Lew Rockwell Institute

The national debt increased by $1 trillion during a 72-day period this year. Republicans have only themselves to blame. They control the House, Senate, and the presidency. They spend money just as fast as Democrats. The government has no money for food stamps but sent billions to Israel and Ukraine. Cursed be Republicans, as I have said for years.

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This is what 77,303,568 people voted for a year ago as opposed to what we

have today.

The Meaning of MAGA

To Robert F. Kennedy Jr., MAGA means aligning his political and health agenda with Donald Trump’s movement, which he has embraced by taking on a key cabinet role in the “Make America Great Again” MAGA / “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) coalition. His approach frames MAGA as a vehicle for his health-focused policies, which include combating chronic disease through dietary changes and opposing what he views as harmful corporate influence in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Make America Healthy Again (MAHA): Kennedy has adopted the slogan “Make America Healthy Again” as a health-focused reinterpretation of Trump’s MAGA slogan.

Health-centered agenda: He is the chair of the “Make America Healthy Again” commission, which aims to tackle chronic diseases and reform the food and drug industries.

Alliance with Trump: Kennedy has embraced the MAGA movement and is a powerful figure in the Trump administration, overseeing controversial actions related to public health and policy.

Policy focus: His policies include using the power of his commission to investigate the links between processed foods, pesticides, and chronic disease, and pushing for legislative changes to ensure food companies negotiate with him.

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Eugyppius

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It is the insanity of US foreign policy in a nutshell that self-styled Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa is to be welcomed to the White House. Just before his (US-aided) rise to power in Syria last year he was head of the local al-Qaeda branch in Syria. Before that he worked with al-Qaeda in Iraq and is responsible for the death of numerous US service members.

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Global Research

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Thanks, David Martin.

The Duke Report

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Apart from his starring role in organizing mass murder in the Middle East and elsewhere as defense secretary and vice president, the one thing Cheney will most be remembered for is of course shooting his hunting partner in the face with a 12 gauge shotgun during a pheasant hunt.

He did make a contribution to business culture, however. During the Bush campaign he was appointed chairman of the vice presidential search committee. After a long and arduous search, reportedly leaving no stone unturned, Dick decided that he himself was the best candidate. They’re probably already teaching this tactic in Executive MBA programs.

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Zero Hedge

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Thanks, Ginny Garner.

The Grayzone

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Tributes are pouring in. But why? He was pure neocon evil.

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Defend America First! No New Foreign Wars!

“Do Not Go Abroad In Search of Monsters To Destroy” – John Quincy Adams (Robert Barnes’ Distant Ancestor)

The phrase “do not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy” is a quote from an 1821 speech by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams arguing against intervention in foreign conflicts.

He stated that while the U.S. would be a “well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all,” it should only be the “champion and vindicator of only her own”. This line is often cited by those advocating for a more restrained foreign policy.

Adams believed the U.S. should focus on its own security and interests and be a model of liberty, rather than acting as an international police force. He was specifically addressing the U.S. role in the Latin American wars for independence at the time.

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The Wind and the Lion

Take time out of your monotonous busy day to enjoy this delightful Trumpian fantasy tale on the wonders and glories of U. S. military intervention in faraway exotic places.

Starring Sean Connery and Candice Bergan leading an epic cast. A rousing time will be had by all.

In this case the delusional, wildly popular president seeking attention on the world stage, is the egomaniacal patriarch Teddy Roosevelt and his crafty, Machiavellian Secretary of State John Hay (played impeccably by the great John Huston).

The film is loosely based on the real-life Perdicaris affair of 1904. Connery plays Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli, a Moroccan Berber rebel and anti-imperialist leader, and Bergen plays his American hostage Eden Pedecaris, a fictional character inspired by Ion Hanford Perdicaris.

An action romantic epic of the type that are rarely attempted by modern Hollywood, “The Wind and the Lion” excels on all cinematic levels. Great photography and editing, a memorable Jerry Goldsmith score, charismatic performances from Brian Keith (Teddy Roosevelt) and Sean Connery.

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Resuming test nuclear explosions is the futile response of a loser.

Russia’s successful testing this week of two breakthrough nuclear-capable weapons, the Burevestnik and Poseidon, marks an absolute technological besting over the United States, which is why President Trump overreacted with warnings of renewed nuke testing.

The weapons unveiled by Russia shift the strategic nuclear balance decisively. In chess terms, they are tantamount to checkmate.

The United States and its NATO allies have no means of defense against Russia’s new nuclear weapon delivery systems. The Burevestnik is a supersonic cruise missile, while the Poseidon is an unmanned submarine vehicle. The unique feature is that both are powered by onboard miniaturized nuclear reactors, which give them unlimited distance capacity. The weapons can circumnavigate the globe indefinitely and strike at targets from multiple unknown directions.

In terms of engineering achievement, the development is revolutionary. There are endless possibilities for civilian, peaceful applications.

Russia disavows a first-strike option in its nuclear doctrine, maintaining that its arsenal is for defense only. By contrast, the United States asserts a first-strike, or preemptive attack, option. The U.S. doctrine is despicable and is an extension of its historic claim of being the only country to have ever used atomic weapons, as it did without warning against Japan in 1945, killing 200,000 people.

But these new Russian weapons will ensure that the United States’ first-strike threats for decapitation of enemies are now null and void. Some military analysts comment that Russia’s strategic advantage now ensures that World War III is avoided – unless the U.S. wants to obliterate itself along with the planet.

Other analysts point out that the United States must disabuse its delusions of seeking global dominance and enter into negotiations with Russia to end the conflict in Ukraine, as well as get serious about respecting arms control.

An amusing aside is that in recent weeks, Trump has been menacing Moscow with threats of possibly delivering Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine for use against Russia. The Tomahawk, developed four decades ago, flies about 2,000 km at subsonic speeds and can theoretically be shot down with advanced Russian air defense systems. Whereas the Burevestnik can fly around the globe multiple times at supersonic speeds, and the U.S. has no defense against it.

Trump’s posturing with the Tomahawk now looks ridiculous.

His response to the news of Russia’s new weapons was a crude overreaction. Other NATO powers have kept silent, no doubt reflecting their stunned realization of impotence.

Trump announced on Wednesday with his usual bluster: “Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our nuclear weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”

This American president is not known for his ability to comprehend accurate details. And this is a classic case. His “instruction” to start testing nuclear weapons on an equal basis “immediately” is a non-starter because the U.S. has no weapons comparable to Russia’s. So, that suggests Trump is ready to resume testing on existing nuclear weapons. If he does proceed, and it is not certain if the Congress or Pentagon would permit that, it would mean ending a more than 30-year moratorium on nuclear test explosions.

A Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty has been in existence since 1996, after nuclear powers realized the detriment to the planet from thousands of nuclear explosions carried out since the 1940s. Is Trump willing to break the taboo and go back to that bygone era?

Russia pointed out that the Burevestnik and Poseidon tests were non-nuclear. There were no warheads detonated. What was demonstrated was the capability of nuclear delivery systems.

The American side should learn from history that its arrogant unilateral conduct is self-defeating.

The United States under George W Bush unilaterally pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 because it wanted to encircle Russia with offensive missile systems in Europe. Sure enough, the U.S. expanded NATO towards Russia’s border and installed Aegis missiles in Poland and Romania as a means of intimidating Moscow.

In response to the U.S. abandonment of the ABM Treaty, Russia has developed a suite of new weapons that far surpass anything in the American arsenal, and for which there is no U.S. air defense. Russia has hypersonic missiles, Avangard, Zircon, Khinzal, and Oreshnik that can fly at Mach 10, or over 12,000 km/h, in unpredictable trajectories.

The unveiling of the Burevestnik and Poseidon weapons means it’s game over for the American Dream of dominating and terrorizing the world.

The upper hand that Russia has acquired is a result of the U.S. trying to be underhanded.

Trump’s warning of resuming nuclear explosive testing is a crude overreaction that betrays American admission of being bested by Russia.

Resuming test nuclear explosions is the futile response of a loser.

What the American side needs to do is begin treating Russia with respect and get down to the business of negotiating security and arms control treaties on a mutual basis for the sake of global peace.

A more troubling question is: Is the United States capable of such reasonable negotiation?

The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.

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According to data collected by the research firm Statista, 29 percent of Americans cannot afford to take a vacation this year. A vacation is not the only thing Americans are struggling to afford. The failure of wages to keep up with price inflation is why household debt hit a record level of 18.4 trillion dollars this year, with the average household owing more than 100,000 dollars.

The Federal Reserve is responsible for the decline in American living standards and the rise in income inequality. The turning point in the people’s economic fortunes was on August 15, 1971. That is when then-President Richard Nixon closed the “gold window,” severing the last link between the dollar and gold. This left America with a purely fiat currency and no restraint on the Federal Reserve’s ability to create money.

When the Federal Reserve pumps money into the economy the new money is not equally distributed. It first goes to wealthy and well-connected individuals. These individuals benefit from having increased purchasing power before the new money has caused price increases.

The Fed also contributes to economic instability and inequality by creating bubbles that distort the signals sent by the market. This causes over-investment in some sectors. When bubbles burst, workers employed in certain sectors lose their jobs, while those at top often suffer at most a modest setback. The government bails out the “too big to fail” corporations, but the government never considers workers and homeowners too big to fail.

The Federal Reserve facilitates the growth of the welfare-warfare state by purchasing Treasury bonds, thus monetizing federal debt. The majority of government spending is on programs benefiting powerful special interests. This includes in large part the military-industrial complex that gobbles up more money from the government each year.

The Federal Reserve’s continued devaluation of the dollar to finance an empire abroad and a welfare state at home is the driving force behind the erosion of the people’s living standards. As the dollar loses purchasing power, demand for government assistance increases, leading to more government spending, more debt monetization, and a further decline in living standards.

The fact that almost a third of Americans cannot afford a vacation illustrates how fiat money harms average Americans. Continued growth of federal debt and Fed-created inflation will lead to a major economic crisis. This will either induce or be caused by a rejection of the dollar’s world reserve currency status. The result will be a rise of demagogic authoritarians of both left and right and increased political violence, leading to an increase in government repression.

Those of us who know the truth must continue to explain that the solution to our problems is a vacation from the welfare-warfare state and the fiat money system that facilitates government growth at the expense of the people’s standards of living and liberty. Limited government, free markets, and peaceful relations and free trade with as many nations as possible are components of the path to lasting peace and prosperity.

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The old comfortable world is not coming back. The young – if anything – are much more radical.

U.S. foreign policy, drenched in the hubris that the U.S. won the Cold War militarily (in Afghanistan); won it economically (liberal markets); and culturally too, (Hollywood) — and therefore rightly deserves, as Trump puts it, the “fun” of “running both the country the world”. Well, that policy is now in contention for the first time.

Will this matter?

This month, the RAND Organisation, an institution whose shadow has long lain across U.S. foreign policy matters, has challenged the Cold War hubris in respect to China.

Though the report focuses on America’s preoccupation with the threat of China’s ascendency, the implications of questioning the doctrine — that no challenger to U.S. hegemony, financial or military, can be tolerated — does cut to the absolute heart of U.S. foreign policy practice.

The key finding from RAND is that “China and the U.S. should strive to achieve a modus vivendi” together through “each accepting the political legitimacy of the other, constraining efforts to undermine each other, at least to a reasonable degree”.

To propose that each side should acknowledge and accept the legitimacy of the other, rather than see ‘the other’ as a malignant threat, would in itself represent a small revolution.

Were it to apply to China, then why not to Russia or Iran too?

More telling: RAND prescribes that the U.S. leadership in particular should reject notions of ‘absolute victory’ over China – as well as to accept the One China Policy by stopping provoking China through military-minded visits to Taiwan designed specifically to keep China threatened and on edge.

This comes on the eve of Trump’s scheduled meeting with President Xi Jinping in Kuala Lumpur, in which Trump is seeking a ‘trade deal’ with China that reaffirms his dominance and gives him space for his radical plans to re-structure America’s financial landscape – if he can.

Can the pivot proposed by RAND truly be accepted in DC? RAND does possess real weight in Washington – so does this report reflect a split in the structural architecture of the Dark State? Other signs (in the Middle East/ West Asia) point in the opposite direction.

The U.S. has been running the same foreign policy playbook for decades. So, is the U.S. even capable of such radical cultural transformation, as advocated by RAND?

The West is in decline – yes. But does that make it easier, or harder, for it to accept some RAND servings of common sense? It does seem, in respect to China, that a technical view has formed within U.S. defence circles that ‘no way’ can the U.S. take on China militarily.

Yet any profound change takes time to fully register and can be overturned by unexpected events. There are a number of potential black swans circling us, at this time.

And who would lead such a change in national self-perception? Would real (institutional) change emerge from top-down, or come from bottom up?

By ‘bottom up’, could this emerge as a populist ‘America First’-driven impulse resulting from Trump and the GOP losing the House at the Midterms?

In one sense, RAND is clearly right that beyond hyping a piece of short-term theatre, the U.S. no longer can win an economic or tech war – or a military conflict with China – in the longer-term. An uneasy truce seems, for now, to be in prospect.

But for how long?

The Wall Street Journal has suggested a different perspective to the usual Washington consensus: “During his first term, Trump often frustrated Xi Jinping – with his freewheeling mix of threats and bonhomie”.

“This time the Chinese leader believes he has cracked the code”, the WSJ writes: Xi has thrown out traditional diplomatic practice and tailored a new one specifically for Trump. After long preparation, the WSJ argues, Xi has decided to hit back even harder, in a bid to gain leverage over Trump, whilst projecting strength and unpredictability — qualities he believes the U.S. president admires.

Seemingly, China is intent on asserting itself forcefully. It wants to drive the dynamic, and is confident that this hardline approach will gain a resoundingly positive response within China (— and in the rest of the world, the WSJ neglects to acknowledge).

The question is how might Xi’s riposte play-out in the U.S.? Yet the big question remains unanswered: Who controls U.S. foreign policy anyway?

One obvious answer after the Budapest (no) summit débacle is that Trump has little or no agency in this corner of foreign policy. He is wholly co-opted. And was sent a bunt ‘reminder’ to this effect, from the ‘powers that be’ – ‘No normalisation with Moscow’.

Ceasefire, ‘yes’; because a frozen conflict, unencumbered by restrictions on Ukrainian re-armament, would give the NATO Establishment scope to redefine the conflict – from one of NATO’s strategic defeat to a ‘holding’ victory, through promulgating the narrative of a Russian economy progressively weakening.

This contrived formulation holds out — at least in the minds of Europeans – the promise of some final ceasefire at a later stage, by imposing continuing serial costs on Russia that finally compel that ceasefire.

The ‘fly in soup’ to this scam is that Moscow absolutely will not agree to a frozen conflict — and anyway sees the battlespace working towards Russian victory.

The reality is that the Ukraine final outcome will be whatever ‘it is’. The Europeans know it, but cannot say it because they cannot orient to a world in which their way of seeing it does not prevail. If this Luddism be counted as western ‘leverage’, then it is ephemeral and will fade as economic realities bite in Europe.

What then accounts for Trump’s Russian débacle? On the one hand, it was the veto of pro-Israel mega-donors, for whom a militarily hegemonic U.S. – supporting Israel – must be preserved at all costs. Israel cannot exist without it. Many, if not all Team Trump, have been imposed from the outside – by certain zealot donors and likeminded billionaires. (Trump was surprisingly candid about this reality during his address at the Knesset last month).

Some of these Trump donors are also part of the (separate) Wall Street faction who, besides being pro-Zionist, have wider financial concerns in mind. The U.S. financial system desperately requires reinforcing with collateral (i.e. assets having inherent value: such as oil, natural resources, etc.) as underpinning to an over-leveraged U.S. shadow banking system.

This Wall Street (Frankish) pro-Israel faction still harks after a reprise of ‘Russia in the nineties’ (however unlikely). But they share also, with the main pro-Israeli donor block, Israel’s determination to keep Russia out of the Middle East; and extended by the Ukraine conflict. On 7 October this year, Netanyahu begged Putin not to arm Iran, reportedly threatening retaliation in Ukraine.

The China trade deal calculus – for such donors – is wholly different. Should Trump agree a ‘strong’ trade agreement with China, it would be seen in the White House as undercutting the ability of Canada to assemble cheap component goods derived from China and elsewhere – for transhipment and sale into the U.S. market. A China deal would give Trump additional leverage, heading into the 2026 USMCA (CUSMA) dissolution phase.

The latter is important as Trump seeks to fold the whole western hemisphere – from Argentina to north Antarctic — into the U.S. ‘fold’.

Agreement with China on rare earth export controls however, would be clearly crucial to the entire U.S. tech sector. China’s grip on the rare earth supply chain is not just dominant — it’s nearly unassailable. With 70% of global rare earths (a 100% in a few metals) and with 94% refining capacity, Beijing has prepared and built a fortress around one of the most critical inputs to modern technology.

There is another reason – perhaps even an overriding reason – why the U.S. needs a ‘rescue’ by China, urgently.

The legal basis for Trump’s global tariff onslaught has strayed ever further away from the ‘economic emergency’ exceptionality – to the U.S. Constitution’s clarity that the authority for raising of revenues, in principle, falls to Congress – and is not a prerequisite of the Executive. (Tariffs, it will be argued, are revenues.)

Clearly, Trump has stretched the ‘economic emergency’ justification to the limit. Initial tariff cases will come before the Supreme Court very shortly (1 November). Were the Court to find against Trump, it could order all tariff revenues so far gathered to be repaid.

How would this impact on the foreign policy of the United States, given that tariffs have been instrumentalised to force states to pay huge sums to the U.S. (in respect to inward capital investment)?

It is too early to tell. But in the case of China, Trump and the U.S. badly need a deal. Trump’s economic policy more generally (unless reversed by the Supreme Court) marks a permanent change in the economic and geopolitical landscape. There’s no going back to the ex-ante as it existed before November 2024.

The once-prevailing globally interconnected order of things is being swept away, and a new one of standalone economic blocks with their own internal alliances, supply chains and technologies is taking its place.

In other foreign policy areas such a radical change in direction is less likely – at least for now. The pro-Israeli ruling billionaires behind Trump will stop at nothing in their efforts in support of Israel in its goal of imposing a Greater Israel founded amidst a new Nakba.

But in the longer-term, pro-Israel dominance over foreign policy is less assured. Support amongst young Americans for Israel is bleeding out. The Congress will remain ‘bought’ by AIPAC, and Trump has irreversibly defined himself as an unwavering supporter of Israel. A breach between Trump and his MAGA base has begun. And Israel has begun to panic about the America First, anti-Israeli vibe shift taking place amongst young Americans.

In spite of possible re-districting of constituencies in America’s South prompted by challenges to the 1965 Voter Registration Act (that may give the GOP an extra 12 House seats), Trump could still lose the Midterms. This means that effectively Trump’s agenda would have but one year to run – until overwhelmed by Democratic obstruction, investigations or even impeachment efforts begin.

The reason for Trump’s rush is plain. Of course, none of this may occur, and the U.S. (and European) ruling strata may sink back into their cushions, with a sigh of relief that the old agenda can be revived. But complacency would be misplaced. The old comfortable world is not coming back. The young – if anything – are much more radical.

The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.

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I was raised a Catholic. I still consider myself a Catholic, although it’s been a few years since I’ve been to Mass. I have many problems with the Church, as I do with organized religion in general. I have no problems with God. Or Jesus Christ. Who am I, with my poor intellectual capacity, to question the Creator of everything?

In the mid-1970s, what we used to call “Jesus Freaks” started popping up. I knew a few of them. They were actually pretty cool. I never argued about our foreign policy with them. I even briefly flirted with the “Born Again” thing myself. One of my catchier songs was They Took my Bible Away. One day, I’ll get the courage to play the tapes I have of my songs on YouTube or something. At any rate, at that time “born againers” seemed to me to just be extremely enthusiastic believers. To be more concerned with Jesus Christ than most Catholics or conventional Protestants. It wasn’t until I started meeting more of them, in the workforce, or while coaching youth sports, that I realized there really was a distinct difference between what they believed, and the religious instructions I’d received as a Catholic. I started to understand that “born again” Protestants rely almost exclusively on faith, and seem to harbor a thinly concealed antipathy towards Catholics and their “good works.”

As a child, it was drummed home to me, both at Mass and at home, to “be good.” Catholic “guilt” is a very real but unfairly named thing. It is instead a Catholic conscience. I feel guilt, even when it’s irrational, because my conscience insists that I should have done something differently, or not done it. Should have treated someone better. Done more to help those who need it. It gave me a nice, warm feeling to volunteer with the Special Olympics, or coach severely handicapped kids in the Top Soccer program, or teach basic computer skills to mostly African immigrants. But I’ve heard “born againers” scoff at this as “trying to work your way into heaven.” Well, I suppose maybe I am. I learned that Jesus will “come again, to judge the living and the dead.” I still think a lot about the Day of Judgment. I don’t know what would be more important in such a judgment, than your actions towards others.

It’s only been within the last year or so that my eyes have been truly opened on this subject. I knew that Christian “evangelicals,” which is the kindler, gentler way of saying “born againers,” were supporters of Israel. I understood that they placed far greater importance on the Book of Revelation than Catholics do. I also began hearing more references to “The Rapture,” which was a totally foreign concept to me. If you look at the passages in the Bible that are supposed to support this, it is never directly said that 144,000 people will suddenly be assumed into heaven. As a Catholic, the Virgin Mary is supposed to be the only human being ever assumed into heaven. Everything with evangelicals seems to revolve around the Biblical Israel, and they consider the present corrupt Middle Eastern ministate as this divine land. They interpret Biblical prophecy to mean that Jesus will return in a generation after Israel was restored. In the 1980s, the “born againers” preached that since it was getting close to forty years after the creation of Israel, the Second Coming was at hand. This was believed by many who supported Reagan. Now they have reinterpreted things.

Now, it is a Biblical “generation” we’re talking about, and this would mean the Second Coming will be occurring very shortly. Catholics were taught that no man will know the hour of Jesus’s return, and that he would come “like a thief in the night.” The evangelicals have proven to be quite adept at picking and choosing which Biblical verses to believe. They really hate my favorite, where Jesus said that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” That would pretty much discredit the whole “prosperity gospel” thing, which has made the likes of Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen filthy rich. I sense that the “prosperity gospel” mantra runs through much of the evangelical community. Don’t dare say “money is the root of all evil” around them. They’ll quickly correct you; “It’s ‘the love of money.’” The televangelists seem to embrace this rather new “dispensationalism,” and they all certainly appear to have a pretty overt love of money.

Not that long ago, I started hearing a lot about the Scofield Bible, which birthed the evangelical movement just as surely as Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon birthed theirs. Mormons are scoffed at by all other Christians, but Scofield Christians not only are tolerated, and even respected, they have become the face of modern Christianity in America 2.0. A pastor named Cyrus Scofield, who had a murky past which included abandoning his wife and children, bribery and theft of contributions, was chosen by powerful Jewish financiers like Samuel Untermeyer to add suitably pro-Zionist footnotes in what became the Scofield Reference Bible, which first appeared in 1909. This reference Bible was published and is still owned by the Oxford University Press. The footnotes were carefully selected, to all reflect a pro-Zionist perspective. Although Zionism was largely unheard of at the time, the goal was to make the Bible stress Jesus’s Jewishness, and the fact that the Jews were the “chosen” people of God.

Later, evangelical leaders like Billy Graham concentrated on the Scofield messaging, drumming home the idea that to oppose modern Israel or “the Jews” in general was to oppose God. Terms like “fundamentalism,” “nondenominational” and the oxymoronic “Judeo-Christian” became familiar to all Christians. While Catholic youngsters like me were regularly reminded that the Jews of his time had killed Christ, evangelicals embraced those who had rejected their savior, and insisted they were above criticism. Traditional Catholic priests like Father Charles Coughlin and Leonard Feeney attacked undue Jewish power and influence, as well as that of freemasonry. Billy Graham, meanwhile, had the ear of Richard Nixon as he preached the virtues of “Judeo-Christianity,” and Jim and Tammy Bakker sold gaudiness and materialism almost as shamelessly as the “Reverend Ike” had a few decades earlier. They begged for money, and told gullible old people that God would reward them for donating.

The scandals of Jim and Tammy Bakker, and then Jimmy Swaggart being caught with prostitutes on more than one occasion, did nothing to slow down the televangelists. Every televangelist I’ve ever seen is phonier than the most obnoxious used car salesman. They serve up the same series of Bible verses, to keep their flock tithing- a form of coercion not found in the Bible. They ignore other verses like the plague. Let me know when one of them talks about Jesus condemning the Jewish leaders as the “synagogue of Satan,” and being “just like your father- the first and greatest liar of them all.” Apparently, fundamentalists are taught to study those Scofield footnotes- written by a pastor who was a thief and had abandoned his family- rather than actual Biblical passages. Evangelicals specialize in talking the talk. I have met precious few who walk the walk. Their families are often even more dysfunctional than most. One Biblical admonition they ignore with impunity is “judge not lest ye be judged.”

Have you heard any evangelical pastor question why a rabbi is the head of one of the biggest porn sites on the internet- Pornhub? They love to talk about porn destroying lives, but never mention the one group that has always dominated the leadership positions in the world of pornography, from the days of girlie mags, to X rated films, and now online porn. How often do they condemn the transgender movement? Have any pastors led marches against the mutilation of children? Christian leaders should be leading protests against the tyranny and corruption of our secular state. You may still see a pro-life protest here or there. But the pro-choice people have a point; evangelicals certainly seem to care far more about the unborn than born children in desperate circumstances. Their emphasis is unduly on the sins of the flesh. Unless their own sins are exposed. Then they just keep lecturing others, seemingly more passionately than ever once they are caught with their own pants down.

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In 2025, there is no part of the world that is safe for Christians.  Leftist prosecutors in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States criminalize fundamental tenets of the Christian faith as discriminatory forms of “hate speech.”  Chinese communists replace images of Jesus Christ with portraits of Xi Jinping.  Hindus beat and murder Christians in India.  Islamic nations sentence Christian converts to death.  Nigerian Muslims attack Christian churches during prayer services and torture and murder so many Christian worshipers as to constitute genocide.  The assassin who murdered Christian martyr Charlie Kirk allegedly did so because he believes that Charlie’s Christian teachings were “hateful.”

It is a dangerous time to be a Christian.  Michael Snyder wrote an illuminating article a couple weeks ago entitled “Most of the Population of the World Lives in a Nation Where Christians Are Being Persecuted.”  In a sober analysis, he takes the reader on a tour of Christian persecution, torture, and mass slaughter around the planet.

Children in China are prohibited from attending Christian church services, and the Chinese Communist Party rewrites Bible verses to support official pronouncements from the State.  Sharing the gospel online is a crime, and Christian pastors are regularly arrested and “disappeared.”  In India, Hindu terrorists set Christian churches and Bibles on fire and beat up and murder Christian parishioners.  Muslims in Indonesia hunt down Christians as if they were animals.  Muslims in Nigeria have massacred or abducted a hundred thousand Christians over the last six years and have destroyed some 20,000 Christian churches and schools.  Islamic governments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran discriminate against Christians, punish them ruthlessly for their beliefs, and execute anyone brave enough to convert to Christianity.  In North Korea, Christianity is outlawed, and practicing Christians who are discovered are summarily executed or condemned to death in labor-intensive concentration camps.

The corporate news media do not report on the systematic persecution and killing of Christians around the world.  On Friday, President Trump attempted to do journalists’ jobs for them by addressing the ongoing genocide of Christians in Nigeria.  On Truth Social, the president wrote, “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria.  Thousands of Christians are being killed.  Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. … The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries.  We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”  Nigerian Christians desperately hope that President Trump will find a way to save their brothers and sisters.

Muslims’ slaughter of Christians in Nigeria is so horrific that even left-leaning commentator Bill Maher describes it as a genocide much worse than anything that is happening in Gaza.  “They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country,” Maher told his studio audience a few weeks ago.  “Where are the kids protesting this?”

The “kids” are nowhere to be found.  Their college professors brainwashed them to see “systemic racism” everywhere it is not but to view Christians as “fascists,” “nationalists,” and even “Nazis.”  Leftist billionaires and taxpayer-funded NGOs organize riots to “protest” Israel, “climate change,” duly elected conservative politicians, and “white supremacy.”  Those same billionaires and NGOs are completely silent as Christians are massacred because, for many leftists, Christians are the “enemy.”

Western universities and institutions have discriminated against Christians for so many years that leftist lawmakers and leftist voters now openly endorse anti-Christian bigotry.

A new California law mandating that foster parents “affirm a child’s self-identified sexual orientation or gender identity” effectively bans Christian couples from helping children in need.  The state of California argues that Christians who object to the “trans” ideology are a “danger” to kids.  In other words, only Californians who embrace chemical castration, bodily mutilation, the enabling of mental illness, hormone poisoning, and made-up pronouns are considered sufficiently stable to look after children.  As Kevin Snider of the Pacific Justice Institute warns, “there is now a very small step for the state to deem any parent as unfit to raise [his] own children if the family holds a view that contradicts the state’s ideology on gender and sexual orientation.  This could result in a visit by Child Protective Services with tragic consequences for the home.”  California is coming for Christians’ children.

In Finland, government prosecutors continue to harass Christians for quoting the Bible.  In 2019, Päivi Räsänen — a medical doctor, longtime member of Parliament, Finland’s former Interior minister, and the wife of a pastor — used a Bible verse to criticize Finland’s state church for sponsoring an LGBT “pride” parade.  After the prominent Finnish Christian publicly stated that males and females are biologically different, police investigators interrogated her for some thirteen hours, forced her to justify her Christian worldview, and demanded that she publicly apologize and recant her Christian beliefs.  Because she would not do so and instead defended the authority of God’s Word, she was criminally charged for illegal “hate speech.”  Prosecutors have repeatedly asked Finnish courts to “wipe the internet” of Räsänen’s media appearances and writings, in which she has used her medical education and Christian faith to distinguish men from women and to promote the Bible’s moral teachings.

Although two lower courts have acquitted her, prosecutors have appealed and now argue before Finland’s Supreme Court that quoting the Bible should be considered a criminal offense under the country’s war crimes laws.  One of Räsänen’s attorneys, Lorcán Price, argues that the outcome of the case will reverberate across Europe because it addresses directly whether a Christian can publicly express the tenets of Christianity.  “Can you speak the truth as you see it freely, even if it might offend somebody, or will you be prosecuted for hate speech?”

However Finland’s Supreme Court decides, governments across Europe continue to persecute Christians and criminalize Christianity.  In addressing the implications of Räsänen’s ordeal in Finland, The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann noted recently that citizens in the United Kingdom are regularly arrested for praying silently near abortion facilities, citizens of the Netherlands are arrested for publicly expressing a pro-life worldview, and the mayor of Brussels mobilized riot police last year to shut down a conference whose scheduled speakers recognize the scientific reality of two distinct biological sexes.  Free speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of association are under sustained attack in Europe.  Censorship and discrimination against Christians are pervasive.

If there is a silver lining to this global campaign of persecution against Christians, it is this: Lukewarm Christians and even non-Christians have begun to recognize that they cannot hide and hope for the best during the worldwide war against Christians.  The battle between good and evil does not spare the cowardly, the weak-willed, or the naïve.  Those who champion the toleration of sin or advocate for the acceptance of incompatible beliefs lay down a red carpet of moral relativism that invites evil to triumph.

One Christian pastor in Ohio, Michael Clary, wrote an essay in which he describes how Charlie Kirk’s assassination roused him from hypnotic conditioning to be “inoffensive” and made him realize that only bold defenses of the Christian faith can confront and defeat evil.  Weak Christians not only invite sin into the world, but also invite greater persecution against Christians.  What Charlie Kirk proved through his short time on Earth is that Christian courage and strength must be renewed.  Or, as writer Michael Austin eloquently observes, “Christian leaders must pave the way in confronting the works of darkness with the gospel of light, without compromise or cowardice.”

Christ’s followers are suffering around the world.  They are hunted, beaten, raped, burned, hanged, and slaughtered.  The governments of formerly Christian countries insist on making Christ’s teachings a crime.  Chinese, European, and American officials wish to censor the Bible.  Christians must find faith and courage to face these evils now.  Because much worse is sure to come.

This article was originally published on American Thinker.

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