St. Augustine well spoke of the Donald Trumps of the world, the Vladimir Putins, the Xi Jinpings, who molest the land and the sea, whose modus operandi is robbery

 Trump on Venezuela: "We Are Going To Run The Country"

U.S. in Prime Position To Unlock Venezuela's Vast Oil Reserves

Eaton, et al., WSJ

 

 

 Kingdoms without justice are similar to robber bands.

And so if justice is left out, what are kingdoms except great robber bands? For what are robber bands except little kingdoms? The band also is a group of men governed by the orders of a leader, bound by a social compact, and its booty is divided according to a law agreed upon. If by repeatedly adding desperate men this plague grows to the point where it holds territory and establishes a fixed seat, seizes cities and subdues peoples, then it more conspicuously assumes the name of kingdom, and this name is now openly granted to it, not for any subtraction of cupidity, but by addition of impunity. For it was an elegant and true reply that was made to Alexander the Great by a certain pirate whom he had captured. When the king asked him what he was thinking of, that he should molest the sea, he said with defiant independence: “The same as you when you molest the world! Since I do this with a little ship I am called a pirate. You do it with a great fleet and are called an emperor.”

-- St. Augustine, The City of God Against the Pagans IV 

OMG The Week says Peter Thiel is a devout Christian ...

 He is most certainly not a Christian, devout or otherwise.

... neither adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind ...  shall inherit the kingdom of God.

-- I Corinthians 6:9f. 

And why did Thiel's boyfriend, with whom he was cheating on his so-called spouse, die just like all the people die who cross Vladimir Putin? On which see below. 

Meanwhile The Week here adds to this decidedly not Christian horror show by quoting a fornicating Episcopal priest who has the gall to call Thiel . . . heretical!

As an Episcopal priest, “I find Thiel’s warnings heretical,” said Kevin Deal in the San Francisco Standard. In the Bible, the Antichrist represents “a foil to Christ,” not “a tool to sow fear or division.” Thiel is cynically weaponizing “the language of faith” to serve his own ends. 

Mr. Deal, formerly Mr. Neil, adopted his girlfriend's surname when they married after living together for over a year, including while at seminary. They were married, of course, by a female Episcopal priest. All of which was celebrated, of course, by The New York Times.

Thiel is heretical to these people because he is Republican, not because he is a faggot.

The UK Daily Mail here. 

If you're looking for the Antichrist, look no further than these principals. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the antichrist is in your midst. 

 

 

Evidently both J. D. Vance and his pope are so embarrassed by a nature miracle in Mark's Gospel that they feel they have to misrepresent it

 

Or is it just USA Today?

Who knows.

I highlight the obvious misrepresentations.

Can anyone read anymore?

Here:

Vance quoted at length from a Francis homily in March 2020 about a passage from the book of Mark about Jesus being in a boat with his disciples. A storm caught the group off guard by an unexpected and turbulent storm, which left them disoriented and in need of comfort.

Jesus slept for the only time mentioned in the gospels. When he awakens after the storm has passed, the disciples ask why he wasn’t concerned if they perished.

“Indeed, once they call on Him, He saves his disciples from their discouragement,” Vance quoted Francis as saying. “The storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers our faults and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities.”

“We deprive ourselves of the antibodies we need to confront adversity,” Vance added.

 

What absolute tosh. 

Do these people ever look up anything?

The storm hadn't passed. It was raging. They were going to die. He was sleeping. They wake him. He commands the storm to stop. It stops. They are amazed. He was upset at their faithlessness.

They were saved from being killed by an actual storm, not from some stupid, introspective-conscience-of-the-west-like existential angst imported into the text from our cowardly, post-Christian, 21st century dull humanitarian consensus which cannot say what a woman is and can't even bring itself to call things what they actually are, such as that a man posing as a woman is a man posing as a woman.

Are we surprised that the same people who deliberately misrepresent their foundational book misrepresent also who is the dictator destroying Ukraine and who started the war?

And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?  

-- Mark 4:37ff. 

Vladimir Putin says the West is Satanic for rejecting moral norms

Putin says U.S. created nuclear PRECEDENT by bombing Japan and vows to 'smash' the 'satanic' West

Exhibit A, which you would never have seen in the popular press even 20 years ago:

 

Franklin Graham Defends Vladimir Putin's And Russia's Ban On Gay Propagandization Of Minors

And rightly so.

In Decision Magazine, here:

In my opinion, Putin is right on these issues. Obviously, he may be wrong about many things, but he has taken a stand to protect his nation’s children from the damaging effects of any gay and lesbian agenda.

h/t Pete Wehner (!)

Vladimir Putin's Indispensable Prop For His Tyranny Is Russian Orthodoxy

"What were the 2000s then? Through a miracle of God, with the active participation of the country's leadership, we managed to exit this horrible, systemic crisis."

"I should say it openly as a patriarch who must only tell the truth, not paying attention to the political situation or propaganda, you personally [Vladimir Putin] played a massive role in correcting this crooked twist of our history."

-- Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, quoted here