The Psychopath Inside

https://www.goodreads.com/notes/18917592-the-psychopath-inside/6923915-bill-berg?ref=rsp

A book I  very much enjoyed -- but many may not. It gives you "The time", "The watch", "How to build the watch", as well as quite a bit about the watchmaker (biography) -- a play on "I just wanted to know the time, not how to build a watch". "

The author, James Fallon, is a fairly famous brain scientist specializing in the study of what the brains of psychopaths look like, and how are they different from the norm. If you want to get to know him, there are a number of Youtube's of him, and he has appeared in the media in various forms.

The "punchline" is that he accidentally discovers that HE is what he classifies as a "prosocial psychopath"! He also has some interesting connections " ... I had seen her (mom) lecture our family friend George Carlin ...". Also a bunch of film and media connections, since the line between scary and interesting is sometimes narrow -- "psychopathic killer" as sold a lot of movies and books!

He goes into a LOT of depth on his personal life experience, and the neuroscience of various behavior disorders -- depression, borderline, bipolar, narcissism, OCD, panic disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, obesity, social phobia, etc

He starts out as pretty much a materialist "matter over mind, nature vs nurture", but as with many of us, reality has a way of calling imagined world views into question as they face up to the actual world. 

In my mind, we are machines, albeit machines we don’t understand all that well, and I have believed for decades that we have very little control over what we do and who we are. To me, nature (genetics) determines about 80 percent of our personality and behavior, and nurture (how and in what environment we are raised) only 20 percent.

This is the way I have always thought about the brain and behavior. But this understanding took a stinging, and rather embarrassing, blow starting about 2005, and I continue to reconcile my past belief with my present reality. I have come to understand—even more than I did before—that humans are, by nature, complicated creatures.

I found the results of a a Case Western Reserve study by  Anthony Jack to be an interesting explanation as to why some people have a lot of trouble thinking of a dualistic mind/body/spirit sort of split.

What group of people did Tony Jack find that are stumped by the very idea of dualism? Psychopaths. My lack of emotional empathy and my abandonment of God, the soul, and belief in free will may all be connected.

As Christ said, "forgive them for they know not what they do", it seems that science has now verified this.

Having worked at IBM with a number of people (including myself) at least fairly high on the autism spectrum, I found the following interesting.

... another important dichotomy, and that is between emotional empathy and cognitive empathy, also known as “theory of mind.” Theory of mind, as I’ve previously discussed, arises early in childhood, developing progressively until adulthood, and is a key developmental accomplishment in which the child learns she possesses mental states like desires and intentions and beliefs, and that others possess similar states, though those may be different from her own. Someone with autism will not show a normal theory of mind. This lack may also be present in people with some personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder, and also some forms of bipolar disorder. In contrast, people with psychopathy, narcissism, and certain affective types of schizophrenia will have cognitive empathy but lack emotional empathy.

 As I worked as a Peer Support Specialist and reflectect on my personal struggles with anxiety, depression and panic, and also studied DBT and practiced mindfulness, I became more aware of various "spectrums" ... as was stated in the book.

Psychiatry is moving away from categorical thinking—the latest diagnostic manual talks about “dimensions” to disorders—but it’s hard when doctors don’t want to learn new methods, insurance companies need to rely on specific diagnoses, and everyone likes closure and clearly defined labels. I see psychopathy like others see art; I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.

Categories are helpful and dangerous -- as is pretty much everything. "Everything in moderation" is a statement with a lot of wisdom. We are ALL "on the spectrum" for all characteristics, AND, the more we are aware of that, and willing to give grace to others because we are all in the same boat, the better this world will be. "Do unto others" tells the tale.

Would you like to be forgiven? Then forgive.

Would you like to be loved? Then love.

Would you like to be understood? Then seek to understand.

I found this paragraph to be obviously and totally true! (at age 63 ;-)

These brain circuits mature at different times during development, and although there are major maturational events that take place in the terrible twos, puberty, late adolescence, the twenties, and the mid-thirties, some are not completely integrated until one is in the sixties, which appears to be the typical average peak time of human insight, cognition, and understanding in many realms of life.

Not that we have a choice, but if I did have a choice, the grass looks greener to me on the other side ... (I've got a lot of anxiety and memory, and my theory is that part of the reason they go together is because you KNOW that if you screw up, or bad things happen to you, you WILL remember -- VIVIDLY!)

For example, one allele that codes for the growth factor BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) is associated with excellent memory but high anxiety. This is the combination I have, and it fits with my actual behavior. The other allele of BDNF codes for lower memory function but also low anxiety. So what would I rather have, a great memory and high anxiety or a poorer memory and a mellow disposition? Tough call.

So ... if you enjoy LOTS of detail, low level brain chemistry discussion, personal biography/asides, etc, then I HIGHLY recommend this book. If you don't, then if you are able to judiciously skip around the "watchmaking sections", you might still like it --- otherwise, look for other brilliantly done reviews like this one ;-)

The Reichstag Is Still Burning, Jaffa

https://americanmind.org/features/the-reichstag-is-still-burning/

A brilliant essay by a newly discovered (for me) brilliant thinker, Harry Jaffa. My introduction is by way of the entertaining and educational Powerline Podcast, which I regularly enjoy while taking my walks.

An excellent discourse on one of my common themes -- when universals (like "chair" being a useful descriptive term) are denied, then statements like "all men are created equal" become meaningless, since metaphysical abstraction is denied along with metaphysics. If ALL is MATERIAL, and there is no use in any abstraction that can't be "resolved" (as in Object Oriented Programming) to a specific physical "object" (experimentally verifiable fact/thing), then all we can work with are "white men", "black men", "gay women", "undefined gender beings", etc ...

This discourse gets us quickly back to Hegel - Heidegger, who in believing in Historicism (that history is "progressing" to "the correct thought"), and Hegel declaring "we've arrived", then "universals are what smart people declare they are" (in this case Hegel).

Modern "progressivism" declares "there is no end" -- although thinkers like Francis Fukuyama have extended Hegel/Heidegger to say "we are REALLY there now" in "The End of History". 

When we can no longer think in terms of "all men", we are driven to "white men" and their "privilege", or a "Master Race" because POWER ("Might is right") is all that matters in the world of the completely physical.

The title refers to the example of American educational system being driven to add and remove areas of study through riots and physical violence, so that study of "dead white men" (the ancients, the founders, the Bible, Shakespeare, etc)  were driven from the academy.

Non Delegation Clause, A Deep State Limit At Last?

https://newrepublic.com/article/156207/plot-level-administrative-state

The linked article naturally is VERY concerned about any potential limit to the power of the Administrative / Deep State. ("puissance" is just an arcane term for lotsa power)

The doctrine’s puissance lies in the separation of powers. In the American constitutional order, it’s the role of Congress to write the laws and the role of the executive branch to carry them out. The doctrine bars any branch from handing its powers to another branch. Congress can’t pass a bill that gives the president the power to write his own legislation, for example. Nor can the president instruct the military to take orders from the House and Senate Armed Services Committee instead of himself. Sounds simple enough.

Most of the alphabet bureaucracy that does most of the "ruling" in BOistan is unconstitutional because it removes any enforcement of limits on government, which the "progressives" LOVE!

The main innovation of America was LIMITED GOVERNMENT, something never before tried -- the power of kings was UNlimited.  The mechanism by which the government was limited was separation of powers -- "factions", enforced by adherence to a written constitution that could only be amended by a difficult to garner 3/4ths majority. Difficult, but proven to be far from "impossible" -- the 13th amendment ending slavery, the 19th giving women the right to vote were evidence of the mechanism we were granted working as designed. Nobody imagined that women could be granted the right to vote via a SCOTUS decision!

Roe, Kelo, Obergefell and the refusal so far to enforce separation of powers since FDR have led to the runaway growth of the Administrative / Deep State, which with the election of Trump has decided that direct interference in elections, including reversing them is within Administrative/Deep State "puissance" (POWER!).

Thus, at this moment, BOistan is "A divided people, under the unlited power of the Administrative/Deep State, without liberty, and without justice for any not part of the elite Deep State, for whose benefit the deplorables are allowed to serve. 

How Sir Roger Scruton Became Conservative

https://newcriterion.com/issues/2003/2/why-i-became-a-conservative

A superb answer to why I am a conservative. Your time would be well spent reading the article! A few nuggets ...

Law is constrained at every point by reality, and utopian visions have no place in it. Moreover the common law of England is proof that there is a real distinction between legitimate and illegitimate power, that power can exist without oppression, and that authority is a living force in human conduct. English law, I discovered, is the answer to Foucault.

The abstract is unconstrained, reality is always constrained.

Whether you call it "modernism", "progressivism", "materialism", or "liberalism" it all boils down to the faith that there is no such thing as transcendence or God, it is ALL "particles and progress".

Modernism in architecture was an attempt to remake the world as though it contained nothing save atomic individuals, disinfected of the past, and living like ants within their metallic and functional shells.

A snippet of Sir Rogers thoughts after being allowed a visit to Communist Prague in 1979, and his closing of why he does not despair. Just read it!

To put it very simply, I had been granted a vision of Satan and his work—the very same vision that had shaken Burke to the depths of his being. And I at last recognized the positive aspect of Burke’s philosophy as a response to that vision, as a description of the best that human beings can hope for, and as the sole and sufficient vindication of our life on earth.

Henceforth, I understood conservatism not as a political credo only, but as a lasting vision of human society, one whose truth would always be hard to perceive, harder still to communicate, and hardest of all to act upon. And especially hard is it now, when religious sentiments follow the whims of fashion, when the global economy throws our local loyalties into disarray, and when materialism and luxury deflect the spirit from the proper business of living. But I do not despair, since experience has taught me that men and women can flee from the truth only for so long, that they will always, in the end, be reminded of the permanent values, and that the dreams of liberty, equality, and fraternity will excite them only in the short-term.

As to the task of transcribing, into the practice and process of modern politics, the philosophy that Burke made plain to the world, this is perhaps the greatest task that we now confront. I do not despair of it; but the task cannot be described or embraced by a slogan. It requires not a collective change of mind but a collective change of heart.

4 Pillars For American Education

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/four-pillars-educating-america/

Excellent article!

These are the four chief elements, the four pillars, of the founding of Hillsdale College: learning, character, faith, and freedom. The College’s founders saw these things not as items on a discrete list, but as a description of the complete human being and of the well-lived human life. Of course colleges proceed by argument, evidence, and proof, and here at Hillsdale we argue about anything, including these elements. We preserve them as well because they lay the ground for that argument, for its continuing civility and probity, for the advancement of learning, and for the preservation of the freedom to do it. They are a prescription for civilization.

I tend to order them in what I see as the proper order :

1. Faith -- Because you are certain to have it, and if it isn't in something unchanging and purposeful, then why bother?
2. Character -- Which I believe can only be developed by faith in Christ, because through the workings of the Holy Spirit that will allow it's growth in humility and confidence--confidence in Christ, not yourself. 
3. Learning -- If you are a Christian, you will be immersed in learning about Christ, and in Christ you will be truly free to face a lot of the very uncomfortable things about reality. Without Christian faith, and character developed by the Holy Spirit, you will almost certainly learn a lot of very wrong things. 
4. Freedom -- I see this as an often misunderstood pillar. As Solzhenitsyn and Frankel taught us, even in the most extreme cases of the lack of physical freedom, we can be free in Christ beyond all even potential earthly human freedom. In fact, the greatest earthy physical freedom is often a horrid prison of addiction, striving after mammon, etc 

I found this paragraph to be a good statement of what we need to get back as a people if we want to be "Great Again". 

In former times, the most thoughtful people valued the old or the new only insofar as they gave a clue to the eternal and transcendent. In seeking the transcendent, they believed that old things did have a certain dignity on their face: they have the advantage of persistence, which is one part of virtue. Things that have been thought good for a long time are worthy of attention, respect, and study. New things are harder to judge. Nonetheless, both old and new things must meet the test of permanence and transcendence.

To the modern ear, that sounds antiquated. Today the theme is not permanence, but change; not transcendence, but presence. Change is the master key to everything. Change can be eternal only in the sense that everything changes. But if everything changes, nothing is permanent, and nothing is transcendent. Today we are trying to make a transcendent good out of the one thing that cannot transcend.

We are created with an eternal soul, and our life is intended to be a journey back to the source of that soul.  We are permanent, we made to seek the permanent. Truth itself is under a withering attack -- how can it not be if all is change?

Modern liberalism in America begins with two ideas: one, everything is change; two, we should use science to get control of the process of change and make the society into what we want it to be. This is the engineering project that has significantly changed the way we are governed. It threatens to change our way of life decisively and for all time.

 Just read the article rather than me, your very freedom to be able to do so is under a vicious and amoral attack in a sham "impeachment" as this is written!

American Ulysses

https://www.amazon.com/American-Ulysses-Life-S-Grant/dp/1400069025/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1579297486&sr=8-1

What a great book for our time! Americans REALLY had something to fight about, they did, and at great cost (likely more like 750k dead rather than the 600k commonly quoted), AND, they moved on -- with Grant being a (if not THE) major factor in that happening.

I find this review to be worthy to give you an overview -- it is definitely a book complimentary to Grant.

My thoughts:

• We ought to have Washington, Lincoln and Grant on Mt Rushmore! (and we need a new one -- like a cross between Reagan and Trump)
• That Longstreet stood up at his wedding, then was one of the big generals for the South, THEN they returned to solid friendship says an awful lot about the men and the times! 
• We see that "Fake News" is not a new phenomenon -- Grant, a "doer" had a period of heavy drinking when he was stationed in California with nothing to do -- and that was that. The rest of the accusations of this "problem" are examples of people telling stories to tear down an modest and quiet man for their own advancement. 
• That Grant was supposed to attend Ford's theater with Lincoln on the night of the assassination and decided against because his beloved wife Julia wanted to be with the kids is a great example of how "little things" change history. Based on Grant's capabilities is quite likely he would have foiled Booth -- and he was forever sorry that he was not there to try. 
• Why our educational system gets Grant so horribly wrong is yet another example of how we have been brainwashed -- he was extremely loved, AND he was a unifier! However, he had an R next to his name, he was for less government / strong currency, and was hated by Democrats. Apparently ending slavery and being assassinated was good enough for academia to honor Lincoln (for now). Without Grant (the indispensable general), Lincoln would likely NOT have been re-elected in 1864, and thus the 13th Amendment freeing the slaves would not have happened. Lincoln would have been remembered as a failed president that cost the lives of more Americans than any other. 

If we want to return to the principles that made America great, we need to return to an educational level something like "1950", where virtually all voters understand significantly more about what it takes to have a Constitutional Republic, and how far we have strayed! 

Highly recommended!

Get Thee Outside Of Thyself

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2020/01/luthers-psychological-remedy/

The book referenced at end of linked is on order. This is definitely a "just read the referenced" ... I'm not going to add any wisdom here, and I doubt I can distill it any better than Luther or Veith for that matter, whose Blog I follow, and whose one book I've read so far, I love.

One tiny quote ...

Christians especially should consider the implications of a God who became flesh, who sanctifies the glorious and distinct beings comprising external reality. He, after all, is the “Logos,” or Being, who brought about and secures the “logoi,” or beings, of the created external order. Because of him, our “neighbor” becomes an object of love, not a character in our own psychic dramas. He draws us out of ourselves and into himself, the glorious “other.”

Ditches Are Female Dogs

https://ricochet.com/podcast/three-martini-lunch/suleimanis-airport-surprise-what-comes-next-williamson-wont-quit/

In the heavily leftist dominated world of today, it is easy to forget that there are ALWAYS at least two ditches ... and frequently many more. Action has risks, and so does INaction. Churchill groupies like the idiot moose point to the runup to WWII, and how the appeasers created Hitler -- when he invaded the Rhineland, if a single French soldier would have challenged the move, his own generals were itching to assassinate him! But that of course is HISTORY, and the left doesn't like to look at history or they would not be the left! (gravity has often worked in the past, and the left wants us ignore and even better, not be aware of that!)

They are burdened with the hard task of being blind to even the present -- it is REALLY hard to be aware of the USSR, N Korea, China, Venezuela, Cuba, etc and say "leftism works"!

When you don't act, you embolden the bad guys to act. They are much more likely to attack Pee Wee Herman than Godzilla!

Of course "likely" and "certain" are different things ... SOMEONE does win the lottery after all, so there are "risks" (and there always are) ... our current problem with the leftist dominated media is that the risks are shown through the Hubble telescope and the rewards are shown through an electron microscope.

The linked does a better job of covering these apparently complex concepts.

Nothing Is Written In Stone -- Fake News

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/attacks-on-the-babylon-bee-are-attacks-on-free-expression/?fbclid=IwAR2FEsXp9YBJrmKIcLM-nLxcoNcDsSzOmn5FiKoeJxcKaJtkNDxsqsLSaGY

There a book on categories titled "Women, Fire, And Dangerous Things" that I have mostly read ... the title refers to Aborigines having only three categories to assign things to. Lots of languages give words and things gender ... we all do, a ship is commonly a "she". The author of that book, wrote a book on "frames" (a form of categorization) titled "Don't Even Think Of An Elephant".

Categories are really important -- we are VERY finite beings living in an effectively infinite universe, getting more infinite by the second -- this post is certainly adding to "information" (so is the stream of bits coming out of the Hubble telescope), but how to categorize it may be hard. For example, 735229327 is data, 735-22-3327 may or may not be a Social Security Number. I don't know, it isn't mine -- if it was, it would be a more specific sort of information.

We can most often only comprehend the universe intellectually through categories, so it is important that the categories we pick have some relation to reality.

The linked article discusses the increasing horror on the left that some people are getting confused by categorizing some things on the Babylon Bee site as fact/truth rather than satire. Specifically, that Democrats are calling for flags to be flown at half mast because of the death of Iranian terrorist leader Soleimani in a drone strike, and some people think it is truth rather than satire. The post discusses the obvious difference between this and the treatment of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert being treated as "major news sources" -- as those of minimal classical education have known for eons, it always depends for all of us on "whose ox is getting gored" ... "whose interests are harmed".

My studies continually show me that I'm an idiot. I'm reading "American Ulysses" now and discover that Grant (not known as particularly educated) and his beloved wife Julia often communicate with references to classic literature and history that I'm barely aware of  -- that Alexander the Great accompanied his father into battle at age 11 for example. Much of our current "reporting" shows that our supposed "elite" doesn't understand the critical importance of at least the existence of epistemology ... if for no reason beyond getting just a whiff of humility.

I began to realize the depths of my stupidity back in the '80s when I discovered National Review and started to scratch the surface of my ignorance ... "The Closing Of The American Mind" was one that scraped many scales from my eyes to the fact I had (and have) much to be humble about!

Is "Nothing is written in stone" a lie, a great truth, a useful metaphor/saying, "Fake News" ??? All of them depending on who is using the phrase/conext?

How might we decide? Especially since we "moderns" are so blinded by the constant bombardment of media, "entertainment" and general distraction of our material based existence and generally unaware of the rich history that allowed our vacuous culture of consumption/entertainment to exist -- well covered in "Amusing Ourselves To Death"".

Christianity Today, Everyday, Forever, And Politics

https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2019/12/24/a-response-to-the-editor-of-christianity-today-n2558477?fbclid=IwAR2EZ25iUsFo_kM6SICjJRm_ZQy8zXMR__twVIwseTn-NS_YCinRlPaD9PU

My view of following Christ is that it is such a higher calling than politics that our passion for it is best set a decent bit down our priority list. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, and he had nearly nothing to say of a tyrannical and often oppressive Roman government.

The  desired priority list of a Christian as defined in the Bible seems something like:

1. Christ ... God, the Church, The Apostles Creed, ... 
2. Community -- Family (as defined in the Bible), Friends, Neighbors, etc 
3. "The Poor" -- when possible, PERSONALLY helping them, and then "as personally as possible", in stewardship of what organizations we support. Not attempting to outsource the responsibility to the government by "voting correctly", etc

... and of course we could go on, and I won't.


Priorities require some sort of "order", which requires some definition of right/wrong, better/worse,  ... things like written and followed Constitutions, which if they are to continue to exist in a democracy, require a defined population (eg bounded/bordered) that understand at a basic level what things like "order", "law", etc mean. `

Since there are no even remotely perfect politicians, are always required to vote for a FAR less than perfect candidate -- and different types of failings will affect people differently. Praeger makes a decent case for many of the reasons that anyone of conservative mindset will support Trump over any known Democrat alternative ... support for life, appointment of judges that seek to defend a written Constitution, policies that produce decent political results (like definfined and enforced borders, voter ID), good economy, religious freedom, etc

What Dennis does not make clear in my mind is the maybe (to him) too obvious point that the present criteria would make all previous presidents with the possible exception of Harrison and Madison as being needful of impeachment.

"Laws" that are only enforced when "your side" wins, are political policy weapons, not "laws" -- best defended as political vs moral issues.

The two supposed "criteria" of the current "impeachment" are 1). Seeking help from a foreign government to investigate potential crimes by the son of a potential future candidate to oppose his re-election 2). Obstructing congress

As stated in the NY Times ... article:

Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election.

Actually, he asked a foreign leader to look into fairly well known case of the SON of a former US VP and POTENTIAL nominee for US president in 2020. To the extent Americans accept this standard as legitimately "impeachable", Obama certainly ought to have been impeached, since we now know that his administration investigated and encouraged foreign governments to investigate Trump before and during the time he was the opposition party candidate for president -- when in fact the Mueller Report and subsequent investigations have shown there was no legitimate reason to begin such an investigation. (The FISA court was lied to).

Article 2 fails to recognize that we have three branches of government explicitly opposed (see Federalist 10) ... the President is SUPPOSED to often obstruct Congress! It is a MAJOR part (separation of powers) of the Constitution that he (and they!) swear that they will defend! (Although, without at least some form of transcendent authority (religion) what does "swear" actually mean? )


The President is the head of the Justice Department, so initiating and participating in criminal investigations ... domestic and foreign, is is part of what he does. If someone running for president (and now apparently their family) is immune from being investigated, we we have established a radically new standard. Is this a new standard we want?

In jeopardy of being investigated for criminal activity? Run for president! You have immunity!

How "Christianity Today" would even begin to attempt to establish support for Trump as in any way "immoral" (and from the POV of CT, it appears that they mainly define "morality" as what they said in '98) is difficult to comprehend.

To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?

To the extent we are Christians, it is never about OUR behavior -- for we (and I'd assume CC) daily admit we are filthy sinners, totally undeserving of God's Grace and in desperate need of constant humble repentance and forgiveness. It isn't WE who ultimately defend life, it is GOD! (Jer 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart ...")

None of "we" humans have "moral standing" to judge anyone / anything from a "Christian" POV. We certain can, and are commanded to DISCERN (with Christ's Grace) what is Biblically moral!

To the extent we try to set our (or our leaders, or anyone else but Christ's) behavior up as the moral standard, we are just giving more evidence to the  fact of how far WE ... including our nation, churches, etc have fallen! Nobody will come to Christ based on our imagined "goodness/righteousness" -- we can HOPE AND PRAY that we do far better, but we daily confess it isn't going to be enough!  (I'd argue that Billy Graham did far better though!)

Certainly Clinton broke the law ... he lied under oath, he had sex with an employee at the office, something that any of us would be legitimately fired for, and then lied about it. Only by a new standard under which all but 2 former presidents would have been impeached, and if justice was served, removed from office, could Trump be validly impeached OTOH.

We are called to be the best citizens we can be, so I see it as our duty to know as much as each of us are able about our laws, things like attempted coups, etc, and present that case as nonjudgmentally (very difficult!) as we can! In general, conservatives are quiet people -- a major part of the reason that Trump is hard for them to support -- his personality (and behavior) is not what they approve of.

It appears that CT may have made it's own case against their opposition ...

The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.

In CT's view, one wonders what constitutes "morality", and their right to pass judgement on the "dumbing down" of such. In John 1:8 after the interaction with woman caught in the act of adultery, We see:

 "Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

My imperfect understanding of the NT is that it is heavily weighted to the condemnation of earthly religious authorities who presume they, as opposed to God, are to judge. Even Christ says "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone."

While Satan certainly wants the world to believe that the imperfection of Christian morality is a valid cause for harsh judgement and accusation, does CT really see it the same way and want to admonish others to follow them? Does Christ tell us to argue constantly about who has the bigger "log" in their eye?

I believe that one of of Satan's chief weapons is seeking to equate the Christian defense of BIBLICAL morality with "hate and judgement", and worldly lack of consideration of Biblical morality with "love". Having any type of standard means having  DISCERNMENT ... one has to know what the standards are to follow them. And a base fact of life is that we all DO have standards of some sort -- often accidentally, often poorly followed, author definitely included!

The sad part of "Christianity Today" (both as a magazine and in reality) is that many Christians hold their acceptance by the world to be more important than their adherence and support for the standards of God. James 4:4 is not one of their favorite verses ... "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."
And in the end, I believe Satan's "chief weapons" will look like these ... this post was getting pedantic.

It is HARD to avoid judgement of a person that disagrees with us on very tough issues like life, sexual morality, God having defined marriage as only between the two observable sexes, and personalities that we find "offensive" ... etc

It is so hard we have no hope of it without God's Grace given in Christ ... pray to accept and stay in that Grace!

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brothers is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.