Since becoming Catholic six years ago I’ve learned much from listening to this creator.

In this episode he observes that  Pope Leo ignored the baby murder issue in an observance where it obviously should have been included. 

For details watch the video.

For what reads like a pretty fair summary of the broader issue of sola scriptura click on this AI link.

This post is about my personal experience with the doctrine.

I was baptized at the behest of my parents when I was a young teen in a United Methodist Church in Maryland.  I did it mostly for my parents, which is probably typical for all Christians who are baptized while a child of any age.  That is to say that baptism at that age is more about the adults who surround the child than the child.  They are too young to have any rigorous theological or philosophical understanding of the liturgy.  The Church community contextualizes the event in the months that follow.  As months turn into years the child becomes a man and grows in his responsibility to fully understand the indelible spiritual quality of what happened when the Church baptized him.

I was presented with an inscribed Bible by the Church at the baptismal liturgy.  I have it today, some fifty-five or so years later.  I think the sola scriptura idea/doctrine was probably mentioned to me as part of the preparation for the baptismal liturgy, but I’m not certain.  I remember having a special feeling about the inscribed Bible.  I read from it periodically as a child.  I never developed a habit of daily Bible reading.

I found written and visual material of an erotic nature to be much more meaningful than Bible verses as a teenager.  While I wanted to act out what I read, and viewed, in the “literature” I never developed the habit of fornication beyond self-stimulation inspired by the jewish-promoted “literature” known as porn.  I always knew that the Bible I owned was critical of the habit, and of all forms of lust.  Talmudically, I chose to rationalize the dichotomy.

I fell in love at eighteen years old with the woman I would marry.  Raised in the Pentecostal Church she had a deeper, more emotional, connection to sola scriptura than did I.  We both attended Protestant Bible College where she studied music, and I obtained a degree in Religion & Philosophy.  I accepted the doctrine uncritically all through this process until 2020 when I entered the Roman Catholic Church. That’s when I started to think deeply about it.

As I write this blog post I’m celebrating the end of my sixth year as a Catholic.  I find deep peace in having a Priest, and the Bible, in my life.  My Priest spent years sorting through the theological and philosophical issues/controversies that followed Luther’s articulation of sola scriptura’s modern form in the 1500s.  I trust my Priest on this point mostly because the alternative in America is Protestantism, which has disintegrated into tens of thousands of small groupings that each rally around some novel interpretation and/or charismatic personality.

The oldest of the Protestant groupings are all woke now.  Their biggest concern is transgendering. They’ve developed all sorts of theological and philosophical “reasoning” to support the insanity.  They get away with it because almost nobody attends their “worship” services anymore.  They are all closing, along with the Catholic Churches that maintain a relaxed attitude toward jews and their Talmudic ideas.

During my lifetime the only christian churches that enjoyed growth were evangelical zionist enterprises.  They were captured politically by the Republican Party at the time of Ronald Reagan.  The zionism was buried in eschatology that probed from the margins of daily and weekly worship until Trump was elected for a second time.  It appears that zionism is now a major dogma of the evangelicalism that I defended for twenty years as leader of the Christian Civic League.

I never defended zionism.  I stayed away from eschatology.  I’ve always reasoned that the future belongs to God and I was never comfortable with current event, headline driven “prophets”, teachers and preachers.

I’m not surprised to see what is happening right now in Washington D.C.  After spending four years leading a Christian community that ministered to troubled souls I entered Maine’s political world at the highest layer of engagement.  I spent twenty years as the spokesman for the century old Protestant institution who’s job it was (and is) to influence public policy, The Christian Civic League of Maine.

What Trump is doing makes perfect sense to me.  He has surrounded himself with evangelical “judeo-christian” Americans who sincerely believe that Old Testament verses are as timely, relevant and authoritative today as they were when they were written.  Sola Scriptura requires that the social order honor the absolute right of every individual Christian to interpret and apply the Bible for themselves alone. Protestant pastors teach this duty, and each denomination develops unique and independent rules to tamp down the inevitable chaos.

Most teach that the Old Testament must be interpreted through the lens of the New Testament, which introduces Jesus into the interpretation and application of Old Testament ideas.  But … never forget … that the doctrine empowers every individual to interpret and apply any, and all, Bible verses themselves.

This highly individualized and sovereign characteristic, encouraged by the doctrine, creates men like current Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.  The Pope recently reminded the world that the gospel cannot be used to justify war, “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

The American Evangelical Christians who are the most enthusiastic supporters of Trump’s war of choice against Iran are quoting the Old Testament out of context.  Hegseth quotes from it regularly.

I’m not a theologian.  Never have been.  I’m barely a philosopher having merely earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.  I do, however, have practical experience at 65 years of age.  And it is from those decades of experience that I respectfully offer my perspective.

Christians in the West desperately need the help of educated Priests with their spiritual lives as they work to sort out the world that is emerging from the ashes of the American empire.

Protestantism isn’t helping.  It will end up in the dust bin of history because it has always been nothing more than a heresy.

Selah

Back when I was doing my deep dive on Nick Fuentes I came across this once young (now forty year old) Livestreamer.  He’s interviewed Dr. Jones a few times.  We need a lot more conversations that jump the artificial generational divides fueled by psychological warfare.  Great work gentlemen!

If you do a search on this blog on the surname “Hein” you’ll find a number of blog posts detailing dramatic controversy that started a little over a year ago involving the X account, @truthslingerX.

I was dragged into the fight by Hein’s demand that I choose between him and Tim Bodnar, the owner of that X account.  The fight continues in the new year with more legal wrangling.  A court hearing took place last week.  I attended as a witness for Bodnar.  I was there moreso to do my own assessment of what motivates Hein to such relentless personal hatred.

Hein worked for me at the Christian Civic League of Maine for the six years preceeding 2009.  There’s one characteristic that stands out above all others in Hein.  He is a proud conservative Lutheran.

The founder of that Protestant denomination was a German monk named Martin Luther.  He famously abandoned his religious vows to found a new church and wage a relentless hate filled life-long crusade against the Pope in Rome.  He claimed that his vow of chastity as a monk was immoral and abandoned it notwithstanding the fact that the New Testament he claimed to honor offers clear support for chastity.

While I’m not a fan of AI I think this summary does the matter justice:

In the New Testament, several passages address the topic of singleness and celibacy, often presenting them as valid and even spiritually advantageous vocations. In Matthew 19:12, Jesus speaks of individuals who “have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,” suggesting that celibacy can be a deliberate choice for spiritual service.  Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul discusses the benefits of singleness, stating that unmarried individuals can devote themselves more fully to the Lord without the divided attention that marriage may bring. Paul emphasizes that while marriage is not sinful, those who remain single may enjoy greater focus on spiritual matters, as they are not concerned with the affairs of the world. He also notes that celibacy is a gift from God, not everyone is able to live it, and it should not be forced upon those who are not called to it. These passages highlight that singleness and celibacy are not merely alternatives to marriage but are recognized as legitimate and valuable paths for serving God.

Luther is the Father of Protestantism.  America is the most Protestant nation on earth.  There are now over forty thousand Protestant denominations.  Sexual immorality is now destroying (Epstein) any kind of Western moral and political unity.  The controversy over human sexuality is now embedded deep into the Roman Catholic Church, contributing immensely to the historic Christian Church’s decline in faithful and courageous adherents.  Choosing to be fake and gay isn’t really helping much of anything these days.

And Hein is fake and gay in his own unique religious way.  He probably “reasons” that he is loving his enemies like Bodnar, and the five witnesses that spent three hours sequestered in the hallway at the hearing, by resisting their public, political agendas over the years.  I realized the morning after the hearing that what bound all of us together as witnesses against Hein is the fact that he effectively attacked all of us over the years because he disagreed with our political aims on moral/religious grounds.

He interfered with an event I invested heavily in last year.  The attack felt personal because of his tactics.  They were effective.  Hein thinks of himself as a behind-the-scenes private actor who crusades on the internet using both his own personal identity and anon accounts.  He hides behind the claim that he is a journalist when cornered.

Hein’s deeply personal religion expresses itself in hatred of anyone who dares to not live up to his moral perfection.  The fact that America is literally incapable of assessing Hein’s religious supremacy, in favor of constantly evaluating his psychological fitness, leaves Maine handicapped.  We cannot stop him because we choose not to understand him.

Sun Tzu observed that if you don’t understand your enemy, and yourself, you will lose every battle.

My former employee, Michael Hein, texted me last night.

He wrote, “It’s funny watching your .tv livestream tonight from earlier today (yes, I’m the only one who did.) knowing that Bodnar’s account was nuked a couple of hours later. His X account ain’t coming back either. Permanent suspension, I was told by Robinson this afternoon. You picked the wrong horse, Mike. Stay mad, you loser. Cope harder. Cry more tears. Maybe God never liked that guy, eh?”

We were both employed by the Christian Civic League of Maine for six years before 2009.  I was his boss.  I learned a year ago that while he was working to ingratiate himself to Maine’s socialist/communists in 2021 he publicly lied about one of my three sons on X.

Hopefully you recognize the psychological tactics of a bully and troll in the text he sent me last night.  If not it’s beyond important that you learn more about human psychology now that Artificial Intelligence is deployed on the internet to diminish in your awareness the moral and human reality of your very own one-of-a-kind created sovereign soul.

The battle that is raging inside you, and all around you now (especially if you choose to care about politics and religion) is agenda driven by satan.  You are living on a spiritual battlefield.  Satan is making effective use of sex and greed right now to weaponize the internet.

He always does this with technological breakthroughs.

But God, humanity’s Father, has always been — and will always be — more powerful than satan.  And God is always going someplace good and virtuous.  He has the power to bring good out of evil.

We’ve all got our trolls and bullies, especially if you are taking a public stand against satan.  This is because America’s poem, Paradise Lost by John Milton, informs the essence of these disunited states.  He famously observed in the fifteenth century that it is better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.

Bullies and trolls master the devious tactics of demons.

Hein and his proud money loving pals, Steve Robinson and Matthew Gagnon, rule in hell because they have no deep personal interest in serving in heaven.  They enjoy their status here a little too much.

I tasted the power and fame they enjoy.  It went to my head.  Hein helped it go to my head as my assistant.

Those days are behind me.  And that’s why I’m honored God’s given me a chance to stand with a couple other maturing Christian political activist souls named Tim and Jenn Bodnar.

Amen.

What to say about the death of Pope Francis.  I’m saddened by anyone’s death.  For goodness sakes I feel angst when I have to step on a spider in my home.  I love life.  I hate death.

I also love fathers, and the whole idea of fatherhood.  I lost my dad in 2020.  I miss him as much today as I did on the day he died.  I’m a dad.  I was far from perfect as a parent.  I AM far from perfect.

Christianity gives you fatherhood instead of pronouns.  The proper pronoun for Francis was Pope, or father.

While I’m sad for his death I’m anticipating great things from God as Western Christianity engages the timeless liturgy of selection to once again fill the seat of Peter.

May God guide the world through our current storm to calmer seas under the leadership of the Church’s next Pope.

Amen.

I was never trained in debate.  I’ve been in a few.  But my political skills came through experiences lobbying, and talking to reporters one-on-one.  Most of my public speaking occurred in front of sympathetic evangelical congregations.  I really am a nice guy.  Too nice.

I led the Christian Civic League of Maine through a tumultuous time institutionally.  More than a decade before I arrived as Executive Director the ministry was abandoned by the two most significant founding Protestant denominations — the United Methodists and Congregationalists.  The governance DNA was still congregational.  Moral, cultural … and especially religious … shifting within was seismic.  Like subduction of tectonic plates the result was volcanic.

There was only one leadership modality left effective by the time I arrived in the early 1990s — authoritarianism.  All the power in the League had devolved (or evolved if you’re a good fundamentalist Baptist) to the top administrative position of Executive Director.  When I arrived the League had a large board of directors, most of whom were supposed to be appointed by Maine Protestant Denominations.  When I left there were six or so directors, and the right of denominations to appoint members had been removed from the bylaws.

The board members remaining were willing to defend Christianity’s timeless, and politically effective, definition of sexual morality.  The leaders who followed me relaxed this stand, and obfuscated the positive effects of my leadership over the two decades I served.

I don’t blame them.  Every new authoritarian leader has to establish their power in contrast to the leader who preceded them in some manner.  Their strategy had the effect of burying my legacy under multiple layers of rock hard volcanic lava.  The League erased my twenty years just like I erased the previous ten years of my predecessor.  I tell myself that the lava wasn’t so thick, but I’m sure Jack doesn’t see it that way.

The leadership of the League is changing right now for the first time since I resigned in 2009.  I don’t expect this new administration to do what the retiring one did.  Within months they were in contact with my predecessor to heal the rift that opened when I was leader.  I did the same thing by reaching back to Ben Bubar Jr. while ignoring Jack Wyman.

There’s much I could write here about my relationship with Jack, and the things that happened during my years in the public spotlight.  I don’t know how to present them without self-justification so I’ll move on to my current thoughts.  If you’re interested in learning more leave a comment below.

You don’t give two decades of your life to something as significant as what the League accomplished in the fight over “gay” rights without wanting an emotional lifelong connection with the team.  I don’t, however, desire their appreciation at the cost of becoming gay myself.

And that’s what drove me out in 2009.  The rising gases of emotional gayness inside of Maine’s Christianity created a caldera that blew up beneath me.  Maine’s sky was darkened by the black ash cloud that eventuated in the Republican Party being conquered by Trump/LePage’s anti-woke agenda.

In a way that would make Hegel proud they split Christianity right down the middle playing politics with abortion, while praising all things gay.  The conservative synthesis is still hidden in the clouds.  I don’t think it will ever appear in the blue sky of truth because it is like a bad novel — fiction.  To put a more European spin on where we’re at I’ll reference the EU leader’s quote yesterday elevating the Jew’s Holy Book, the Talmud, over Christianity’s Bible.

I headlined this post, My Catholic Identity Means I’m Still Christian.  I opened thinking out loud about the idea of debating, and reminding myself — and you my dear reader — that I’m no master of debate.

Unconsciously I knew when I started writing that publicly identifying as Roman Catholic in Maine is a debate invitation for any dedicated Protestant.  I include Evangelicals as members of the Protestant movement.  Broadly thinking theologically there are only two versions of Christianity in Maine — Protestant and Catholic.

I don’t identify as Catholic to trigger a debate.  That’s an overly mindful response to my declaration of religious identity.  I identify as Catholic with other Christians to inspire a love (truth) drenched conversation that ends in a meeting of our minds on specific issues.  I identify as Catholic with non-Christians to introduce them to my guardian, the angel of war, Saint Michael.

Some folks suggest I may be mentally/emotionally compromised because I still think so deeply about my two decades of service at the League.  They sincerely ask, “Why can’t you move on?”

And I think to myself, “Would things be better in Maine today if voters took the League’s side on gayness back in the day?” 

Then I realize that it is obvious that things would be worse.  Things would be so boring without boys pretending to be girls, Trump lecturing our Governor and Laurel Libby not being allowed to represent her constituents in the Legislature.

Let’s stop fighting and admit that we’re all gay now.

Selah.

I had to think long and hard before publishing this post.  Until 2020 I was a pretending protestant.  While my theology was inarguably protestant I thought of myself as immune from criticism because …. I guess it depended on who was leveling the criticism, to be honest.

In reality my religion was Americanism.  My mind doesn’t know, even now, how to exist entirely outside the American religion.  I know that I must find a way, especially now.

I have two options.  This is just me.  I’m not suggesting that you must agree with me.

Reject Christianity altogether.  Or practice the religion inside the ancient Church.  While I love much of what I know about Eastern Orthodoxy, I opted for the Western version — headquartered in Rome and led by the Pope — in 2020.

This YouTuber provides a concise version of what I learned a dozen years ago.  I have one enhancement to his narrative.  Freemasonry is much less toxic to religion today in America and the West than Judaism.  That’s why it’s easier to level criticism against masonry.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Selah.

This Priest’s column makes many keen observations.  He writes:

Our salvation – yours and mine – does not happen out there, in some other place or in someone else’s life. It doesn’t occur in the media or latest gossip, online or otherwise. It doesn’t depend on our knowing the latest political intrigue or celebrity news. It depends on our personal and interior adherence to the Lord.

And then he observes, “But we love to be distracted because this reality can be daunting. We fear that God is too close, too personal. Too local. So we distract ourselves …”  We are distracted beyond belief, literally.  You know it is true.  You feel it.  You know it. 

The Priest closes the thought, “We shouldn’t choose to be elsewhere.”  I could go on and republish the entire column.  It really is that insightful.  If you’re interested in reading the Priest’s ideas click through and read the entire column.  I recommend it.  You won’t be disappointed.

His thoughts remind me of a book I read years ago entitled “Distracted.”  This is why I love being home.

I fight everyday to avoid distraction, and constant accelerating movement.  The fight isn’t getting easier because the richest people on earth are concentrated in a technology that weaponized their ability to achieve their goals using acceleration and distraction.

Elon Musk’s instant pivot from left winger to rabid right winger is the most current example of this reality.  I’m thrilled to see that it isn’t working for the autist.  Tesla’s stock price is down seventy percent last week.  And left wingers are literally burning down Tesla dealerships.  I hate the arson, but I sort of love what it represents.  It’s no longer enough to have Western political power and billions of dollars.

Logos is Rising.

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