I have yet to watch it but I like your optimism!
““Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.”
https://ref.ly/Jn14.8-11 via the Logos Bible Android app.
I was tracking with him until he started talking about the TLM. Not being Catholic, I could care less. But his points about fatherless homes in America is spot on. Government is not your daddy, nor your baby's daddy, and has done an abysmal job at trying to be. 😩
Reminds me of when I was fresh out of college and my boss told me of something that had happened once and I said "Oh, I don't know about that, that was before my time," and she responded "That's no excuse. Pick up a book; READ!"
Happy Pentecost nostr:npub1v9vm3606g9dhrdemxkhx35q3m2kza5l3xzezgdjggs9fxsgyp5wqt0tqnj and to all my fellow believers in the Messiah, and to those who do not (yet) believe!
If you know the story (see the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2), then you know that this is the appropriate emoji: 🔥
Traditionally, Pentecost also has a connection to when God's people Israel left Egypt and received the covenant at Mt. Sinai. I'm not Catholic, but this is a great explanation:
https://kcsjcatholic.org/2019/06/the-day-of-pentecost/
I appreciate that the Catholic and Orthodox churches (although there is really only one Church) pay more attention to things like this (I mean Church traditions) than most Evangelical churches do anymore. If you don't believe me, just see if your Protestant church even mentions that it is Pentecost today at church.
However, since the Orthodox Easter only just took place 2 weeks ago, their Pentecost will take place on June 23, 2024. This raises the question of which churches are celebrating Pentecost on the correct day? (not that it is so important a matter that we should divide over it.) I do wish we could settle on which date is correct, if either one, since the 2000th birthday of the Church is coming up in just a few years, in A.D. 2033 (if we have correctly dated the year of our Lord's death and resurrection).
Happy birthday, Church!
At the Hampton Roads conference to negotiate an end to the War to Prevent Southern Secession Lincoln was asked what the black slaves would do if set free without education or property. Lincoln's answer: ‘Root, hog, or die.’"
–Clyde N. Wilson, "War, reconstruction, and the end of the old republic." *Society* 33, no. 6 (September 1996): 68-74.
#AmazingQuotesFromAmericanHistory
“Secretary of State William Seward (during the Lincoln Administration) is said to have bragged to the British ambassador: ‘I can touch a bell on my right hand and order the arrest of a citizen of Ohio. I can touch the bell again and order the arrest of a citizen of New York. Can Queen Victoria do as much?’ She could not, nor could the emperor of France or the king of Prussia.”
–Clyde N. Wilson, "War, reconstruction, and the end of the old republic." *Society* 33, no. 6 (September 1996): 68-74.
#AmazingQuotesFromAmericanHistory
True, which is why I wrote the same could *almost* be said of the "founding" generation.
It was true in ancient Israel as well; there were those who dissented and did not want a king, and the rest of Israel was ready to kill them for disagreeing...😒
See:
1 Samuel 10:27 (CSB): But some wicked men said, “How can this guy save us?” They despised him and did not bring him a gift, but Saul said nothing.
1 Samuel 11:12 (CSB): Afterward, the people said to Samuel, “Who said that Saul should not reign over us? Give us those men so we can kill them!”
And being *forced* to give someone 10 percent of your income IS a horror. This first royally enslaved generation of Israelis did so by choice, but not their descendants. The same could almost be said concerning Americans adopting their Constitution; the "founding" generation chose to be subjected to it but their children never did.
Three kings later, the Israelites in northern Israel seceded from their kingdom over King Solomon's oppressive taxation, but made the mistake of setting up their own kings instead of restoring the ancient liberties they had....
It seems to me that democracy also obscures accountability and responsibility. You can't just behead the king to fix your problems.
Some American colonists (Patrick Henry, I think?) also wondered whether it was better to have one ruler over 3,000 miles way, or 3,000 rulers only miles away?
In the Bible, the prophet Samuel tells the ancient Israelites who had been living in a state of anarchy but wanted a king now like the other nations that with a king they would be his slaves and have given him 10% of their income.
TEN PERCENT!? THE HORROR!
"Can't nobody take you higher
'cause He's the Messiah!"
–Kirk Franklin
(rounding out the Trinity in this note)
“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. …Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can may revolutionize and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit.”
–Abraham Lincoln, in an 1848 speech in the U.S. House of Representatives, supporting the war with Mexico and the secession of Texas
#AmazingQuotesFromAmericanHistory
How did that dinosaur survive while the others died off?
I think that the natural, real state of things is that there will always be some kind of government.
The question is, can it be voluntarily chosen, as I think may have been the case in the past in some societies, or will it be imposed on you involuntarily? If it is imposed on you, then no, you are not free.
Hillary Clinton is a "good" one too... 
All politicians are villains (with the rare exception) and some are supervillains.
"The late Yuri Maltsev, who defected from the Soviet Union to the United States after working for Mikhail Gorbachev, once remarked about how similar the U.S. government was to the Soviet government because, in his words, “government is all about taking bribes.”"
Can we agree that a State which is not voluntary and engaged in robbery (taxation) is fundamentally immoral?
"When politicians of any country use the coercive powers of the state to confiscate one person’s property, give some of it to political supporters, and keep some for themselves they are engaging in theft. Calling it “democracy,” “majority rule,” or “the only democracy in the Middle East” does not make it any less sinful."
We know that ultimately socialism doesn't work, because you eventually run out of other people's money. But because the Deep State has added in corporatism/fascism, with the Great Taking they may gain enough money to prop up their system for a while longer...