Oakland Shooting

(Thanks to my barber for sending the information on this.)

On 3/21/09 in Oakland CA, a "routine" traffic stop resulted in the death of two motorcycle officers, two SWAT officers and the armed suspect. Another SWAT officer received gunshot wounds.

The shooter hit one motor officer in the head and the other in the neck with a 9mm pistol. He fled to a house where he used an alleged assault rifle in killing two SWAT officers and wounding another.

It does not surprise me that a street punk surprised two officers and murdered them with head shots. As I have said, practical weapons training for most police is generally inferior to that of many armed orcs.

The SWAT casualties did cause me to raise an eyebrow. Even if the orc had an assault rifle, a SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team would not be outgunned. That means that someone should review the tactics used.

I have no criticism for these brave officers. One will respond in the street as one has been trained.

Let's pray for the families of these officers. And pray that the surviving officers do not retreat further into the "us/them" mindset that too many police manifest toward the public in general today.

My Apologies

Sorry, no post today. For the past couple of weeks I've been working on a marketing project that would involve e-copies of ten classic self-defense books. I will open the program to affiliates who will earn about $45-$50 per sale.

I'm hoping that some of my readers will become affiliates & promote the package.

A Little Humor for the Sabbath

Enjoy, and may the Lord bless you on His special day.

Confronting Gun Violence at Church

(Thanks to deolexrex for sending me this report)

"Confronting Gun Violence at Church: Practical Strategies to Protect Your Ministry" is a 22-page report prepared by Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company. I like it enough to send a link to my own church's pastor & session. (Note: In Presbyterian Churches, the governing body of the local church -- composed of ruling elders -- is called the session.)

(Some have reported that the above link does not work. For that reason, I have uploaded the pdf file & you should be able to download it from here.)

The report does have some highly quotable material like this:

“Churches are really easy pickings if you think about it,” [Dale Annis, a church security director,] said. “You’ve got several hundred people, all in one place with their heads down and their eyes closed. I tell my security team to pray with their eyes open.”

I would have expected a white paper like this to dismiss entirely the option of an armed presence during the church service. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they saw armed security as a viable option.

Then I was unpleasantly brought back to the fantasies of corporate lawyerspeak and the fear of liability when the report said that law enforcement personnel or a contract security firm should be the only ones allowed to carry firearms in church.

Here is is the statement as it appears in the report:

If you decide that your church needs an armed security team, please allow weapons to be
carried only by active or retired law enforcement officers who receive regular weapons
training. As you can imagine, a person who may shoot accurately at a firing range or while
hunting might not perform as well when faced by a gunman threatening a congregation.

This is the politically correct type of verbiage that the Mutual Brotherhood hopes will keep them from getting sued. It flies in the face, however, of real-world facts.

For a glimpse at the bitter truth about the nationwide inadequacy of police firearms training, see my post entitled "FBI Report". Also, in "Christian Martialist as Sheepdog, 4" I cite a statistical analysis that shows the abysmal hit rate of law enforcement officers involved in shootings.

And from firsthand experience, I know that armed security receives less training than the police.

A church security ministry does not need "professional" help as much as it needs godly, motivated sheepdogs who will put in the training time on their own to master the tactics, weapons and mindset to keep the flock safe.

Who Are the Good Guys?, 2

Continued from "Who Are the Good Guys?"

Like the great majority of Christians, I'd like to believe that the civil authority and all its representatives are the good guys. I'd like to believe that as long as I follow my King and do no harm to my neighbor, that I have nothing to fear from the police or the bureaucrats.

My experiences and those of others I have known tell me different. The actions of our civil government against people with politically incorrect views tell me different.

When I taught Government & Econ. on the high school level, I tried to lead the students into an awareness of these things through reading and discussing current events. One student asked how our government could make so many mistakes.

I replied, "You're operating under the assumption that the government is on our side. Suspend that assumption, and the answer will become more clear."

Please understand that I'm not saying that all soldiers, police officers or other civil servants are evil. Many are good people who do not understand the system they serve.

Ignorance, of course, does not provide an excuse for evil acts. Some years ago, for example, constables with shotguns and drawn sidearms raided a homeschooling family I know.

The fact that any of those men were good, churchgoing individuals did not mitigate the terror they inflicted on the family. The young child who first saw the armed group approach the house became hysterical, running and shouting, "They're going to kill us. They're going to kill us."

Of course everyone sees himself as one of the good guys. From the police officer who tricks a citizen into giving up his rights to the agent who makes an example of someone who expresses politically incorrect views, every abuser of authority sees himself as a good guy.

Christian Martialists, not only need to discern the good guys from the bad guys but more importantly need to know how to BE the good guys. Otherwise Christian Martialism will be just another self-interested faction.

To be continued.

Who Are the Good Guys?

According to the Missouri State Police, if you oppose abortion, you may be a potential danger to law enforcement officers (see Profile of a Terrorist?). And don't think this nonsense is limited to just one state.

Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC), which issued the report, is a fusion center. Although it operates as part of the state police, it is linked to the Justice Dept. & Homeland Security.

Many states have such centers. My state of South Carolina likewise has a fusion center which operates as part of SLED (State Law Enforcement Division). All of this raises a significant question.

Since the MIAC report was originally a secret that leaked out, is it unreasonable to wonder how many other state fusion centers have similar secret reports that target people with Biblical convictions as terrorists?

Almost from the moment the 9/11 terrorists were identified as Muslims, government & the Establishment media began a campaign to assure us that Islam is a peaceful religion. They have bent over backwards to avoid any profiling of young men of Middle-Eastern descent as potential terrorists.

On the other hand, officialdom continues to paint Christians with strong convictions as dangerous, inherently violent people. Establishment media programming tends to reinforce the image of Christians as violent, racist, child-abusing nut cases.

I have noticed that law enforcement TV shows increasingly show the heroes trampling on the rights of citizens. Of course we justify the hero's actions -- he needs to do this in order to catch the bad guys.

So, the good guys have to thwart the Bill of Rights in order to catch the bad guys? If the bad guys are bad guys because they break the law, what does that make the "good guys" who break the law to catch the "bad guys"?

Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys?

More on this another time.

Profile of a Terrorist?

The Missouri State Police are concerned about militia groups and say militia members are terrorists. In order to help their law-enforcement personnel identify these violently dangerous terrorists, the Missouri Information Analysis Center has issued a report that includes profile material on these awful people.

Here are some of the red flags:

1. bumper stickers in support of Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin or Bob Barr or any third-party candidate;
2. belief that the Federal Reserve System should be abolished;
3. possession of material in opposition to abortion;
4. opposition to the North American Union and/or the New World Order;
5. possession of material in opposition to immigration
   

You can read Chuck Baldwin's report on this here.

This is reminiscent of Attorney General Janet Reno's post-Waco warning to the FBI that people in possession of Bibles and copies of the US Constitution are possible terrorists. Very sad.

Food Riots & Food Police Update

This article continues a theme I began in Food Riots of 2009? and Beware the Food Police

Congress is working on some legislation that will benefit huge agribusiness and place an onerous burden upon small farms and homesteads. RPC sent me the link to an article at worldnetdaily.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Under the legislation's broad wording, slaughterhouses, seafood processing plants, establishments that process, store, hold or transport all categories of food products prior to delivery for retail sale, farms, ranches, orchards, vineyards, aquaculture facilities and confined animal-feeding operations would be subject to strict government regulation.

Government inspectors would be required to visit and examine food production facilities, including small farms, to ensure compliance. They would review food safety records and conduct surveillance of animals, plants, products or the environment.

"What the government will do is bring in industry experts to tell them how to manage all this stuff," Olson said. "It's industry that's telling government how to set these things up. What it always boils down to is who can afford to have the most influence over the government. It would be those companies that have sufficient economies of scale to be able to afford the influence – which is, of course, industrial agriculture."

Just as the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) enjoys a sweetheart relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, so the new Food Safety Administration will serve the interests of the agribusiness giants. The article quotes Michael Olson as follows:

Olson believes the regulations could create unjustifiable financial hardships for small farmers and run them out of business" [It] is often the purpose of rules and regulations: to get rid of your competition," he said. "Only people who are very, very large can afford to comply. They can hire one person to do paperwork. There's a specialization of labor there, and when you are very small, you can't afford to do all of these things."

. . . and, Grandma, what big teeth you have:

According to the act, "Any person that commits an act that violates the food safety law … may be assessed a civil penalty by the Administrator of not more than $1,000,000 for each such act."

Each violation and each separate day the producer is in defiance of the law would be considered a separate offense and an additional penalty. The act suggests federal administrators consider the gravity of the violation, the degree of responsibility and the size and type of business when determining penalties.

Criminal sanctions may be imposed if contaminated food causes serious illness or death, and offenders may face fines and imprisonment of up to 10 years.

President Obama has also weighed in on this issue:

The president said outbreaks from contaminated foods, such as a recent salmonella outbreak among consumers of peanut products, have occurred more frequently in recent years due to outdated regulations, fewer inspectors, scaled back inspections and a lack of information sharing between government agencies.

The problem with the president's statement is twofold:

1) The president did not touch on the real cause of the widespread outbreaks of food contamination, which is the centralization of food production, processing and distribution (agribusiness). When there were many, small suppliers, contaminated food might affect a few people in a limited geographic area. Now, with just a few major suppliers, a contaminated batch of food may potentially affect millions across the nation.

2) The proposed solution to the problem will only consolidate control of the food supply in the hands of relatively few major agri-corporations. It will regulate the small producers out of existence, assuring that any level of food contamination will result in a system-wide crisis.

There are some other problems I see down the road. What has big pharma's cozy relationship to bureaucratic regulators done for the price of health care? Don't you think big Agra's move from going steady to a full-blown courtship with Washington will have the same effect?

In addition, futher centralization almost guarantees disruptions of the food supply down the road. When everything comes through one channel of supply, the fall of a single domino may create a chain reaction that spells catastrophe.

When people get hungry, they become restive. If the food police don't get you, the hungry mobs may.

How are you preparing (both in terms of tactics & food storage)?

Warrior Fitness: Upper Body Exercise

The following comes from John Peterson's "Daily Transformation"" e-letter. This one exercise works the entire upper body, and you can do it anywhere, without equipment. It's a classic Dynamic Self Resistance (DSR) exercise.

DSR exercises like this are just one reason I so heartily recommend Peterson's book, Pushing Yourself to Power. Here's the article:

So what exactly is the “Uncle Milo” exercise? Glad you asked! Let me run you through it:

While standing, cross your wrists left over right, with your hands forming tight fists as though holding a hammer with arms extended down by your waistline in direct center line of your body(thumbs and index fingers of each hand, though clenched, are facing straight up).

With your left fist pressing down and your right fist pulling up, slowly pull your right fist upward while maintaining even and consistent resistance from your left fist pressing down.

Continue pulling until the top of your left fist (thumb and index finger) lightly brushes the forehead. Then reverse the motion, resisting with the right fist and pressing down with the left.

After the muscles feel thoroughly worked, reverse the relative positions of the hands with right over left and continue. Six high-tension reps in each of the two positions described will work well.

Many men will discover that due to the enhanced leverage of this exercise, they can really achieve an incredible pump in the entire arm structure as well as the entire upper body, including the pecs, upper back, shoulders, and abdomen.

This was my Uncle Milo’s favorite DSR exercise and it worked like a dream.—J.P.

President Seeks to Disarm Pillots

My barber sent me the link to an editorial in the Washington Times. It says, in part,

After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings.

Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.

(You can read the entire article here.)

As always, trust in God's providence, not in the promises of men. And undertake training that will put you at the disposal of God's providence in an emergency.

Also from my barber, as seen on a gun forum:

Why do you collect guns? Same reason some people collect snow globes. To kill bad guys.

The secretary then said she didn't want her workplace to look like the wild west. I asked her if she preferred it to look like Columbine.

St. Patrick's Day

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is St. Patrick's Day. I have published this article about Patrick's Breastplate before, but I think it bears review. My family sometimes sings it during family worship. Here is the post:

St. Patrick's day has been thoroughly Americanized. The average citizen associates this hero of the Christian faith with drunken orgies, leprechauns and "the wearin' o' the green." In reality, Patrick was a stalwart believer who challenged Druidism in Ireland and championed the cause of Trinitarianism in the Church.

Patrick Friend explains the significance of the hymn known as "The Lorica" or "Breastplate of St. Patrick":

There is a beautiful prayer that legend says was written by St. Patrick himself. As the story goes, he suspected an ambush while he was on the way to meet King Laoghaire. He said the prayer, known today as St. Patrick's Breastplate, the Lorica, or the Deer's Cry, and as the soldiers lay in wait Patrick and his companions passed by but all the soldiers saw were deer! (source: All About Irish)

A lorica is meant to protect its wearer from harm, like a breastplate. As the Druids used magical incantations to call upon the powers of Nature, Patrick invokes the name of the Triune God and claims all the phenomena of nature for his armor because God created them.

You can listen to the melody played at the oremus site, but be warned they've removed the two most martial stanzas. I've reproduced the hymn in its entirety below.

May you, Christian Martialist, be imbued with the faith and love of the truth that marked the spirit of Patrick, evangelist of the Scoti. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Breastplate of St. Patrick

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

______________________________________________

Words: Translated from the Gaelic by Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander, 1889.
Music: "St. Patrick" Charles Villiers Stanford, 1902

John J. O'Brien: Basic Wrist Lock

John J. O'Brien is the man reputed to have taught Jiu Jitsu to President Theodore Roosevelt. In the pictures below -- from his book A Complete Course in Jiu Jitsu -- he demonstrates Katate Tori, the basic wrist lock.

If you practice with a friend, go slowly and apply pressure gradually. Have a prearranged signal to stop.

Somewhere Between Jesus & John Wayne, 3

Continued from "Somewhere Between Jesus & John Wayne, 2"

For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Eph 5:23-32)

In the marriage covenant, males represent Christ and females represent the Church. Thus, the Church is Christ's bride. He is the groom, and we -- collectively -- are the bride.

In the whole scheme of things, then, Jesus is the ultimate masculine. He is the archetypal Man (ICor. 15:45), the quintessential male.

By comparison, merely human men occupy a more feminine position. We are not females, and it would constitute an abomination to try to act the female role (Romans 1:27). But still, no human male can attain to the masculinity of Jesus, the King.

So, what does that have to do with the concept of being somewhere between Jesus & John Wayne? Simply this: Next to Jesus, the John Wayne screen persona looks like Shirley Temple.

So, how do men become more masculine? Righteousness!

Righteous living makes men more manly and women more womanly, because righteousness cooperates with God's calling and standards for His people.

Perhaps America's crisis in manhood stems from the false notion that there is something inherently masculine in profane language and behavior. Now that liberated women can cuss and carouse with the worst of them, men feel threatened in their manhood.

Some try to abandon their manhood altogether in the homosexual lifestyle. Others may try to assert their masculinity by abusing women. However they try to compensate, they will always feel inadequate because their original model of manliness was all wrong.

Profanity is not manly, and righteousness is not feminine. Profanity makes both men and women hard and ugly. Righteousness enhances both masculinity and femininity.

And whether you're a man or a woman, if you seek to follow Jesus, I think -- for the most part -- your masculinity or femininity will take care of itself.

American Combat Judo: Magazine Ad

As I've mentioned before, when I was a boy of about 11 or 12, I started collecting self-defense ads. I cut them chiefly from old Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines.

I also collected pennies, but frankly, the thought of becoming an invincible warrior captured my heart in a way that copper coins never could. I recently ran across one of those old ads, and I thought I'd share it with you. It's an ad for Bernard J. Cosneck's American Combat Judo, which I have reviewed in a previous post.

Here it is, the stuff dreams are made of:



The ad came from the April, 1948 issue of Popular Mechanics -- It was always very important for me to date my ads correctly.

Mindset: Resolve

Jeff Cooper did not include resolve in his Principles of Personal Defense, but I think it is an essential part of a proper Christian Martialist mindset. Merriam-Webster defines resolve as "fixity of purpose".

Rob LaPointe includes a story in his free e-booklet Automatic Self Defense that illustrates resolve. Here it is.

Imagine this:
You're at a stop light, at night, in a rental car, in a strange city, trying to find your way
from the airport to your hotel. You're peering around, squinting at street signs, maybe
you have the interior light on and a map propped up on the steering wheel.

Basically, you're a sick or wounded fish shuddering and jerking around giving off those
"animal in distress" vibrations that work so well in the wild to attract Hammerhead
sharks.

There's a tap on the passenger side window (you didn't even see him approach because
you were buried in the map).

He asks "Need help?" You don't feel good about it, but - not wanting to be rude - you roll
the window down . . . and now a gun is pointed at your face.
He's in the car the light is green and the car's moving and you're telling him to calm
down.

In less than 7 seconds you've managed to break Rule #1 by not trusting your instincts,
Rule #2 by negotiating instead of resisting immediately, Rule #3 by heading toward a
second location, and Rule #4 by complying when faced with threat of injury instead of
accepting the possibility of injury.

Not bad!

Four minutes later you're in an abandoned warehouse district. There're gang tags on nearly
every surface, derelict cars scattered around, and no one in sight. You pull over and get
out, he takes your watch, your laptop and your wallet. He makes you open the trunk and
get your luggage out. You co-operate like a good, little victim.

Then he tells you to get in the trunk.

At this point, something clicks and your thought process changes. It's August in Houston.
You're on blood pressure medicine and have been toting around 20 extra pounds since a
few years after college. You'll last about 45 minutes in that trunk. He might as well have
told you to jump off a cliff.

You get tunnel vision and he begins to raise the gun and you swing at him and you think
you connect but you're not too sure and there's a loud noise that seems strangely like it's a
long way off and your left thigh is burning.

There's a struggle and then you're running and now your shoulder burns too. You think
he's chasing you as you trip and cut your hands and knees on broken glass and you're up
and running again and you hear a shot but nothing burns this time and now you're in an
empty lot and your lungs are on fire and you feel blood squishing in your shoe with every
other step.

You look over your shoulder and can't believe it, the son-of-a-bitch is still actually
chasing you - and grinning - and now you feel a different kind of burning in your calf.
This one has a nice stabbing nuance to it and the analytical part of your mind informs you
your tibia just got shattered by a bullet. But the rest of your mind and in fact your
complete physical being is telling you to RUN!!

At this point, your body has decided you need some extra help so it's fallen back on old
habits. Real old.

It's night and your eyes have dilated so you can see better.

Your blood pressure shot up and adrenalin is pumping into your system.

Heart and lung function just increased.

Your digestive system shut down, diverting blood to your
muscles - you just got stronger.

Your blood has begun to thicken so your wounds bleed less.

Natural pain killers - endorphins - course through you so
you're not as distracted by pain.

Your lungs are pushing increased amounts of oxygen into
your blood, benefiting your brain. Your mental focus is at
maximum.

Sugar and carbohydrate reserves are released. Your body
wisely figures "you can't take it with you," so there's a major
energy dump in progress and you just turned into superman.

You're seeing things in slow motion now. Your visual perception has altered - this change
is called tachypsychia. You notice details like where to get a handhold on that clump of
grass as you move up the embankment, where to put your feet so you won't slip.
Your hearing is acute. The cars on the freeway sound louder. You can even track how fast
they're moving and how far apart they are.

These are all details you'll remember later. Right now you're moving fast, reacting, and
storing information to think about later on, so your survival odds will be improved the
next time you encounter a predator.

And you're up the embankment and dodging cars and you're clutching a traffic sign
and you hear a siren.

So what's Rule #5?

Never, ever give up. [End of Excerpt]

As far as practical self-defense goes, resolve means that no matter what, you will not give up.

The Conspiratologist

I have a new blog: The Conspiratologist. It is about power politics in America. It will include posts about the ruling class, the networks of the power-elite and -- of course -- conspiracies.

I have elected to make the blog invitation-only. However, if you are a regular reader of WARSKYL, and you think you'd like to know what I have to say on these topics, just shoot an email to gravelbelly@gmail.com and request to be included on the site list.

Church Shooter Kills Pastor

Yesterday, another shooting -- another tragedy -- interrupted an assembly of worshipers in the St.Louis suburb of Maryville. Pastor Fred Winters died at the hands of a gunman during his sermon.

The following account comes from News.scotsman.com:

Terrified members of the congregation initially thought the attack was part of a play being performed during the service at First Baptist Church in Maryville.

A police spokesman said only one of the four rounds fired from the .45 caliber handgun struck and killed the 45-year-old pastor.

The killer walked into the First Baptist Church shortly after 8am local time, yesterday.

He briefly spoke with the pastor before pulling out a .45-caliber handgun and shooting Rev Winters once in the chest.

State police Master Trooper Ralph Timmins said the gun jammed before the man could fire again. The attacker then pulled out a knife and injured himself before churchgoers subdued him. Two parishioners involved in the struggle also suffered knife wounds.

Our prayers go up to the Lord on behalf of Pastor Winters' family and flock.

In addition, there are some points worthy of mention. First, the courage of those unarmed congregants who tackled the assailant. Second, the state of Illinois, which does not permit concealed carry, thus guaranteeing that the law-abiding churchgoers would be unarmed.

Third, the fact that attendees initially thought that the whole thing was staged reveals their complacent mindset. Finally, there is no indication that church officers or staff had any kind of security protocol to deal with a violent attack.

How many churches will implement security plans and procedures to protect their pastors and people? Probably not many. It's pretty much up to individuals with the mindset, means and training.

Post-Collapse Survival, 6b

Over at my Access To Destiny blog you will find the latest installment of the Argentinian Urban Survival series. Also, you can click on a link to the blog of the author, where you will find many more post-collapse survival experiences and recommendations.

Post-Collapse Survival, 6b

Somewhere Between Jesus & John Wayne, 2

Continued from "Somewhere between Jesus and John Wayne"

This post is a polemic -- an engagement in spiritual warfare that addresses a much-neglected issue in the Church.

Over 30 yrs ago, I worked for an independent Baptist pastor who wanted to start a school. I was the principal. One day, I approached him with a problem.

During recess, the boys liked to play baseball, and daily there were heated arguments over whether someone had touched base or not, whether a certain pitch was a strike, etc. The arguments had not consummated in physical blows, but it was only a matter of time.

The school was understaffed, and my duties kept me from supervising the games, although I could observe and hear through the window. To compound the problem, the pastor's 12-yr-old son was invariably one of the participants in these arguments.

It did not help that the pastor was an insufferable narcissist. He told me that I was to let the arguing continue, because he did not want his son to grow up to be a wimp.

I have recounted this story because I believe, to some degree or other, it expresses the view of many Christian men. They want enough of Christ to get them to heaven, but in other facets of their life, they want to be like John Wayne.

This, of course, comes -- at least in part -- from the liberal picture of Jesus as the effete, if not effeminate, Holy Victim. Mainstream churches have swallowed and perpetuated this distorted view of Christ's passion. Large parts of Evangelicaldom have followed suit.

In the early Church, however, Jesus was not seen as the Holy Victim, but as the Victorious King. Christians saw the cross as a tactical move leading to ultimate victory rather than as a defeat.

I think, perhaps, one of the clearest literary presentations of this fact is the death and resurrection of Aslan in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It shows that the forces of wickedness fell into a great and wise trap baited by the King, Himself.

The false view of Jesus leaves the modern Christian man between the devil and the deep blue. On the one hand, from boyhood he has heard the stories of Joshua, David, and the Mighty Men (including Benaiah), and these stories stir him.

On the other hand, his pastors and teachers tell him that these men and their deeds are from the OLD Testament. They tell him that he must follow the NEW Testament and strive to be like Jesus, whom they depict as the Holy Victim.

You may think that such pastors and teachers are your friends. But with friends like that, who needs enemas?

We have here a false view of Scripture as well as a false view of Jesus. As Gary North has pointed out, the Old Testament is not God's Word emeritus.

But those boys and men indoctrinated by these false teachings find themselves on the horns of a dilemma. Do they follow the false Christ of the false teaching and deny the manhood with which God has gifted them and to which He calls them? Or do they affirm their manhood and then look for an appropriate role model outside of Christianity altogether?

Sadly, too many try to take the middle ground and end up "somewhere between Jesus and John Wayne." Jesus, the true paradigm of manhood, has a sad message for those who deliberately choose the middle ground.

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

(Rev 3:15-16)

To be continued . . .

Post-Collapse Survival, 6a

I have located Part 6 of the "Urban Survival" series by an Argentinian who lived through the 2001 crash & its aftermath in that country. It seems somewhat longer than even the other installements, so I am breaking it into two parts (a&b). You may read it over at my Access To Destiny blog:

"Post-Collapse Survival, 6a"

Also, for those of you who suffer from presbyopia*, I have enlarged the print in the previous installments.

*Presbyopia, noun, 1) a condition common to the elderly which makes it difficult to focus the eyes; 2) the ability to see clearly the doctrines of grace.

Somewhere Between Jesus & John Wayne

I am providing the following music video (thanks to my barber) for your thought and analysis. I really would like to see some responses in the comments section, because I think this song describes some of the inner struggles of the typical American Christian male.

The song is about sanctification -- a process that's never finished in this life. I also see it as an indictment of the false concepts about Jesus and manhood foisted upon us by pietistic Christians. Anti-christian media are more than happy to reinforce these misconceptions.

A [male] Christian Martialist should be clear on who Jesus is, on his manhood, and on how those two things relate.

What are your thoughts?

Post-Collapse Survival, "8" (Q&A)

Continued from "Post-Collapse Survival '7'"

I have been finding a lot of food for thought in this series. I am particularly interested in the fact that, even in a time of social unrest, most attacks are up close (handgun rather than rifle range). That's good tactical info. I'd like to know what you think about the series.

Here's the link to the latest installment over at Access To Destiny:

Post-Collapse Survival, "8" (Q&A)

AK-47

My barber sent me this some time ago because in my self defense articles I often refer to predatory dirtballs as orcs.

You can mentally replace the AK-47 with the "wizard's staff" of your choice.


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Psalm 149:6 -- A Meditation

Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hand. (Psalm 149:6)

Praise and power go ever hand in hand. The two things act and react upon each other. An era of spiritual force in the Church is always one of praise; and when there comes some grand outburst of sacred song, we may expect that the people of God are entering upon some new crusade for Christ. Cromwell's Ironsides were sneeringly called Psalm singers; but God's Psalm singers are always Ironsides.

—William Taylor, in "The Study," 1873 (as quoted by C. H. Spurgeon in The Treasury of David)

Thanks to my wife Laura for bringing this to my attention.