Christ Jesus prayed that all those who would believe in Him would be ONE, just as He and the Father are ONE; that they be brought to complete unity so that the world would know that He was sent by the Father. (John 17:20-23)
To call the last eight weeks in presidential politics unprecedented would be a wild understatement. It was just over two months ago when Joe Biden – a man deemed highly successful and mentally sharp by our legacy media – took to the stage to debate Donald Trump, and promptly expired. It took another month for Biden to drop out of the race, prompted by the backstabbing Democratic cadre of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and, most importantly, former President Barack Obama, all of whom wheedled donors and cudgeled Biden into submission.
It then took promptly one day to solidify Vice President Kamala Harris in Biden's stead.
It has been more than a month since Biden was defenestrated in favor of Harris.
Since then, Harris has answered precisely zero difficult questions from the media. She has spent the intervening weeks being "brat" – social media-friendly and utterly vacuous.
We know that she likes Doritos, that she enjoys cooking, that she supposedly makes a mean brisket, that she wears Chuck Taylors. When asked outside Air Force Two what she will do next this week, she answered, "We're going to walk up those stairs."
And yet there are fewer than 70 days to the election.
Republics are predicated on the idea that the voters deserve to know something about the candidates for whom they vote.
Voters already know everything there is to know about Donald Trump; he's the most overexposed political figure in history, and we've already seen what his presidency looks like.
But voters have been shielded from Harris.
According to the legacy media, her 2019 presidential campaign policy positions are completely irrelevant:
She's now sent out surrogates to disown her own position on decriminalizing border crossings (she was in favor), electric vehicle mandates (she was in favor), private health insurance (she was against), "reimagining public safety" or defunding the police (she was in favor) and fracking (she was against), among others.
All of that in the last month alone.
The media apparently have zero questions.
Meanwhile, we've been told that she's not even tied to the administration in which she is currently the vice president.
This week, Politico headlined, "Vance tries to tether Harris to Biden during Michigan rally." Tries to?
She's the sitting vice president! Her boss – the same person she shivved to steal his nomination – is currently still the president.
Sam Stein of The Bulwark and MSNBC headlined, "Dems spent four days in Chicago castigating, belittling, and demonizing Donald Trump.
And then they did something even more vicious:
They turned him into the incumbent." Trump the incumbent? She's the sitting vice president of the United States!
All of this is why Harris must avoid scrutiny.
She's obviously squirrely on debating Trump – first she tried to bully Trump into accepting the same debate rules he'd accepted against Biden; then she denied him extra debates; then she tried to switch the rules.
Her campaign has gone through Talmudic discussions internally to determine if and when she ought to be interviewed.
Their verdict: OK, fine, but only if pre-taped while joined by happy but cloddish sitcom dad running mate Tim Walz.
This entire charade smacks of disdain for the American people.
Rig the nomination process in favor of Biden; throw Biden off a cliff in favor of Kamala; hide Kamala behind an Instagram filter while she dances and calls herself Momala for the duration of the campaign.
At no point do Democrats want Americans to understand just what Kamala Harris will do as president, or to connect her to what she's already done as vice president.
Perhaps it will work. If so, Americans will only have proved H.L. Mencken's cynical theory:
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
Ben Shapiro's new collection, "Facts and Furious: The Facts About America and Why They Make Leftists Furious," is available now. Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show," and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author. Read more of Ben Shapiro's articles here.
Totalitarian ideologies dominate the Western educational structure, the mainstream media and the state-controlled public sphere – much seemingly against the will of the majority population.
In ""The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy," professor of modern history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jacob Lieb Talmon, explains how modern totalitarianism became so popular in the 1900s, dominated World War II and continued to exert its influence into the post-war era.
He defines totalitarian democracy as political Messianism, a socialist system of thought that believes atheist social revolutions will bring about final peace on earth.
Totalitarian democracy and its atheist Messianism is characterized by values that are the direct negation of Christian, traditional Western values:
Talmon links the origin of political Messianism to the French Revolution and the atheist ideology that would later develop into Karl Marx's pool of thought.
Post World War II, this ideology was re-introduced into the West and implemented after the 1960s Marxist cultural revolution.
Today, it dominates the public Western domain with its remarkable intolerant, groupthink requirement for everyone to agree on all subjects.
It is an authoritarian, socialist and fear-based "totalitarian democracy."
At the heart of atheist totalitarianism lies the Marxist idea that man is not answerable to God, as belief in the metaphysical dimension is refuted.
Man is thereby the ultimate king, and the aim of society is to enhance his pleasure and happiness on earth as he is freed of the historic, Christian concept of morality.
The completion of political Messianism will happen, its adherents claim, through a godless social transformation that will bring about a perfect world without God.
This ideal sums up the essence of communism, fascism and socialism.
The use of fear, deception and force is applied to achieve its goals of total control.
Talmon sums up the ideal of political Messianismthis way:
"This ideal is not unlike the modern expectation of a society of men absolutely free and equal. In spite of this superficial similarity, the difference between the two attitudes are fundamental.
Although the Christian revolutionaries fought for the individual's freedom to interpret God's word, their sovereign was not man, but God.
They aimed at personal salvation and an egalitarian society, based on the Law of Nature, because they had it from God that there lies salvation, and believed that obedience to God is the condition of human freedom.
The point of reference to modern, political Messianism, on the other hand, is man's reason and will, and its happiness on earth, achieved by a social transformation. …
Secular Messianism, starting with a point of reference in time, has developed a fanatical resolve to make its doctrine rule absolutely and everywhere."
The essence of the historic Christian view – religious Messianism – is the idea of man's fallibility.
He fails in the quest for perfection, as he harbors both good and evil. Therefore, God's intervention and grace bestowed on human kind is the only solution to the current evil state of the earth.
The rationale is that the Law of Nature – defined as universal values that apply to all – is given by God in order for man to take personal responsibility and overcome the devils of this world.
This way, he may engage in the betterment of the human race. Christianity taught that life on earth is not a "closed circle" as Talmon puts it, but "has its continuation and conclusion in eternity."
Political Messianism – or secular absolutism – denies the need for religion.
It advocates for a view of humanity that considers man as innately good. If something goes wrong, it is society, and not the individual who is to be blamed, according to Marxism.
The state is to solve all problems, thereby the need for constant social revolutions.
The Christian distinction between the kingdom of God and the earthly state produced social and political compromises that opened up for classical, Western ideals such as tolerance, equality regardless of race, creed and social standing, human rights for all, the radical Christian view of the infinite value of human life, the freedom of the woman and so on.
Political, nihilist Messianism is subject to no such restraints; it entails no requests to show moderation, tolerance or acceptance of differences, says Talmon.
The clash between these two forms of Messianism is the most vital issue of our time.
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The sacking of Rome in A.D. 410, the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, Pearl Harbor in 1941, the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks of 9/11 and the October 7 raid by Hamas into Israel in 2023, all share a common element – victims were lulled into a false sense of security by aggressors.
Historically, it was when the victims – believing a danger to be non-existent – failed to see what was actually developing, that the aggressors methodically implemented their sinister plans.
Nowhere among America's institutions has more success been achieved in implementing just such a sinister plan than in the education of our children.
While we have been concentrating on outside dangers, we have taken our eyes off a danger within.
It is one represented by a national school system that brainwashes our children to hate all for which America stands.
An African proverb states, "It takes a village to raise a child."
The proverb conveys the message that it requires many people working together "to provide a safe, healthy environment for children, where children are given the security they need to develop and flourish, and to realize their hopes and dreams."
In America, that means not only preparing students to contribute to society by providing them with the mental tools to do so but also by providing them with the proper foundation to understand and respect the values that have made our country great.
What we have lost sight of is that these values are not being taught in many of our school systems.
Instead, children are being taught an ideology, permitted by irresponsible school boards and embraced by naive teachers, totally anathema to our capitalistic system.
Yet whether taught as socialism, communism or Marxism, it is being placed upon an ideological pedestal by which young people are promised all-inclusive equality.
Public rather than private ownership of the multitude of ways for making money may sound good to these young minds, but such education ignores the historical perspective of such ideologies having failed miserably.
While many "villagers" are guilty of ideologically misguiding our students in this manner, one billionaire, Elon Musk, claims that another billionaire "wants to erode the fabric of civilization" as he basically "hates humanity."
This civilization fabric eroder is the Hungarian-born and radical leftist billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
Musk warns that, "Parents don't realize the Soviet level of indoctrination that children are receiving," with such indoctrination allegedly funded by philanthropists like Soros.
It is such funding that ultimately and negatively influences school board members to adopt a capitalism-unfriendly agenda.
Ryan Girdusky is one person who has closely monitored the evolution of this process within the national school system and is doing something about it. He is founder of the 1776 Project PAC.
The mission of his PAC – the first of its kind built from the ground up – is to take the fight locally in getting conservatives elected to school boards.
So positioned, such conservative members can then lead the fight to purge school curricula of their Marxist-oriented classes such as Critical Race Theory.
The 1776 Project PAC has attracted a number of conservative supporters, including Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. Shapiro notes, to its credit, the PAC has already successfully shifted over 100 school board races to conservatives in just the past year.
Unlike Pearl Harbor and 9/11, which provided us with no advance warning, Girdusky is sounding the alarm about our school systems.
We would do well to heed what he has to say before it is too late to recover from the damage already done.
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@wndnewscenter.org.
The
following article demonstrates that America is today, in a state of
Apostasy.
In
today's "depraved" America there are "corrupt
politicians, dishonest journalists and media outlets, broken social
institutions, immoral religious leaders, unconstitutional government
programs and policies," and more, according to a new report on
the nation's beliefs.
"The
deterioration of this once-great nation begs the fundamental
question:
How
did we get here?
What
happened to so quickly introduce new philosophies of life and ways of
living that radically depart from the historical Judeo-Christian
moorings and consensus of America?" it notes.
And,
according to veteran researcher George Barna,
"The
indisputable cultural decline is a direct result of the spiritual
collapse of Christianity in the nation."
'Identifying evangelicals and then developing an understanding of the mind and heart of the group is not a simple task. There is little uniformity to the belief patterns and lifestyle choices of evangelicals. The entire faith matrix of America is frighteningly complex'
In today's "depraved" America there are "corrupt politicians, dishonest journalists and media outlets, broken social institutions, immoral religious leaders, unconstitutional government programs and policies," and more, according to a new report on the nation's beliefs.
"The deterioration of this once-great nation begs the fundamental question: How did we get here? What happened to so quickly introduce new philosophies of life and ways of living that radically depart from the historical Judeo-Christian moorings and consensus of America?" it notes.
And, according to veteran researcher George Barna, "The indisputable cultural decline is a direct result of the spiritual collapse of Christianity in the nation."
He's chief of research at the CRC, and his conclusions align with the oft-cited sermon illustration that when darkness is overtaking a society, the darkness is not to blame; it's only acting in its nature. The problem is with the absence of light.
The center's report said research now shows that "much of this steep cultural decline flows from the dramatic transformation in the evangelical community of the United States in the past 30 years.
In reality, evangelicals are far fewer in number than typically reported, often are far less biblical in their thinking than one might think, and tend to vote in far fewer numbers than expected."
In fact, evangelicals choose lifestyles that are largely similar to that of their neighbors, who are not.
"Surprisingly, most evangelicals do not possess a biblical worldview—only about one-third do.
In fact, the data strongly suggests that evangelicals are more likely to be shaped by the culture around them than they are to influence or 'evangelize' it," the report confirms.
(Photo by Joe Kovacs)
Defined by the National Association of Evangelicals, such people are those "who recognize their sinful life, rely upon Jesus Christ for their redemption, and receive practical life guidance and wisdom from the Bible in their quest to live under the lordship of Jesus."
While media reports claim that anywhere from 25% to 40% of American adults are evangelicals, the CRC report said those figures are suspect, because they are based on self-reporting.
The report said the American Worldview Inventory 2024 suggests only 10% of adults qualify as evangelicals, using survey data consistent with the NAE description of evangelicals.
Members of that group actually are making lifestyle choices that are "significantly different than those of the non-evangelical population," as only 3% identify as LGBTQ, they are less likely to be recovering addicts, they are much less likely to have been part of an abortion, and more likely to be located in southern states.
Nine of 10 believe "God is the all-knowing, all-powerful, just, and perfect Creator of the universe who still rules the world today;
God is the basis of all truth, and those truths are conveyed to us through the Bible;
the purpose of life is to fully know, love, and serve God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength;
the universe was created by God; Jesus Christ is an important guide for their life; that Satan exists—he is real and influential;
all humans are born into sin and can only escape the consequences of sin through Jesus Christ," the report said.
But the report explained some differences:
A large share of the theologically-defined evangelical segment rejects a number of perspectives popular within other worldviews. One example is the view held by Secular Humanists, Wiccans, and Satanists, among others, that "as long as you do no harm to others, you can do whatever you want." While half of non-evangelicals have adopted such thinking, it is common to just one out of five evangelicals. In like manner, three-fourths of evangelicals dismiss the popular idea that animals, plants, water, and the wind all have a unique spirit.
That notion is embraced by almost six out of 10 adults who attend an evangelical church. Seven out of 10 adults who are not theologically-defined evangelicals—a group that is a full 90% of the nation's adult population—adopts this view. Beliefs about absolute moral truth are pivotal for any society. While evangelicals are far from monolithic on this point—and the disagreement on this matter within the evangelical camp is a matter of grave concern—about seven out of 10 evangelicals reject the idea that truth is subjective and individual.
However, almost half of the adults attending evangelical churches (44%) believe that there is no absolute moral truth that is pertinent to everyone in all situations. It is even more dire among the non-evangelical public: Just one out of every four people (24%) in that vast population reject the idea that moral truth is always subjective and conditional.
The report noted the troubling contradiction involves the part of the Christian community that embraces core biblical teachings but still fails to have a Christ-like philosophy.
"Part of the explanation lies in the fact that a biblical worldview demands a coherent spiritual perspective that results in a lifestyle robustly aligned with those beliefs.
It is one thing to say you believe the Bible is God's word, and that it is true and relevant, but something else altogether to possess a comprehensive understanding of what the Bible says and consistently put those beliefs into practice."
It explained, "The study instead reveals that while evangelicals often get the 'big picture' of Christianity, they struggle to apply core principles to everyday situations, and are too often victims of catchy slogans and feel-good behaviors promoted by a culture propelled by competing worldviews."
But the failings are evident, it said, as "millions of evangelicals, do not vote (a practice of every good citizen and those seeking to serve their community); believe the animist and Eastern mystical perspective that that animals, plants, the wind, and water have unique spirits; do not pay much, if any, attention to news about politics and government that affects our lives; and who read the Bible on occasion, but not on a daily basis, even though the Bible encourages us to immerse ourselves in God's words to us."
It further warned about the responsibility held by Christians.
"Contrary to the media's depiction of the politics represented by people in evangelical churches, just one-third are very likely to vote in the 2024 general election, only half are consistently conservative in their socio-political views, and one out of every five prefers socialism to capitalism. "
Interesting in the study were the SAGE Cons—the Spiritually Active, Governance Engaged Conservative Christians.
"That segment represents 8% of all voters, but emerged as the biggest concentration of Trump voters in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Nearly half of evangelicals (44%) qualify as SAGE Cons. Put differently, most SAGE Cons (55%) are theologically-defined evangelicals.
The conservative political impulse of evangelicals was evident in the January study, when the Cultural Research Center asked which presidential candidate people would vote for.
Nationally, Donald Trump led Joe Biden 36% to 31%, with 11% opting for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The picture was significantly different among evangelicals: 61% were backing Trump, 8% sided with Biden, and 10% backed Kennedy."
Barna said, "Identifying evangelicals and then developing an understanding of the mind and heart of the group is not a simple task.
There is little uniformity to the belief patterns and lifestyle choices of evangelicals.
The entire faith matrix of America is frighteningly complex.
Other studies I have conducted underscore how unique each person's faith journey is, and that journey both shapes and is shaped by a person's belief structure and religious practices."
He noted journalists, the more influential ones, "do not have positive views of the Christian faith and Christians.
They are therefore comfortable seeing evangelicals as a group to be feared, a group that seeks theocratic rule in America, and thus a group to be thwarted by all means for the sake of democracy."
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@wndnewscenter.org.
Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.
