THE CHRISTIAN PENTAGRAM….ER…PENTAGON: RELIGION TAILOR MADE ...

As I commented yesterday on my News and Views, many of you are now sending me articles and things that you think may interest me, or that interest you, and for this, I am truly grateful. Please keep doing so because no one person can possibly find everything. Anyway, this one was sent to me by a website member, and I think it is an important story, one that bears some scrutiny. The story, in this instance, is a video, on YouTube, and consider it's implications carefully:

I hope you'll note the implications here, for they are both subtle and yet, obvious. Clearly, the US military has chaplains - Protestant chaplains, Catholic chaplains, Orthodox chaplains, rabbis, imams, so clearly, there is no danger of our military becoming "denominational", right? Clearly the non-denominational official stance precludes it, right?

Wrong. Researcher Jeff Sharlett (The Family and C Street), outlines a case that the military is one branch of government specifically targeted by what can only be described as "the usual American non-denominational denomination," you know, the "independent" bible church that - paradoxically- seems to teach the same doctrine as every other "independent" bible church: pre-tribulational rapture, necessity of supporting Israel no matter what, Islam is a wicked demonically inspired religion and its adherents are all under the influence of demons, etc.

This religion, as co-author Scott DeHart and I outlined in Yahweh the Two-Faced God, is tailor made for the geopolitical agendas both of Zionism and of the financial oligarchy of the Anglo-American dominated West. And indeed, as we suggested in that book, there is a case to be argued that this whole cluster of doctrinal concepts was deliberately promoted if not created, in order to ensure those geopolitical agendas.

It becomes a powerful propaganda tool in the arsenal of those oligarchies, so, notwithstanding the military's protestations of innocence,  that "of course atheists have rights", that is only the de jure truth, but the de facto truth, as this veteran, and as Sharlett in his research point out, the reality is otherwise.

There is a very real danger of "circularity here," that is, of the elites coming to genuinely believe the doctrine they themselves helped,  if not to create, then at least to promote. The apocalypse culture that we see currently is, in my opinion, the result of this promotion; it is a deliberate creation, designed to get people to ignore the historical questions (such as, is the whole dispensationalist scheme of theology and biblical interpretation even historical?), while at the same time, their fat, bloated televangelists and megachurch ministers continue to promote it as "historical biblical christianity."

All this has led to that most dangerous of cultural and geopolitical situations, namely, that the post-christian West is led by a nation whose predominant expression  of spirituality lies in a theological system that is not historically grounded and in which foreign policy - "support Israel, fight terrorism" -  is made on the basis of an implicit system of belief. The post-Christian West is led by a nation possessed by an a-historical Christianity with an apocalyptic orientation. This introduces an aura of unreality into the geopolitical and cultural stew, which one may appreciate by a glance at Orthodox Christian Russia. Like it or not, even during the most Stalinesque days, the cultural effects of Orthodoxy on Russian thinking simply could not be eliminated. One of those effects  lies in a central Christian doctrine: namely, that Christ abolished the need for the sacrifices of the Old Testament, that his life and work were kath holou, "for the whole", catholic, for everyone everywhere in all times and places, without any distinction. In short, the old "special relationship" or "chosen people" was gone. The geopolitical effect of such a doctrine is enormous, for it means (and meant) that Russia could weigh the geopolitical realities in the Middle East, and support whom it will, free of the kind of theological nuttery that obtains in the USA's home-grown "evangelical revivalist" religion, for which any historical expression of Christianity, be it Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, or what have you, is inherently suspect. The suspicion arises, of course, from the essentially Baptist character of American evangelicalism: conversion is the defining moment, attested to in "believer's baptism", and hence, there ultimately is no place in this Christianity for a form of knowledge of God not based or centered upon human reason and emotion. As a result, other forms of Christianity - Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Episcopalianism, etc - are really not "biblical", and nominally Christian at best, and one must try to gettheir adherents "saved" too. The point here is that American evangelicalism will not, cannot, at root, tolerate a civilization such as Russia, whose Christian traditions are entirely different.

It always was, and remains, a dangerous wedding of religion and geopolitics.

 

See you on the flip side.

Posted in

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

38 Comments

  1. Greg on August 12, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    The New Atheism, as some commentators have observed, is a dumbed-down atheism, philosophically inarticulate, a fundamentalist atheism which arose in reaction to, and is the mirror image of religious fundamentalism in its strategy and tactics. This is another case of “doubles’ or twins referred to by Girard. This is symbolized by the Twin Towers–and so it is no wonder that the New Atheism emerges right after September 11.



  2. HAL838 on August 12, 2012 at 11:35 am

    There are no inherently bad symbols anymore than there are
    letters put together forming inherently bad words

    There is just you



    • Ed on August 12, 2012 at 7:36 pm

      I dig that, Hal838. Count me in league with Alan Moore though, I have no intrinsic problem with cthuloid-ism. Its all about the peoploids involved, and there done been a wee bit more than just a few killers, psychos, and manipulators who go around fondleing their bibles compared to those who stroke a copy of ye olde simonomicon. Gonce and Harms notwithstanding,the main beholders of the simonomicon are simply self-proclaimed goths, fledgeling teen thelemists, etc. Lotta EL OH ELS there, but very little of the THREAT TO EFFING SOCIETY, OH MY GAWD!!! that certian quarters used to proclaim so loudly.



      • HAL838 on August 13, 2012 at 12:40 am

        It shows



  3. Ed on August 5, 2012 at 11:29 pm

    Pardon me, Dr. Farrell, what means kath holou? One wonders if Lovecraft was aquainted with this term (whatever it means) and somehow incorporated the phonetics into his dreamtime….



    • Vinnie on August 6, 2012 at 12:13 pm

      “on the whole”, “according to the whole” or “in general”, and is a combination of the Greek words κατά meaning “about”



  4. LSM on August 5, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    I appolize profusely for commentning on this subject for a second time but this equating the justification of war with a geopolitically influenced religious entity/ideology just makes we want to explode-

    hell, before I even questioned anything as a war-ripe eligible teenager in the late ’60s I realized the whole war-game was a ruse (I’ve since read General Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket”- instinctively sensed the concept before I long read the book) and war-ripe, eligible teenagers now serving in the armed forces are now defending themselves with a religious conviction or lack there-of?- they should’ve “mulled over” some things in their youth-

    just goes to show us that most people nowadays have no natural instincts left whatsoever- we’ve just become so disconnected from nature that we’ve left social engineering (was always there but we had at least previously an instinct to go against it) to rule our lives-

    so now we mull over whether being a Christian/Agnostic/Aetheist justifies military service/organized killing or not-

    we’re not only all in the wrong film but we’re being influenced by the “Flicker” (if one has read the so-called ‘novel’ of the same name by Theodore Roszak) in my humble opinion



    • Hammer on August 5, 2012 at 2:30 pm

      Hi LSM,
      reminds me of LSMFT, Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco. But you and I come from that Viet Nam generation. I remeber sitting by the tv, waiting for my birthday to be pulled from that big lottery drum. The first hundred birthdays got drafted. I was 325 so I didn`t have to move to Sweden. But I think there is a large undercurrent in America these days of people who know tyrrany when they see it, that could ultimately lead to a civil war. If the federal government tries to take away people`s guns, by a bunch of pimple headed youth, who as you say have become so disconnected from nature, I don`t think it will be pretty.



      • LSM on August 7, 2012 at 6:46 am

        Hi Hammer,

        I agree with you totally in your views-

        as an aside, you were nr. 325- I was nr. 235 (I also still have my nr. in memory- just goes to show us what an incredibly impressionable time it was in which we lived)- guess we really lucked-out- will never forget the musings of one of my co-students in undergraduate school (forget his name but can still see his face) whose birthday awarded him nr.1 in the Vietnam military lottery: “it’s the first time in my life I ever won anything” (guess we’d call that gallows humor)-

        I have no idea whatever happened to him-

        hope you are well,

        Larry



        • Hammer on August 9, 2012 at 5:23 pm

          Hi Larry,
          thanks. He probably got his Hemmoroids taken care of right before he got wasted in the jungle of Viet Nam.



  5. LSM on August 5, 2012 at 9:48 am

    “All this has led to that most dangerous of cultural and geopolitical situations, namely, that the post-christian West is led by a nation whose predominant expression of spirituality lies in a theological system that is not historically grounded and in which foreign policy… is made on the basis of an implicit system of belief”

    forget Israel- let’s remain with Italy-

    I just returned from my very first trip to Italy in 30 yrs.- was in Rome for 3 days (was never farther south before than Venice- poor track record)-

    the entire city of Rome (archetecturally, execpt for Roman ruins, is a crashing bore) just reeks of corruption- they will cheat you left, right center and in the middle if they can get away with it- many exceptions to every rule but the majority rules- I just experienced it-

    my first (obvious) time in the Vatican- didn’t feel comfortable for a second in the “Holy See”- the wealth of the Vatican just is staggering (and those are just the displayed articles let alone the ones stored) and also when one is aware that the Vatican is sitting on over 1/4th of the world’s gold reserves (if my read sources are correct)-

    but that doesn’t matter (it get’s better): I’ve never seen such a higher concentration in my life of statue after statue, frescos, paintings, tapestries, ,etc. of naked men/little boys in my life (you can’t escape it- it’s everywhere you turn)- size-queens will have problems with these depictions but they’re not our problem-

    only surpassed by hideous depictions of people being slaughtered in every way shape and form imaginable-

    and in the Sistine Chappell (bathed in darkness, by the way- you can’t see diddly-squat) was full of policemen constantly yelling “silenzio” (silence) to the tourists who didn’t obey, by the way- and the policemen’s yelling was just as loud as the tourists’ bantering among themselves-

    “the iternal city”- right- I felt like I was eternally in the wrong film the whole time I was there-

    as for Italian culture: my interest on that concept stops after eating (no more variations on Pizzas or Pastas in Italy than in any other Italian restaurant in any other foreign country)-

    there is no Italian culture left- they’re only hanging onto the concept/myth of the Renaissance elite (thinking that those financing the incredible structures back then actually had Joe Six-Pack’s interests in mind and were going to eventually really help the average/poor- they didn’t) who ripped them off financially and they continue to be nothing more than cheap repeaters (sort of like pedophelia- the victim later becomes the perpetrator)

    not to mention their concept of road safety doesn’t even encompass the basic concept of a car staying between two lines…

    yes, very many Italians are very incredibly sweet, aware, very conscientious, intelligent and spiritual (my very dear Italian co-worker is definitely in that category- and she’s from Rome) but the the force ruling this country as a whole doesn’t seem to be exactly “Christian” or “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” in any degree whatsoever-

    Larry



  6. Greg on August 5, 2012 at 12:49 am

    Fr. Barron’s commentary on Ross Douthat’s recent bestseller, “Bad Religion” is very apt here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GcSlHtgmzU



  7. Hammer on August 4, 2012 at 11:18 pm

    Thanks so much Mr.Farrell for this observation. What I like about your writing style is that I can hear your voice while reading your words. But I just wanted to back you up on this one. I was brought up in the Mormon cult. They`ve got upsidedown pentagrams on at least one of their temples that I have seen and as I`m sure you`re well aware, it`s a masonic based bunch of hocus pocus. I have deep respect for the mormon people. But as regards to Israel, or in this context zionism, one needs to look no further than Mit Romney`s close association and friendship with Benjamin Netanyahoo. I hope I spelled his name right. Article 10 of the Articles of Faith that the mormons believe in, and which I had to learn as a kid by heart, and their are 13 of them states: We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the ten tribes etc. Now that alone would suggest that Israel can do no wrong in the eyes of mormon doctrine. I find it also important to reaffirm that Jesus wanted to do away with animal and human sacrifice, because you know if they were sacrificing animals they were for sure sacrificing humans. I think anyone who reads the book, “The Controversy of Zion” by Douglas Reed, will get a thorough eye-opening into zionism. And one more thing. Remember when the drill instructor asked Private Joker if he believed in the Virgin Mary in the film, “Full Metal Jacket”? When he said no, he got punched in the stomach.



  8. MattB on August 4, 2012 at 10:55 pm

    ‘Pentecostalgon’…..love it.

    You Americans definitely have some serious problems. Even though I am a Christian, my experiences in the Australian Army with Padres was awesome. I NEVER saw proselytising of any kind. In fact, I couldn’t imagine any of the ones I served with doing that.

    Here is ‘the rub’ as Joseph likes to say: If the U.S army really was ‘Christian’, they wouldn’t be fighting any kind of offensive war, torture, enacting dubious foreign policy or using funds that should be directed to hospitals, schools, poor and needy.

    How many U.S veterans are discharged and living in poverty in the U.S? Can’t see Jesus agreeing with that. Can’t see Jesus agreeing with the bombing of innocent civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq etc. In fact, i can’t see Jesus agreeing with holding a rifle at all!



    • legioXIV on August 5, 2012 at 3:35 pm

      G’day Matt, hope that you are well.

      “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”
      Matthew 10:34

      Perhaps JC may not have been so obverse to picking up a rifle after all.

      Have a good day mate.



      • MattB on August 10, 2012 at 7:40 pm

        Lol.

        Yeah that is an interesting scripture. The sword He is talking about is ‘love your neighbours, enemies, never stop doing good’ etc. Refuse to fight, refuse to do harm, refuse to do violence.

        Most Christians don’t get it and we now see that war is being legitimised within Christianity again-I am absolutely horrified.



    • legioXIV on August 5, 2012 at 3:40 pm

      And I agree with what you said about Australian Army Padres, I never saw any of that type of proselytising during my time of service. Perhaps that’s because Australian Society would not support that type of thing. Though we have our religious nutters here, they are in a definite minority. Australians as whole, I find, are not given to the type of evangelical insanity that so many Americans seem to be given to. Perhaps that’s because of our inherent distrust of authority figures of any kind.



      • MattB on August 10, 2012 at 7:53 pm

        Amen lol. Yeah we are a cynical bunch. I must say, I am seeing a fast rise in these kinds of nutters though.

        I remember a Padre ripping a PTI into line one day. We were doing rifle drill during ‘hell week’ and the Padre (who was a Colonel) was sitting with us chatting about how we were coping with the pressures etc.

        PTI marches over “I want this pack of shit ready to go in 5 or there will be pain”.

        Padre says to us “Relax gentlemen, we have 15 minutes to discuss where you guy are at. You can go when we are ready”.

        PTI “Why the f*@ck aren’t you lot over here for PT now?-get moving!”

        Padre ‘Stay seated gents, i just want to run through with you the procedures for reporting any sign of stress that may lead to breakdown”

        PTI walks over to Padre and us “Get the f*@ck up now and move”‘Padre get them moving now!”

        Padre “What rank am I?’

        PTI ‘What?”

        Padre “Don’t what me you over steroided ball bag”,”what rank am I?’

        PTI ‘Colonel”

        Padre “Colonel what”

        PTI :’Colonel Sir”

        Padre ‘ Now sgt, you will be meeting with me after these men have finished BFA 1″

        PTI ‘Why?’

        Padre ‘Don’t why me-I gave you an order”

        PTI ‘Yes Sir”

        Padre “You may leave gentlemen, have a great day”

        One of my fondest memories of the ARA.

        I found out later that Padre was an infantry battalion commander and had served all over the world, including Rwanda.



  9. Capt. Kent Brashear on August 4, 2012 at 9:31 pm

    From 1962 through 1980 my life was tied to the air force, both enlisted and commissioned.

    Of course we had Chaplains and they did hold church services, but mainly they were there to listen to troops pour out their hearts in times of trouble. The Chaplains unlike the MDs didn’t run to the service member’s commander to squeal on the airman or officer, sometimes ruining a career.

    Chaplains have their place. I can’t speak for today’s military, but I bet there is a mole hill to be found here.
    Sergeant/Capt. Kent Brashear
    cradle to grave Texas Baptist



    • Joseph P. Farrell on August 4, 2012 at 10:04 pm

      You’re probably right Captain… nonetheless I find the trend very disturbing, especially when what is patently a non-historical form of christianity CLAIMS to be historical, and then has a disguised geopolitical agenda in the form of a doctrine. This is the real problem for me.



    • Robert Barricklow on August 5, 2012 at 8:37 am

      I would like to think it is in isolated pockets. There is an appearance of stragetic placements of religious cliques in specific operations.
      I too, hope this is a case of:
      “Much ado about nothing”.

      Yet in that play there is the line:
      “In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.”



  10. dunc on August 4, 2012 at 9:28 pm

    it seems soo many are persuaded in the belief that baking powder is primarily used for baking bread instead of flour.the bread never rises and it tastes like SH$%^&TT and they believe bread is supposed to taste that way.so goes with ones own interpretation of christianity or for that matter secular humanism.those who created political correctness are the driving force behind the thought police imo.



    • HAL838 on August 13, 2012 at 12:44 am

      Baking powder is for biscuits
      Yeast is for bread
      Honey makes it better



  11. Cassandane on August 4, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    This makes perfect twisted sense. Of course the military top brass wants their soldiers to be religious! Similar personality types – the unawakened, the fearful, the passive, the power-hungry, those set adrift by circumstance – are drawn to both church and military, so it is predictable that those at the top would want to shore up their control by bringing in extra “guns”. They probably reason that having a faith provides some reassurance that a soldier cannot or will not think for himself or herself, and can therefore more readily be relied upon not to question senseless orders to fight stupid wars. After all, it is much easier to put one’s life on the line for “God” than because some old codger in a suit wants to stir up trouble somewhere because it will help him become even richer than he already is.



  12. neurotraveller on August 4, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    There is no reason to join a Church of Satan when you can just join a Christian Church and do all kinds of evil and then be forgiven for it.



  13. neurotraveller on August 4, 2012 at 6:31 pm

    There is no reason to join a Church of Satan when you can just join a Christian Church and do all kinds of evil and then be forgiven for it.



  14. Robert Barricklow on August 4, 2012 at 5:01 pm

    Great Title starting/The Christain Pentagram…
    Er Pentagon !!!
    This has been going on far too long. A Harper’s article in May 2009 by Jeff Sharlet dealt with the Crusade for a Christain Military & focused on the Air Force Acdemy. I couldn’t believe it as I went to grade school there(my father taught at the academy). I never felt a bible thumping atmosphere in that culture as I was growing up.
    But as the cards are being played out across the current lanscape there is NO DOUBT that the deck has been stacked with Christain Apocalypse being delt winning hands across the geopolitacle boards.

    There Method to madness endemic in their structual modus operandi, a purposeful cultural infrastructure that does not portend any well meaning – at all.



  15. HAL838 on August 4, 2012 at 1:25 pm

    “I love the Law!” Jack McCoy.

    “Alright. I’ll help you.”
    Perry Mason, as portrayed by Raymond Burr
    during the ‘transition decade’ from the late 50s
    to the early 60s.

    “Nothing is as it seems and all of history is a lie.”
    [me]

    So don’t throw out your Constitutions yet.
    Don’t have a copy?
    Get one, and learn to read.



  16. Pedro Marcos on August 4, 2012 at 12:21 pm

    “Gods of Eden”, Dr. Farrell. William Bramley ideas complement yours. I defends the sinister artificiality of ALL apocalyptical religions.



  17. p on August 4, 2012 at 10:23 am

    so funny:P the US military believing god is on their side, fighting moslem armies believing god is on their side.. the lack of intelligence is so enormous, fits the military I guess..
    let them I say. maybe after both their legs are blown off and on returning home they are abandoned by their government, they will see how precious they are to their god lol.



    • HAL838 on August 4, 2012 at 1:30 pm

      It is not what THEY believe.
      It is what THEY want YOU to believe.



  18. Thomas on August 4, 2012 at 10:23 am

    Remember the the reported call from seal team six when they killed Bin Laden?

    “For God and Country — Geronimo, Geronimo!”

    None of the news outlets made any comment about the use of “God” in the announcement.

    This hyper-churchianity (Thank you by the way, for “churchianity.”) is fostered in schools and has been going on for a long time. I grew up in WVa in the in the 1960’s and ’70’s, where you had to be not only “christian” but the right KIND of christian: evangelical (though even evangelical catholics were excluded).

    Many students in Kanawha County (where I went to school) in the early ’70’ feared and even dodged bullets and bombs from christian fundamentalists who objected to Mark Twain, evolution, anything about other religions, and other “unchristian” content in our school texts. A very brief and dry description can be found at Kanawha County textbook controversy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanawha_County_textbook_controversy). It is accurate enought but left out the number of shootings at school busses and other bombings, oh–and the fear school kids felt (even the kids of the protesters).

    Tom



  19. Jedi on August 4, 2012 at 7:40 am

    kath halou…… depends on the reading on the thermometer.



  20. Jedi on August 4, 2012 at 6:48 am

    Most church goers never read the bible, and thus willingly ignorant of the albatross demise…. with a few exceptions.



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