2020, 2021, and This Blog

As a new year is upon us, it is a time to look back and forward.

Looking back, it seems every year I make a remarkably prescient prediction if I may say so myself.  This year’s came back in September when I wrote, “I think it likely we will have a contested election fueled by massive fraud.”  And I went on to warn of the problem of mail-in ballots.

I did get something slightly wrong when I noted one “scenario is that [Trump] loses his lead in a crucial state due to questionable mail-in ballots, and you get President Harris, er, Biden.”  In hindsight, I should have written “states.”  And I confess the fraud was more massive and widespread than even I anticipated.

You may have noticed something more mundane about this blog – I have been posting less frequently in recent months.  There may have been some lack of energy and creativity involved, but I have a good reason as well.  And that gets me into looking forward.

The publication of my writing increased notably in 2020, and I expect the new venues for my writing will continue in 2021.  Also, I finally decided on my next book.  Yes, good progress for which I am thankful.

The problem is, to do these justice, really to get these done, I have to change my time management, and that will likely include posting less often here.  Already, I have caught myself procrastinating on my book, and this blog has been one of the excuses for that.  In fact, I put off working on my book to write this post!

So do know that if post less frequently, it will probably be for good reason.  But I will continue to opine on twitter and Parler, which can be more fun anyway.

For now, may you have a more tolerable 2021 and a happy remainder of the Christmas season.

Two Timely Christmas Sermons from Pusey House

I noted on a past Feast of Holy Innocents that Christmas has its dark side.  We often try to push that aside in strenuous efforts to be merry, but on this Holy Innocents Day of 2020, one would have to engage in significant denial to ignore it.

So I am glad to have come across Christmas sermons this year that tackle the current difficulties and the present darkness head on.  Two of those come from the Principal of Pusey House, George Westhaver during their Christmas Eve Midnight Mass.

Although I could only watch the opening of his sermon live due to my preparations for a Christmas Eve service, I was able to watch it the remainder of the evening and was edified.  I hoped it would be posted for all to see and read and have not been disappointed.  The transcript is here.

Dr. Westhaver expounded on John 1:5 – “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

I said two sermons from Pusey House because Westhaver refers to a sermon from Dr. Pusey.  That sermon, too, well addresses the relevance of Christmas to great difficulties and may be found here.

Although I hope the difficulties of my readers have not been too great, I also hope these sermons encourage you in the midst of a trying time as they have me.

Do have a blessed Holy Innocents Day and a happy Christmas season. 

King’s Nine Lesson and Carols Will Be Pre-recorded.

2020 continues to take its toll.  Now that toll includes the Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, at least a live version.  From King’s:

…For safety reasons it had previously been decided that no congregation could be present this year. In the face of Covid-19, King’s also decided to make a recording of the service a few weeks before Christmas as an additional precaution. In the light of current conditions, it is this recording of 2020’s A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols that will be broadcast at the usual time on 24 December.

Given all the lockdowns now around London, the decision is understandable, perhaps inevitable.  And King’s College is to be praised for their foresight in pre-recording a service just in case.

Still Christmas Eve this year will not quite be the same.

For those wondering, the broadcast schedule should remain the same:

The scheduling information for A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols will remain the same, with the service broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service on 24 December at 3pm (10:00 EST or 07:00 PST). The service is also broadcast at 1pm on Radio 3 on Christmas Day, and at various times on the BBC World Service. In the United States the service is distributed by American Public Media and is broadcast by around 450 radio stations, including Minnesota Public Radio and WQXR in New York.

Additional information, including the Order of Service may be found here.

One has to have sympathy for Director of Music Daniel Hyde.  Now into his second year, he has yet to have a live Nine Lessons and Carols without difficulty.  Last year was at the end of his first Michaelmas Term and in the shadow of Stephen Cleobury.  It takes time for a new director and choir to work seamlessly together.  Last year’s service seemed to show that at times although it was excellent overall.  Then in a dark Lent Term came the COVID.  And now the live service is cancelled.  Like much of the UK, the man cannot seem to get a break.

About That Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction

The last two nights have provided a spectacular sight.  Jupiter and Saturn were close in the clear western sky near a bright crescent moon.  Yet, as most of you know, weather permitting, it is going to get even better.  On this coming Monday evening December 21^st, Jupiter and Saturn will be so close together in our line of sight, they may appear to be one very bright star.  You have to go back to 1226 and 1623 for a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction this close.

It so happens that December 21^st is St. Thomas Day.  I was thinking of calling the conjunction after him.  But he would defer to Christ.  So the Christmas Star of 2020 may be more appropriate.

Imagine if we were in medieval times.  A remarkable conjunction on St. Thomas Day, right before Christmas.  And December 21^st is also the Winter Solstice this year.  People would consider this a portent of something, maybe something wonderful . . . or awful.  If it were near the year 1000 or 1215 or 1349 (at the height of the Black Death), people might think it would mean the End.

But such medieval thinking was superstitious, of course.  Surely, God is not using the skies to get our attention at the end of this awful 2020, right?

Right?

ACNA Receives a Godly Example from … Baptists!?

Yes, I am having a bit of fun with the headline.  But in all seriousness, as the Anglican Church in North America and its Working Group on Race, Racism, and Racial Reconciliation struggles with Critical Race Theory and its cousins and progeny, we have just been given good guidance from the seminary presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention, another denomination wrestling with CRT.

The six SBC seminary presidents have issued a statement that concludes as follows:

In light of current conversations in the Southern Baptist Convention, we stand together on historic Southern Baptist condemnations of racism in any form and we also declare that affirmation of Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and any version of Critical Theory is incompatible with the Baptist Faith & Message.

Now I could quibble with this.  At least two of the presidents have enabled CRT at their seminaries.  The cynical could think that this is a ploy to deflect rising opposition to CRT while continuing business as usual.  Also, it is important to oppose not only the affirmation of Critical Theory and related ideologies but also to oppose their toxic influence.  Few in relatively orthodox churches say, “I affirm Critical Theory.”  Many in relatively orthodox churches are influenced by Critical Theory and spread the influence.

But, having quibbled, this statement is a pleasant surprise.  It calls out Critical Theory by name and “any version” of CT and declares that affirming these is out.

That is important because, as we already see, when a Leftist ideology gets too much opposition, its proponents play dumb and then change the labeling and declare concern about it to be witch hunting or something.  In other words, they in effect say, “CRT?  What’s CRT?  There’s no CRT to see here!”  Then they push the same ideology under different wrapping.  Pro-abortion becomes “pro-choice”; global warming becomes “climate change”, etc.  Already we see Critical Theory in many guises.  Attacking just one arm of this slithery octopus will not do.  Whenever we oppose Critical Theory, we must oppose related and derivative ideologies as well.  The seminary presidents’ statement does just that.

ACNA’s Working Group on Race, Racism, and Racial Reconciliation as well as the College of Bishops would do well to issue a statement this clear and strong.  Further, it is necessary that the Working Group and College of Bishops issue a statement at least this clear and strong.

Election Fraud is All the More Reason to VOTE

An objective of those with a totalitarian mindset is to discourage opposition to the point where they give up.  Totalitarians are certainly willing to cancel their opposition in various ways, but they would rather opposition just give up.

We are seeing this in play in the Georgia Senate run-off elections.  It is becoming more and more obvious that a major factor, if not the factor, behind President Trump’s loss of Georgia and of Senator Perdue being forced into a run-off (In the other Senate race, the Republican vote was split.) was election fraud in the Atlanta area.  And the Republican Governor and Secretary of State are doing little about it.  Instead they enabled the fraud by their agreements with that fat fraud Stacey Abrams and with Dominion Voting Systems.

So the thinking of some goes, if Georgia elections are now fraudulent and Republicans are even assisting the fraud, what is the point of voting?  If enough think like that, the Democrats’ task in the January run-offs is made easier.  (And, yes, some who are pushing this thinking are actually Democrats engaging in political chicanery and pretending to be Republicans.)

My response applies not just to the Georgia run-offs, but to future elections as a whole.  Election fraud makes it all the more important to vote, not less.

Let’s take the worse possible scenario, which we probably just experienced.  Let’s say election fraud nullifies and overturns the legitimate vote.  If more right-thinking Americans vote, that makes the task of the fraudsters more difficult.  We just saw that in November.  Donald Trump received more votes than any other incumbent President in history, millions more than Obama in 2012.  His election night leads in swing states were formidable.  So the fraud necessary to overcome that was more than the usual vote buying, dead people and illegals voting and so on.  The fraud had to be massive and therefore rather more obvious to “win”, and it was.  Frankly, I suspect the election night pauses in the counting in swing states was in order to prepare the needed fraud.  (And as I prepare this, video out of Georgia confirms my thinking.  Observers were told counting was suspended so go home.  Then when the observers were gone, poll workers pulled out cases of ballots and resumed counting without observers – blatantly illegal and strong evidence of fraud.)

So now if Biden succeeds in capturing the White House, his leadership will have little credibility from the start.  Already, that many more people now see Democrats as the power-hungry crooks that they are. Democrats will find it difficult to live that down with consequences in future elections. Again, this is the worst possible scenario when real Americans vote.

If Trump supporters had just stayed home, Democrats would be more able to create an illusion of legitimacy.  The task of these quasi-totalitarian criminals would be easier.  

However, especially as the extent of Democrat fraud is more and more exposed in the coming months and years and as the Biden-Harris regime is predictably incompetent and tyrannical, it is very possible that Democrats will be so repudiated in the next two elections, overwhelming their attempts at fraud, that Republicans will finally be able to pass laws protecting our elections, laws such as Voter ID.  Who knows?  If Donald Trump is elected in 2024, we may even see a few of the Democrat criminals go to prison where they belong.  

Maybe that last bit is wishful thinking (although note that I do not expect Trump to succeed in his challenges of this election).  But I am hopeful that the reaction to this debacle will be much stronger election laws and the enforcement of them by 2026, not to mention the political punishment of the Democrats who so disrespected and nullified our votes in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

But that will not happen unless Americans vote.  So VOTE!

Besides that are moral issues of culpability.  If America falls to the totalitarians because you and people like you did not vote and vote wisely, that’s your fault.  If America falls to the totalitarians because they stole elections and tore up the Constitution against how you voted, that’s their fault.

I would rather it be their fault, not your fault, nor mine.  Part of the message of Advent is the Lord will judge, don’tcha know.