and they talk about oh,
05:32
I don't know you know the the Council on foreign relations or other types of Individuals, maybe they're talk about the
05:40
European Union or the United Nations and you know what they say You know the the warnings that they give about some of these individuals about some of these organizations.
05:49
It's perfectly legitimate I mean, these are Our organizations that that I think are very much opposed to Individual Liberty, I think they stand really against the the will of God in many respects and I'm not going to try to get into all of the particulars of that right now but my point being is that they a lot of these people in the alternate press will talk a lot about Some of these various more secular type organizations and they're completely ignoring the influence of Rome you know, it's as if you know
06:23
Rome goes around and and does It's it's really remarkable the amount of globalism
06:30
Involved in the Roman Catholic Church and yet very few people talk about it and and I discussed it a fair amount on my blog over the past year one of the the ways that that Rome Implements globalism is of course by encouraging mass immigration mass migration asylum seekers refugees this type of thing
06:51
They what they want to do they have a strategy of trying to flood the independent nations of the world with Basically welfare migrants, you know, it's it's not enough for Rome You know, sometimes they're they're get out there and they're try to posit themselves and say oh, you know
07:06
Hey, this is you know, we just doing this because we care about people But I mean what they're really doing is is there they're flooding countries with migrants putting them on the dole and bankrupting those countries
07:17
You know, they're making the moment and they're making those societies to a significant degree ungovernable We have major problems here in the
07:24
United States with that. We have problems with that going on in In Europe as well and many other
07:30
Western countries the Pope toward the end of 2019 was even in Japan He was lecturing the Japanese and trying to tell them that they should take on more migrants
07:38
And I don't think the public sentiment in Japan is up for For inviting mass quantities of welfare migrants, but that doesn't mean the
07:46
Pope's not trying and he's gonna try again. He's not gonna give up So really that that's one of the the big themes with faith and exercise in of course closely with politics
07:56
Now you've got this Roman Catholic Church out there attempting to influence politics in a major way
08:02
So there's one of the big themes on my blog over the past year was just talking about The Church of Rome and some of the nefarious activities that are carried out
08:11
By that church and in by its its Antichrist head And of course, I'm talking about the
08:16
Pope and when I when I say the the current Pope is an Antichrist What I'm just what
08:21
I really mean is that that all Popes, you know The entire the office of the papacy is the office of Antichrist and all of those
08:29
Popes That occupy that office Are in the office of Antichrist, so it's not just an individual
08:37
You know, we have what Francis the first right now. Jorge Bergoglio is his name is doing business as Doing business as Francis the first, but I mean that was also true of his predecessor
08:50
Ratzinger, you know, he was the what Benedict the 16th, I believe and then of course John Paul the second who was a
08:56
Pope for goodness, I guess He was he was Pope well over 20 years.
09:02
I can't remember now when his his pontificate ended But you know, he was maybe even closer to 30 years.
09:10
I mean, it seemed like he was Pope for most of my life And of course, he was a major global figure throughout that entire period
09:18
But all these guys all of these Popes and the Popes that were before that they all occupied the office of Antichrist And yet there's very little discussion about that in In Protestant circles if you're like me, for example, you've probably never in person
09:34
I mean even if you're say if you're a conservative Protestant if you're an evangelical You've probably never in person heard somebody talk about the office of of the papacy as as the
09:45
Antichrist that used to be very common among Protestants, but toward the end of the 19th century that that began to to disappear and in fact even the
09:56
Presbyterians wrote that out of the the Westminster Confession there was a Portion of the Westminster Confession that explicitly identified the
10:05
Pope as Antichrist and yet that was written out that that that little sentence that clause was removed from the
10:15
From the the Westminster Confession now, there are a few Maybe smaller
10:21
Presbyterian denominations. It's still retained that language in the Westminster Confession, but most of the big
10:27
Bigger Presbyterian denominations the ones that you've heard of Do not have that.
10:33
I'm thinking of course of the PC USA For example, that doesn't even really follow that. They don't even pretend to follow the
10:39
Westminster Confession But this is true even of of the say the conservative
10:44
Presbyterian denominations For example, the Presbyterian Church in America the PCA They have removed that language and and I think that's also true of a good portion of the other
10:54
More conservative Presbyterian denominations and that's unfortunate because it's left people confused
11:00
That's one of the the things that I write about quite a bit on my blog is is again They're the Roman Catholic Church and I you know,
11:05
I make that point consistently and I hit it pretty hard I don't try to be subtle about it I mean that when you talk about the the office of the papacy you're talking about the office of Antichrist and you're talking about the
11:16
Roman Church State a Roman Catholic Church State what you're talking about is
11:21
Mystery Babylon the great, you know, it's the woman who rides the Beast It was that that title of that that Dave Hunt book from a number of years ago
11:29
So we call it the woman that rides the Beast So there's a there's quite a there's a big theme in my blog
11:35
Of course this past year on faith and I fully expect that to continue here in in the new year.
11:41
It's kind of interesting If you if you actually start looking for it, it's amazing how many stories there are about the
11:49
Roman Church State Just in the mainstream media and there was one. This is well, there's a story dated
11:56
December 26, 2019 It was in the Washington Post It has a headline.
12:02
It says ousted Cardinal McCarrick. This is that chap that fellow Theodore McCarrick He was what the
12:08
Archbishop. I think it was in New York But this fellow and I know he was
12:13
Archbishop of Washington DC and maybe I'm getting confused exactly which Archbishop he was But anyway, he was a very major figure in the
12:21
American Catholic Church and You may recall that that he was removed from removed from office.
12:27
He was actually defrocked because of all these claims of Sexual improprieties,
12:35
I think he was was preying on seminary students. I think was the principal charge against him Anyway, this headline in the
12:42
Washington Post in December 26 It read ousted Cardinal McCarrick gave more than six hundred thousand dollars to fellow clerics including two
12:49
Popes record show And you read through this story It's very interesting as former
12:54
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in church money to powerful Catholic clerics over nearly two decades
13:00
According to financial records obtained by the Washington Post while the Vatican failed to act on claims.
13:05
He had sexually harassed young men Starting in 2001 McCarrick sent checks totaling more than six hundred thousand dollars to clerics in Rome and elsewhere including
13:14
Vatican bureaucrats Papal advisors and two Popes according to church ledgers and former church officials and What you know when you read through this article, it's actually some pretty good reporting now
13:25
You know, you may if you're maybe someone who's a bit of a conservative or Republican or something because you may want to say
13:31
Oh, it's the Washington Post, you know, it's just a Jeff Bezos rag and what -have -you Well, I mean, there's a lot of bad stuff in the
13:36
Washington Post and they definitely do have a liberal bias but one of the things that's it's kind of interesting about Some of these mainstream press outlets such as the
13:46
Washington Post is while they definitely do have a liberal bias They actually do have some pretty bright people that work for them and they they're very capable of doing
13:55
Some good reporting and this is actually a pretty good story here And it's very detailed.
14:01
I mean the the reporter the writer on this. Let's see It's Sean Boberg Robert O 'Hara jr.
14:07
And Chico Harlan The writers credit with this and I think they do actually a pretty thorough job of Of investigative journalism here.
14:17
This is this is a good piece It talks in here about how McCarrick sent Pope John Paul the second $90 ,000 from 2001 to 2005
14:26
Pope Benedict the 16th received 291 ,000 most of it in a single check for $250 ,000 in May 2005 a month after McCarrick was elevated to succeed or excuse me the a month after Benedict the 16th was elevated to succeed the the late
14:44
John Paul One of the things too is is where some of this money came from the money actually came out of a of a fund and Bear with me just a moment here.
14:58
I wanna Okay. Yeah, here we go. So looking through this story It's a little interesting it they actually talk about where this money came from so, you know, okay, so where did this where did all these
15:10
This roughly six hundred thousand dollars come from it. Well, it says according to the story. It says that McCarrick had a fund
15:19
Yeah, the the the fund from which these checks are drawn. It was called the Archbishop special fund
15:25
In the Archbishop special fund they describe in this article as as a little -known account at the
15:31
Archdiocese of Washington where McCarrick began serving as the Archbishop in 2001 in the
15:37
Archbishop special fund enabled him to raise money from wealthy Catholic donors and to spend it as he chose with little oversight according to former officials
15:47
So, you know all of this money that the Archbishop was sending out to these Popes and apparently he was also sending funds to people who were
15:55
I guess overseeing some of the I guess the cases the charges that were brought against him.
16:03
So people were donating to this this fund and and in this this
16:09
Cardinal is is taking their money and He's he's spending it willy -nilly or well, maybe not willy -nilly, but he's spending it really to to defend himself against some of the
16:20
Charges of sexual impropriety that were being being brought against him one thing that was interesting about the the fund is
16:28
I guess apparently according to To the ledgers that were obtained by the Washington Post that show the names of the beneficiaries one of the largest donors to McCarrick was
16:40
Was Marianne Trump Barry. That's the sister of President Donald Trump.
16:46
She was she's a now retired Federal a pellet judge and she gave this
16:51
McCarrick at least $450 ,000 over four years and the story mentions that the
16:57
Marianne Trump Barry declined comment There's another interesting comment by another large donor a gentleman by by the name of Tom Riley he's the president of the
17:08
Connolly Foundation based outside of Philadelphia and he
17:14
He said in a statement that his group's contributions that is from the Connolly Foundation Were meant to help quote the poor the needy refugees in the mission of the
17:23
Catholic Church and quote And he expressed that he was very sad about this this whole affair the fact that that this guy this this
17:32
Archbishop was was taking Essentially a tithe I guess he received about six million dollars in contributions.
17:38
He spent about six hundred thousand I guess trying to bribe people. So maybe that was a sort of a personal tithe
17:43
Maybe that was his his agents percentage or something. I I don't know but anyway, he took some of this money and and that was given to the
17:53
Catholic Church by by some of these people for charitable purposes and he was was using it to To advance his own career and and really that's not all that surprising because that's that's how these guys roll
18:07
But anyway, that was just an example of the sorts of things that go on with Rome I talked about this as I said quite a bit on my blog and in different respects in in 2019 and I'm sure
18:17
I'm gonna continue to talk about that in 2020 because again, that's just how these guys roll you know, one of the things that I've About myself over the years is sometimes
18:27
I'll say, you know, Steve. You've been an awfully hard on these these Romanist I mean, you're just constantly
18:33
Talking about all the nefarious doings of the Vatican the Pope the Roman Catholic Church You know the various officials of the
18:40
Roman Catholic Church and you know, sometimes I think well Maybe I'm just being too hard on these guys. Maybe you know, you know, what ends up happening is
18:48
I'll come across a story like this and it just it slaps me in the face and it it tells me number one I've been right all along about these guys
18:55
And if I have made any kind of mistake at all, it's because I I haven't been hard enough on them You know, whatever however harshly
19:01
I denounced the Roman Catholic Church. They always managed to exceed my To exceed my expectations when it comes to doing evil.
19:09
I mean these guys are just Really really amazing in the way they handle things
19:14
So anyway, this is this just happens to be the latest scandal And of course, it's very very difficult to try to keep track of all of this stuff
19:20
But I do the best that I can I read this stuff so you don't have to that's my service to you
19:27
So anyway, that's just some of what's going on with with issues related to to faith And of course, there's much more that could be said but I don't want to spend the next two hours here talking about that another major theme, of course
19:39
In in my blog is is the issue of politics now I have you know
19:44
I talk about my blog looks look at my looks look at blog looks look at Can't even talk this morning
19:53
One of the things I've always been fascinated about is politics I remember this goes back even way way back when
19:59
I was Even fairly young. I used to kind of get geeked on politics And I think the thing that really attracted me to politics and this kind of goes back in the late 70s and early 80s
20:11
Is because I would start reading these Magazines some of these news magazines and they there were all these problems that were occurring, you know again
20:20
This is late 70s early 80s with a lot of the welfare programs that were begun under President Johnson, you know the
20:28
Great Society back in the mid to late 60s I mean the US went a whole hog on the you know into the welfare state and there were lots of high ideals and oh we're gonna create all these programs and we're gonna have this war on poverty and you know, we're gonna bring you know
20:42
Take all these people living in poverty and and you know make them all into you know I don't know respectable citizens
20:49
What have you and you know, the reason is is because they just you know, they they you know There just isn't enough government help out there
20:56
And we're gonna we're gonna you know build all these houses and we're gonna give them all this money and you know
21:01
These single mothers out there. Well, we're gonna give them give them money and the more kids they have the more money We're gonna give them and everything's just gonna be great, right?
21:09
well in the you know by the late 70s, I mean the the problems with some of these programs are becoming very obvious and One of the things that you would read these stories and and it was always interesting reading some of these stories, you know they would talk about you know, housing and urban development and or or various welfare programs and and how the
21:31
The problems that these programs were supposedly designed to solve not only had the pro had the problem not gone away
21:38
They actually had gotten worse. You know, there was more poverty. There was more Illegitimacy there are more children born out of wedlock.
21:46
There are more single mothers. There was more crime but you know that that that that that that that that you know on down the line and And and you would read these articles and people would discuss well, why is this how come how come there's there's more poverty
21:57
How come there's more crime after we've instituted all these anti -poverty programs and spent, you know, tens hundreds of billions
22:04
I don't know. Maybe you know, of course by now it's in the trillions, but you know spent these huge sums of money on these programs
22:10
Well, you know you would you would some of these articles They talked to somebody who was was maybe maybe a liberal and they'd say well
22:17
You know, the problem is is it just hasn't been enough money and enough authority given to X agency
22:22
And if we only would increase the budget and the authority of X agency why they'd be able to solve all these problems and things would be wonderful and be the
22:30
Garden of Eden and Then they would talk to someone else and and maybe someone maybe you would call a conservative and they'd say well
22:37
You know what's happened? You know, the reason that you have more crime more poverty more of all these Negative things out of wedlock births and collapse and marriage rate and what -have -you
22:46
They'd say well, the reason you have that is because these government programs incentivize bad behavior, you know, the more children that a woman has outside of marriage the more money she gets and You know that tended to make a lot of sense to me but I wasn't
23:02
I didn't have a solid understanding of Scripture and how that would apply and one of the things one of the real strong sort of Desires that I have when
23:17
I when I write my blog is I want to apply the Bible to all of life
23:24
Now as you you've probably notice noticed if you've you've read my blog or maybe even listen some of the prior podcasts
23:30
I am a scripturalist Scripturalism is the name that John Robbins gave to Gordon Clark's philosophy.
23:38
And if you wanted to say Put you know, we say well, what is scripturalism?
23:44
Well, if you wanted to put that into a nutshell Probably the best way to describe it that I've heard is this and that is this is something that John Robbins said
23:52
But he said the Bible has a systematic monopoly on truth You know scripturalism is the idea that the
23:59
Bible has a systematic monopoly on truth. And and what that means is that The Christianity it's it's
24:10
It's more than what a lot of people think it is, you know We tend to be trained as even as say
24:15
Bible believing Protestants. We tend to be trained that Okay you know you go to church on Sundays and you need to have the
24:22
Bible because you find out about God and Jesus and sin and And how to get saved, you know how you know justification by belief alone, you know
24:29
We we hear these things and this is all great. And these are all good things. I'm not here to argue with any of that That's all true
24:36
But then we say to ourselves Okay When I get out the other six days of the week and I have to deal with life's problems you know and you know and I see the news and I see about wars and rumors of wars and economic crises and and Political problems of this that and the other thing we tend to say.
24:53
Oh, well, you know if I want to find out about economics Well, I better go read some secular economist or if I want to find out about politics
25:01
You know, I need to go find out the the latest thing that that so -and -so said or the latest thing that someone wrote in a
25:07
In his latest column, you know, maybe some Some secular thinker or what have you?
25:13
And we don't tend to make a connection between the teachings of scripture and things such as politics and economics
25:21
And I would would argue You know going back to that premise that you know That scripturalism that the bible has a systematic monopoly on truth
25:30
If we want to solve the very obvious political problems that we have in the united states
25:36
Or in in the west maybe more broadly speaking those answers are going to be found in the scriptures
25:43
And one of the things that that I I try to do and this is something that has been consistent since i've been writing that blog for over Over 10 10 years now going on 11 years.
25:52
It'll be 11 years in march Um is is to bring that idea that the bible has a systematic monopoly on truth
25:59
And to bring the light of scripture to issues related to politics and and to economics That's one of the things that i've
26:06
I really wanted to do and I hope to to continue to do that Um over the next year.
26:12
Yeah, and when you talk about politics, I think one of the things That's really disturbing
26:18
That really kind of came to a head In 2018 or 2019 and really in 2018
26:25
Is is the attacks that continued on attacks on the first amendment? um, you know in the first amendment here i'm thinking particularly in the ability, uh, the the the free speech clause
26:38
Now that's one of the things that we have here in the united states is we still have First amendment protections.
26:43
We're still allowed to speak and discuss and to challenge and to argue As we wish but there are people that are trying very hard to restrict that one of the very obvious examples of that is what's going on in big tech and i'm thinking here of uh, for instance facebook and in google and in youtube and and the very obvious program that they have to try to essentially shut down Anybody who doesn't agree with the mainstream media?
27:13
And there's been a lot of very disturbing examples of that over the past few years probably one of the most
27:18
Obvious ones was in late 2018 when Simultaneously, uh, you know, alex jones and info wars were banned from pretty much all of the the major tech platforms overnight
27:31
This was in I believe early august of 2018 And I wrote about a six -part series on it at the time and of course things haven't gotten any better In intervening roughly a year and a half, it's it's still the same and in fact, it's gotten worse.
27:43
There are many many channels that uh youtube channels And what have you that have been shut down that have been just disappeared?
27:52
because you know these people challenged ideas that uh that the mainstream You know that the establishment does not like now, of course
28:00
One of the things that people will argue about is they're saying well, you know These are these are private companies and they're acting as private companies and therefore
28:08
They have a right to do what they do, but there are at least a couple of problems with that line of argument
28:15
And just from a high level one of them is that a lot of these big tech companies
28:21
Are in bed with the government I can think for example Um, there are some stories that were put out and again, this goes back about a year and a half of facebook
28:32
Hiring a uh a group associated with the atlantic council to uh to vet the uh, the news
28:42
That was put out on on facebook. So who's the atlantic council? You may say well the atlantic council is
28:48
I think it's a washington dc -based think tank that's affiliated with nato So, you know, of course nato is funded by in part by the uh by the united states and and by other um other entities, but I think the united states, uh
29:04
Government certainly is is the federal government is the biggest funder of that Uh, and so the you know, the atlantic council is really representing the views of the ruling class
29:13
Well, you know the the atlantic council where they they have this this cyber unit that's helping facebook vet its news well, you know
29:22
You know very obviously, you know, they're going to try to get rid of say people who come along and challenge uh some of the uh, the globalist assumptions that that undergird, uh nato and and the the people and the the organizations that that support nato um, so I mean that's that's one thing, you know, it's it's really
29:41
I think a lot of this censorship and big tech is really just a uh
29:46
It's an attempt by the establishment to do an end around the first amendment I mean the government can't come out and say oh, well, you can't discuss that.
29:54
You can't say that This sort of thing but if they can work with in conjunction with some of these major tech companies these big tech companies
30:03
They can do that and they can kind of do it behind the background in a way that's sneaky That most people don't realize and i'm just giving you one example of that here's another issue that where where there's a problem with this argument that uh,
30:17
That big tech that's just private companies doing what they want. There was legislation passed a few years ago
30:22
And I don't have handy with me the exact uh name of that legislation, but this goes back When the the internet really started to get big it's
30:30
I think it's been within the last 10 years or so but congress gave these big tech companies immunity from lawsuits
30:42
And the reason is is because the way the law was written Is they said that these big tech companies again i'm talking here about, you know, google facebook youtube
30:50
Twitter, you know the the places that you've heard of That these big tech companies were not responsible
30:58
For the content that was put out there In other words, basically they served as a platform now
31:03
If you or I maybe went out and say we put out a slanderous post on on facebook or something on twitter um, you know that was you know that slandered somebody, you know, we could be held responsible for that because you know
31:17
We're the ones that that are putting these these say slanderous ideas out there But facebook and twitter and youtube or what have you they would be immune from that because their their defense
31:27
Because they were protected by this law because they were just a platform they say, okay We're making this available to people and people can put out there what they want now now if you happen to put out there something that's a false or slanderous or You know libelous, uh, maybe something that uh, you know, you're encouraging people to do illegal things something like that Yes, you can be held responsible for that as an individual but as a platform they were not responsible for those things
31:51
They were given immunity to that you say, okay, that's that's fine. Um, But here's the thing
31:57
When you're a platform what that means is you don't curate content in other words if you're a platform, you don't say oh, you know, we're going to um, we're going to boost the the post of people whose views we agree with and we're going to shadow ban or or delete the channels of people with uh,
32:17
With whom we we disagree Because once you get into to curating content you've become a publisher and publishers can be sued
32:28
And it's interesting that nobody, you know, i've read this from several Um several commentators.
32:35
I'm not a lawyer And so i'm having to go a little bit based on on some things that i've read but the argument
32:41
The argument along these lines actually seems pretty pretty sound to me Um, you know in these these big tech companies have really opened themselves up to being sued for um
32:55
Uh for for their uh for their curation and it seems to me they can also be held responsible for the content that's um that's put out there
33:04
And yet nobody has really gone after them at least not yet. And now maybe that will happen um
33:12
But yeah the the censorship of uh You know the the attacks on the first amendment have been very serious another
33:20
Area where attacks on the first amendment the attacks on free speech have come from Have been uh is actually the israel lobby and it's amazing
33:29
Some of the work that the the israel lobby has done To shut down free speech to shut down discussion to shut down criticism of israel now
33:39
My my stance on israel is that it's a foreign country And that it's not something you know that that uh americans have any responsibility to be involved with But the problem is is due to partisans of israel and i'm speaking here principally of uh, a lot of zionist jewish organizations as well as these
34:03
Dispensationalist evangelicals have gotten us involved neck deep in the politics of the middle east
34:08
And what's happened is you've had some people pushing back uh on On the activities of israel, you know, some of these palestinian organizations and again
34:18
I'm not here to pick sides between the palestinians and the israelis But what
34:23
I I am certainly in favor of is A free discussion and if somebody wants to criticize israel, they have every right to do so donald trump signed a an executive order at the end of of 2019 where He effectively the executive order removes
34:43
Or threatens to remove federal funding of universities That allow essentially allow criticism of israel
34:52
So it's really an attempt to shut down free speech free discussion on the nation's campuses Which is of course one of the big things one of the reasons universities exist in the first place
35:00
Is for people to be able to discuss ideas You know, i'm not even here again I'm, not trying to argue for or against zionism for or against what's going on with with the palestinians
35:09
I think there's uh, certainly some things that can be said about that But my main point here is simply the fact that people have a right to discuss this
35:17
People have a right to disagree and they have a right to openly express that um, you know, and of course one of the other problems with um with the the trump
35:26
Executive order is a fact that highlights. You know, there's that old saying he who pays the piper calls the tune
35:31
You know, it raises the question of course, why is the federal government funding universities in the first place?
35:37
I don't see any provision for that in the constitution So maybe we ought to really be taking a look at that as well
35:44
But I I think that that's probably not something that's going to go away at least at least any time in the uh, the immediate future
35:51
But I think it's a it's a good question to raise Because again, if you look at what the bible has to say the bible gives very limited um
36:01
Authority to the to the civil government, you know, the apostle paul talks about Uh about that, you know in romans chapter 13,
36:08
I think peter also says something very similar to this But the idea behind government behind the uh, the civil government is that it's to to punish evil doers
36:18
You know, not evil thinkers, you know, there aren't to be thought crimes It says, you know those who practice evil You know those people who do evil those people who steal those people who murder those people who who do things to harm their to harm their neighbor
36:34
But it doesn't say anything there about thought police And the other thing is to praise the good, you know
36:40
Which is generally taken to be and we talk about what does praise the good mean? Well, it means that they need to pass laws that are in in accord with with the law of god uh, and of course that's
36:54
That's a whole another area where in the united states we have major problems probably the most obvious example of that is is the
37:03
The decision by the supreme court in 2015 to um To allow gay marriage, uh throughout same -sex marriage throughout the united states, you know
37:14
Of course now we have a major democrat, uh candidate pete buddha judge um, who's uh openly homosexual and is is openly uh gay married
37:25
A same -sex married to uh to a man And that's an extraordinary thing to watch.
37:31
I mean that that is a level of perversity um a level of moral depravity that Honestly, I I never thought that i'd see that.
37:40
I mean i'm i'm going to be 54 this year So I know i'm kind of an old an old fuddy -duddy
37:45
But you know, I never thought that I would live to see the day where you would have a a same -sex married presidential candidate
37:51
But I mean this is this is what we have and and at least as things are going right now It seems like there's going to be more and more of it
37:58
Uh, I I don't think this is something that's going to go away Uh, probably this year um we can pray that uh
38:06
That the lord would be merciful to us and that we could get get laws that were In accord with the word of god, but right now we seem to be moving in the exact opposite direction
38:16
So again, this is something that I have commented on in my blog from time to time and no doubt that I will
38:21
Here in the new year, of course, because you know We do have a as I said, we do have this presidential election here in 2020
38:27
Pete Buttigieg is right in the middle of that. I just saw some article where he He had raised
38:33
I think in the fourth quarter of 2019 something like 24 million dollars, which is a pretty good haul and Now some of the other candidates i've seen have had their fundraising fall off.
38:42
I think uh, Elizabeth warren, but uh, but pete buttigieg, you know, he's uh, he's charging right ahead
38:48
And and I think he's going to be in there for the long haul That's that's not a good thing
38:54
And speaking of elizabeth warren, I guess we we can talk about that, too I haven't written I wrote a little bit about that this past year
39:01
I know I wrote about this some back in 2016, but of course, you know, we're getting in her we're getting the monstrous regiment, you know
39:08
You know, we think back about what uh, what uh, John, knox wrote he wrote that famous that famous essay
39:16
Uh, in fact, it's one of my I think maybe it's quite possibly the most politically incorrect essay that's ever been written
39:22
But it was written back and I think what the 1550s It's called the first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women
39:29
And in that piece he was objecting to the idea of a female monarch uh, mary queen of scotts was uh,
39:37
Was the was the queen at the time. She was the first I believe she was the first female monarch of uh, of of great britain
39:45
And and and uh knox came out and he was very much against that and rightfully so, you know, the the bible does not uh
39:55
You know when when you when you look at the scriptures I don't think that you can make a case for uh for women running the country
40:05
And that's really something I need to go back and explore I hope to be able to do that a little bit more here in 2020 because I think it is a pressing issue
40:13
You know elizabeth warren is just one example of of this sort of thing. I mean she's there are a number of High -profile female candidates on the democratic side and even this past year, uh, or excuse me back in 2016
40:26
There were some prominent, uh, there's at least one prominent, uh female republican Canada, I think it was uh
40:32
Fiorini, I think was her name And I think in this next election Uh when
40:37
I say the next election i'm actually talking about 2024 I think you're going to see a lot more of that On the republican side as well.
40:44
One of the people that they're grooming to run for president is this uh nikki haley, uh, she's former governor of South carolina former ambassador u .s
40:55
ambassador to the united nations They're very much going to try to push her as a as a as a major candidate.
41:02
That is a huge mistake She's got major problems Uh with just her her policies
41:08
So that's one objection. But no actually I do object to her even because of the fact that she is a woman
41:15
Now, I do not believe it's appropriate to have a female president And I don't believe the christians. I mean if you look at the scriptures,
41:21
I believe you can Deduce from the scriptures that is improper for christians to support such a person
41:28
I know that's probably controversial. There are probably a lot of christians out there that disagree with that So i'd be interested to know your opinion if you have one on that but the uh,
41:36
I am firmly convinced that the scriptures do not Allow for that sort of thing and that's not something that christians ought to be supporting a third area that I wrote about quite a bit this past year was of course the economics and You know economics is yeah, that's another area that i've had a lot of interest in and not just economics in in general, but even uh specifically just talking about investing financial markets that type of thing
42:07
What one of the big themes that I think we can take away from 2019 and I wrote about this a little bit in my blog
42:14
And I think one of the big themes from 2019 is the fact that we don't have real financial markets
42:20
Nothing is real. There's a a fellow that I follow. Uh, gregory manorino. He's a youtuber He's actually a trader and he does a trader.
42:28
He trades stocks not a traitor by the way He's not a trader he's a trader Uh someone he he trades, uh trade stocks.
42:36
He's a short -term trader. He calls himself a swing trader uh is the term that he used for his particular technique, but he always
42:43
Five days a week. He has a market commentary He usually does a commentary typically before the market opens and then after the the market has closed for the day
42:52
And he'll always one of the things he likes to say a lot is nothing is real Nothing is real and and what he means by that is that the financial markets in the united states are all manipulated
43:04
Now there are some markets that are manipulated up. There are other markets that are artificially suppressed
43:10
The the favored markets obviously the ones that are manipulated up, you know You see the the stock market just keeps going up and up and up, you know
43:16
The bond market keeps going up and up and up you have housing that keeps going up and up and up Crude oil is supported.
43:23
You know, these are the favored markets of the uh of the establishment And they're they're pumped up in a number of ways they're pumped up, uh principally substantially by federal reserve money printing
43:35
Uh quantitative easing we do have another round of quantitative easing Although the federal the federal reserve insists we don't have quantitative easing, but we do um, there are a number of things that that the fed does to support markets including
43:49
Continuing to lower interest rates that also is stock market positive and then you have a lot of propaganda that's out there
43:57
As well for instance donald trump and this is one of the things that I very much disagree with donald trump on Is he's constantly out there tweeting number one about how great the economy is
44:06
And number two about how we need even more money printing lower interest rates and that we need in fact negative interest rates
44:15
He's actually come out and essentially called In in very plain language for negative interest rates and for quantitative easing
44:22
And these are extraordinary things. I i'm just absolutely dumbfounded by by some of the statements that i've heard
44:28
Not just out of donald trump but out of other administrators and officials regarding the financial markets
44:36
I think what's going on here. It seems to me fairly obvious that what you're looking at Is an attempt by donald trump to make sure that the stock markets stay elevated through the election season
44:48
So elections, what's november early november of 2020? So we've got about 10 months to go
44:54
And the trump administration is going to pull out all the stops to make sure That those markets stay elevated now
45:03
On one hand, I don't want to see an economic crash. I don't want to see a stock market crash But the fact is we have bogus markets.
45:09
We have fake markets. We have a fake financial system And again this there's a lot more that could be said about this and what
45:16
I could probably Possibly fit into a single podcast. So i'm just going to leave it at that But I mean there's there's a lot of a lot of economic flim flam out there some about it
45:25
Some I did talk about this past year And i'm sure that I will be commenting on that here in the the coming year as well
45:33
But again, you know talking about you know applying the scriptures to to politics talking about applying scriptures to economics
45:40
You know, these are things that it's a really I consider sort of my mission
45:45
I guess if you will for my for my blogging for my Podcasting is to bring that commentary to you as a reader to you as a listener
45:53
And that's something that I pray that that I I have been successful at and that I will continue to be successful at So anyway,
46:00
I promise to you is to be more consistent in my podcasting. We're getting on to about 45 minutes here
46:06
So I think i'd like to go ahead and wrap it up But I just wanted to say, you know, thank you very much for listening and for for reading
46:12
My blog over the past year and I look forward to being able to serve you here in in the new year
46:17
My goal here is to at least do one podcast a week. So lord willing that's that's something i'm going to get done here in 2020 until next time