I never tire, by which I mean I IMMEDIATELY tire, of modern atheist and anti-Christian jerkoffs trying to undermine Christianity using its own texts. "JESUS WAS A REFUGEE!" and so on. Since they believe in nothing besides THE CURRENT THING, they see belief as nothing but a leverage point.
They absolutely do that, there's a meme dedicated to how people who despise Christianity just use the Bible and their piss poor understanding of it as a cudgel to try and get people to comply.
I'm increasingly of the mind that trying to engage in good faith debate argumentation is well in the past and moving into competing narratives or stories is the better approach. Namely, shedding the idea that appeals to emotion and other logical fallacies are somehow bad form.
Thanks for the suggestion! Kruptos is subscribed here and I read him and we have some limited contact on Twitter as well. He is trained as a theologian and has served as a pastor in the Calvinist church (I think that's right), where as I'm just some lay person in Orthodoxy.
I am unaware of a reader option for Substack and have not seen it on ACF - can you point me to what it looks like? Otherwise I can look into a text to speech service or something along those lines.
As for the Benedict Option, which I have not read but understand as establishing physically independent or less dependent communities (correct me here if I misunderstand): I am unwilling to simply turn and flee or cede all the ground and hope the persecution isn't too bad. This country has a history of Revivals, but barring that a practical approach is essentially - fortify the areas where political and social alignment is possible. Control the school boards, city councils, & etc. GOP seems generally worse at the ground game and controlling political machines in friendly territory presumably because they believe in the process even as they see it corrupted. I live in Boulder County and I don't see a pathway for my particular region to sanity which is why I've entertained and abandoned thoughts about being active politically on the local scene. On the other hand, I have a sense that Defenders of the Faith may be needed soon which is why I'm mulling over entering an Order.
Thanks for the prompt and thoughtful response. You keep writing and I’ll keep reading. If I open a Substack post from ACF there’s an icon that looks like headphones, in the upper right hand corner of my iPhone. On your site, it’s grayed out and inoperative. Not a biggie--this impacts other sites, as well. Some folks like to read but I find that reading AND listening really let’s me focus on and absorb the material; the deeper the content, the more impactful the process. As mentioned before, your stuff’s deep.
I see that this is in the Substack app and after some poking around found a place to apply to have it turned on for this publication. I have done so. I have a fairly small readership (dozens of you!) and I have no intention of charging anyone money for thoughts I have which makes this a real loss leading proposition to the Substack team.
I’m glad you consider me a high enough caliber essayist to put your focus on what I write.
I never tire, by which I mean I IMMEDIATELY tire, of modern atheist and anti-Christian jerkoffs trying to undermine Christianity using its own texts. "JESUS WAS A REFUGEE!" and so on. Since they believe in nothing besides THE CURRENT THING, they see belief as nothing but a leverage point.
They absolutely do that, there's a meme dedicated to how people who despise Christianity just use the Bible and their piss poor understanding of it as a cudgel to try and get people to comply.
I'm increasingly of the mind that trying to engage in good faith debate argumentation is well in the past and moving into competing narratives or stories is the better approach. Namely, shedding the idea that appeals to emotion and other logical fallacies are somehow bad form.
Please forgive the clumsy links below. I really like your stuff. It’s deep but worth the effort--not unlike https://substack.com/profile/73555760-kruptos. His latest, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FI9Nm_O0k6w, dovetails nicely with Jack’s take on “AI”. One rant and a serious question. Can you talk to the Morlocks who run Substack and get them to allow your your posts to read themselves aloud--like ACF can? Question--and this drags Jack’s latest post into the conversation--what’s your take on https://www.amazon.com/The-Benedict-Option-Rod-Dreher-audiobook/dp/B06XDL1Y5H/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2VJYNGIFPBHMH&keywords=the+benedict+option&qid=1682373163&sprefix=the+bened%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1 vs. affirmative/aggressive efforts to drag our country back from the abyss? Is engagement even possible now or should we just put our efforts into defense and protect the remnant?
Thanks for the suggestion! Kruptos is subscribed here and I read him and we have some limited contact on Twitter as well. He is trained as a theologian and has served as a pastor in the Calvinist church (I think that's right), where as I'm just some lay person in Orthodoxy.
I am unaware of a reader option for Substack and have not seen it on ACF - can you point me to what it looks like? Otherwise I can look into a text to speech service or something along those lines.
As for the Benedict Option, which I have not read but understand as establishing physically independent or less dependent communities (correct me here if I misunderstand): I am unwilling to simply turn and flee or cede all the ground and hope the persecution isn't too bad. This country has a history of Revivals, but barring that a practical approach is essentially - fortify the areas where political and social alignment is possible. Control the school boards, city councils, & etc. GOP seems generally worse at the ground game and controlling political machines in friendly territory presumably because they believe in the process even as they see it corrupted. I live in Boulder County and I don't see a pathway for my particular region to sanity which is why I've entertained and abandoned thoughts about being active politically on the local scene. On the other hand, I have a sense that Defenders of the Faith may be needed soon which is why I'm mulling over entering an Order.
Thanks for the prompt and thoughtful response. You keep writing and I’ll keep reading. If I open a Substack post from ACF there’s an icon that looks like headphones, in the upper right hand corner of my iPhone. On your site, it’s grayed out and inoperative. Not a biggie--this impacts other sites, as well. Some folks like to read but I find that reading AND listening really let’s me focus on and absorb the material; the deeper the content, the more impactful the process. As mentioned before, your stuff’s deep.
I see that this is in the Substack app and after some poking around found a place to apply to have it turned on for this publication. I have done so. I have a fairly small readership (dozens of you!) and I have no intention of charging anyone money for thoughts I have which makes this a real loss leading proposition to the Substack team.
I’m glad you consider me a high enough caliber essayist to put your focus on what I write.