“Our once great western Christian civilization is dying. If this matters to followers of Jesus Christ, then we must set aside our denominational differences and work together to strengthen the things that remain and reclaim what has been lost. Evangelicals and Catholics must stand together to re-establish that former Christian culture and moral consensus. We have the numbers and the organization but the question is this: Do we have the will to win this present spiritual battle for Jesus Christ against secularism? Will we prayerfully and cooperatively work toward a new Christian spiritual revival ― or will we choose to hunker down in our churches and denominationalisms and watch everything sink into the spiritual and moral abyss of a New Dark Age?” - Mark Davis Pickup

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD

Being one of the vulnerable populations at particular risk of COVID19 (multiple sclerosis & hypertension) I haven't attended church in months! I've been sequestered in my little house, watching weekly Catholic Masses on Youtube. The readings for 26 July 2020 were 1Kings 3:5-10, Romans 8:28-30 and the Gospel reading was Matthew 13:44-52.  In the homily, Father Michael Coutts, S.J., of Toronto, said that "all glory and riches and everything we have is transitory, it's fleeting, it's not going to last forever." Indeed, we know that, and yet so many people behave as though riches and glory will last. They place too much value and emphasis on them.

The first reading tells us that God appeared in a dream to the young King Solomon at the beginning of his reign after the death of his father King David. God asked him what he wanted. Solomon said:

"Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong."

God was pleased King Solomon did not request a long life or riches or revenge on enemies, rather he asked for wisdom. Not only did God make Solomon the wisest and most discerning man in history, He gave Solomon what he did not ask for: wealth and honour.  And then God said: "And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” That brings me to a point about people who govern now.

Beware of politicians who govern solely based upon their own understanding. Someone seeking public office, must understand that their own understanding is insufficient, limited and weak. Figuratively speaking, they must govern on their knees and seek God's leading to make the right decisions. Many secular and unbelieving politicians may assume a pious air when it suits them to gain support of religious voters. But their lives or voting records belie the facade. They are unworthy leaders who will not be led. They call good evil and evil good, such as the Democrats' persistent and consistent support for abortion and the expansion of it. Leaders without moral rectitude. They sway with prevailing winds of fashionable, avant-garde thinking. They want to appear progressive regardless of how regressive the fashionable thinking may actually be.  They adhere to political correctness more than actual correctness in matters of morality, policy or law. We need lawmakers and politicians who pray for, ... well, to use an old saying, the wisdom of Solomon. 

The second reading in the Mass was Romans 8:28-30. It begins with these words: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." I love this chapter of Romans. Earlier it says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

I've been chronically ill for most of my adult life. So often I have clung to these verses. I needed to know there will be a glory of God that will dwarf any suffering I experience in this life, that all things, even my pain, will ultimately work for my good.

Father Cootts said we may have infirmities, but we have a great treasure, and that treasure is hope.  The hope Father Coutts referred to is not based on emotions and he said that.  The hope he spoke of is the hope that every Christian believer has experienced. This is true. I have personally witnessed that hope of God's daily care for me in my earthly pilgrimage toward His eternal love. This daily care is not merely a series of coincidences. They are not coincidences because God's care is evident each day. Coincidences happen by chance. They are rare. The Divine care to which I am beneficiary of is constant. Coincidences are not constant or they would not be coincidences.

Father Coutts noted that the truth of the Gospel reading is brought to us from the past and we should put it into practice in our present circumstances. Even with my disease ridden body, I experience the daily effects of God's care and the pledge of eternal life. It is a pledge to all who believe in Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He paid on the cross for our sins: Belief, repentance, confession and penance of my sins (which are many).

The Evil One accuses. God forgives. The Evil One tempts. God calls us to purity and holiness. Satan lures. God woos. Satan asks humanity to sin, then condemns us when we do. God wants to forgive our sins and bring us to Himself.  There is no sin God will not forgive.  Remember that King David was guilty of adultery and being an accessory to murder, and yet God forgave his repentant heart.

Sin may be initially feel light, fun, and taste sweet while we are committing it. But when our hearts convict us, that sin becomes bitter, and weighs heavily on a guilty conscience. It becomes a burden. 


Jesus calls to you and me: "Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will rest for your selves." Jesus gives release and rest from the burden and guilt of sin. At Calvary, He took on the weight of our sins. He gave his body and blood for you and me. He may have been betrayed by Judas, but I have betrayed him too, by my sins. Still He continues to give his body and blood in the bread and wine of the Blessed Sacrament, always calling me back to His rest and peace.

Father Coutts and priests all over the world consecrate the bread and wine at every Mass. They raise the bread and cup to become the Body and Blood of Christ.

"At the time Christ was betrayed and entered willingly into his Passion, He took bread and giving thanks, He broke it and gave to his disciples saying 'Take this all of you and eat of it for this is my body which will be given up for you.' In a similar way, when supper was ended, He took the chalice and once more giving thanks He gave it to his disciples saying 'Take this all of you and drink from it. For this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal Covenant which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.'"

Christ gave us the bread of life and the chalice of salvation.  We partake of them each time we receive his Body and Blood at Mass. But I cannot attend Mass! I'm in lockdown along with millions of other people. I can only look at the image on my computer screen and unite myself with Christ in spiritual communion: "As I cannot receive thee, my Jesus in Holy Communion, come spiritually into my heart and make it Thine forever."

To the unbeliever it is all foolishness. To those who know it to be true, it is the mystery of faith. It is through faith that my sins are forgiven. It is through hope that my crippled body draws nearer to Christ's body that was once broken and is now perfected. Mine will be too. It is through the salvation message of the Gospel—that comes from across the centuries—that we can rest in Christ's love, knowing we are forgiven. He takes away the burden of my sins, just as He can for you.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God!

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love God in Christ Jesus our Lord." — Saint Paul (Romans 8:38-39)

MDP 

Thursday, July 16, 2020

A TERRIBLE AND MALIGNANT FORCE AT WORK IN AMERICA

There is a terrible and malignant force at work in the nation. It is intent on tearing America apart then remaking it as a Marxist state. They may soften the terminology with the word ‘socialist’ but don’t be fooled. It’s Marxism under another name. This malevolent force is particularly dangerous because it is attacking America from within, like a cancer. The terrible and malignant force I refer is the radical left, supported by the Democratic Party and many Democratic politicians.

They are enemies of the freedoms, liberty and the way of life America enjoys. These freedoms and liberties are what your grandfathers, fathers—and in more recent times, your sons and daughters—fought to protect and perpetuate.  All that is being threatened. 

It is now time for very American patriot to take a steadfast and strong stand against the menacing mobs setting American cities ablaze and calling for the dismantling of police ... and a dismantling of America itself! 

America is a nation of law and order not lawlessness and anarchy, where communities are built not destroyed. 

You have a pledge of allegiance to your sacred Republic that your children were taught in grade school:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

That is not the way of the radical left and their mobs. They burn the U.S. flag and trample it under foot. They burn cities. They stoke fires of division amongst citizens and fan flames of violence. They deny liberty and replace it with unrestrained licence. They reject God who has blessed America so richly. They howl about injustice, all the while creating more. They want to destroy America—the greatest nation to ever exist in human history. The United States of America has created unparalleled human freedom, liberty and prosperity. What communist country can the radical left point to that is comparable. Russia? China? North Korea? Cuba?

Good people of America! NOW is the time you must rise up and protect your cities and communities and restore law and order. Get in the faces of your politicians and demand (in no uncertain terms) that they stop the mobs’ thuggery and destruction now. Demand that they use as much force as is required to end the carnage. Demand budgets be re-instated for municipal, state and federal police forces, if they have been reduced. Not only that, expand them where they feel it is necessary. DO NOT LISTEN TO THE RADICAL LEFT or the mainline liberal media acting as their voices (they are like America’s Pravda). 

Threaten to work to defeat any cowardly politician at the next election if they cave to ludicrous demands of the radical left (and public shame them before the election). Turn up en masse at city council meetings and forcefully, loudly, demand police forces’ budgets be restored if they have been cut. Demand forcefully and loudly that destruction of private property and public buildings be stopped immediately, the looting and arson cease now, the beatings and murders be stopped, and the perpetrators prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

When liberal politicians use the new buzz-phrase “re-imagine community safety” or “re-imagine policing” understand they are wanting to embark upon an untested and dangerous social engineering experiment that will only hurt the people they swore to serve and protect. Tell them to re-imagine their own unemployment. November is coming soon.

Also see "Were the Minneapolis Riots Planned?" 

Mark Davis Pickup
Canada

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

WERE THE MINNEAPOLIS RIOTS PRE-PLANNED?

At the time George Floyd was killed, I noticed peaceful protests rooted in righteous and rightful outrage moved quickly—too quickly—to rioting, like accelerant put on a flame. Outrage became outrageous with the burning of buildings, looting, and mindless violence. But the mindless violence seemed a little too orchestrated and planned. 

As I watched the images unfold on nightly newscasts, I mentioned this to my wife and even tweeted my suspicion. Well, others must have been suspicious too and began digging into what seemed to be bubbling under the surface, and the causes. 

The following video may give a bit of insight into what was and is happening and the instigation of violence that grew to cities across America. 


Sunday, July 5, 2020

AMERICANS—STAND UP FOR AMERICA

America just celebrated 244 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. In 1787, after grappling about how the new nation would govern itself, a constitutional convention assembled in Philadelphia to draw up a Constitution. Uncertainty pervaded the convention about whether all members would accept its provisions. The oldest member of the convention was Benjamin Franklin. He was instrumental in gaining its acceptance. While the last of the members were signing the Document, Franklin looked toward the President’s chair, behind which was painted the image of a rising sun. The great old man commented to a few members near him:

Benjamin Franklin
“I have often and often, in the course of the sessions, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it is rising or setting; but now at length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising, and not a setting sun.”[1]

Throughout nearly two and a half centuries, the sun has shone on America. The nation’s sunlit uplands gave birth to liberty, human rights and opportunities the likes of which has never been Known in human history.  Eleven years earlier, when America’s Founding Fathers penned those eternal words, what began was the nation’s morality, mores. Its national ethos grew, continues to grow and mature with ever increasing revelation of the Founding ideals that unfold with each new phase of human insight: 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

Such sacred words may have been penned by men, but their quilled pen was surely guided by the invisible hand of the Almighty.  God smiled on America. By 1817 America was flourishing so much so that the nation’s 5th President, James Monroe stated: “If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no other example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy.” All within within forty years of the founding of the new nation. That rapid growth, prosperity and happiness has continued to expand exponentially.

Although haltingly at times—sometimes two steps forward
and one back— America has moved ever closer to those divinely inspired ideals of the Declaration of Independence. She became the standard bearer for the rights of man. That standard has given a shining example for the world to emulate and create climates for human liberty to take root. Even autocratic countries that suppress human rights pay lip-service to the acceptance and respect for principles of human rights. These are rights based upon absolute truths we find as the foundation of the Declaration of Independence. Now granted, America still has distance to go in matters such as racial equality, but the journey continues constantly—perhaps not fast enough for many people, but America leads the world in its quest of human liberty, prosperity and happiness. 

Communist China’s best-known dissident, Wei Jingsheng,
Wei Jingsheng
was held prisoner for 18 years in communist China’s prisons. Despite enduring physical and mental torture, Wei made a statement to Amnesty International in 1998 that “Under the principles of democratic systems, human rights have been established in more and more countries.” Although basic human rights were kept from him, and millions of other Chinese people by the communists, Wei issued a statement on January 8th, 1998, in which he said: “This is the power of truth. I have no qualms about sacrificing myself for democracy or human rights, … Truth is truth.”

Truth is truth. But now dark clouds of sinister internal unrest are gathering to threaten America and blot out the sun. American cities are being set ablaze by anarchists, and the far-left—many motivated by communism—and served by useful idiots and anti-social malcontents. Hoodlums and thugs call for the dismantling of police forces everywhere so they can have their way unimpeded. They are enemies of freedom, enemies of liberty. They mindlessly shout slogans about white privilege, systemic racism, colonialism. They tear down statues of America’s past and want to erase any good connection with history involving white Americans. They are what they call others: racists. 

On July 2nd, I received an email from Terry Schilling, Executive Director of the American Principles Project in which he said:

The Democratic National Committee sent out a tweet last night that said Mount Rushmore — and President Trump’s Fourth of July celebration there — are “glorifying white supremacy.”

"It wasn’t a fringe left-wing group: it was the official Twitter account of the national party committee, and it wasn’t a mistake, even though they deleted the tweet within the hour."

"And, during the week of America’s Independence Day, they made this outrageous contention while linking to a British newspaper story. I doubt they caught the irony."

"Bottom line: last night, the Democratic National Committee showed the American people what they really believe … and then, like cowards, tried to backtrack and hide their extreme views.”

Golda Meir
(1898-1978)
The Democratic Party is falling in step with the far-left’s narrative and agenda. The intent of that narrative and agenda will be, in part, to try and erase America’s history or rewrite it. What would that achieve? What does history tell us? There was a time in Europe, when other dark forces tried to eliminate the Jewish race, wipe them from the face of the earth, and erase Jewish history from human memory. After the Second World War, Golda Meir helped found the State of Israel (1948) and served as its 4th Prime Minister. She said, “One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.” 

The far left (and the Democratic Party that’s beholding to them) will replace sweet liberty with uncontrolled license. They are tearing down America under the guise of racial inequality. They will try to eradicate the past that does not portray anything but America’s mistakes and faults. Yes, there is racial inequality in America. America is people and all people are flawed and fall short of that great vision articulated so eloquently in its blazing foundational Declaration.  But its words beckon across the centuries for America to rise to its noble calling. America is changing because the spirit of those towering words demand it, not because of the violence and disorder of malefactors and chanting malcontents.  

Those eternal words whisper in your ear and mine: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” 

With what will the far left replace those sacred ideals that governed America’s unprecedented journey toward enlightened human rights and equality?
We do not know and dare not imagine if “autonamous” zones of Minneapolis and Seattle are any indication of what awaits America if the likes of antifa and others of their ilk get their way. 

The far left represents a small minority of Americans. I do not understand why Democratic politicians and the Democratic Party have bowed to them and their demands. America’s majority are law abiding citizens, they want law and order, safe streets, opportunities for their children that free enterprise can bring, and the freedom to seek the American dream, as it applies to them. I believe most Americans want leaders who will stand against fashionable but shallow anger against America and Her institutions and Her Judeo-Christian roots. They have (and want from their leaders) an abiding commitment to the ideals that make America the best country that has ever existed. 

Americans must refuse to let antifa and the far left tear down the America you and I hold dear! Stand against the mobs, and for those ideals that made America the best country in the world.

If America never existed, do you think the disabled and chronically ill (like me) would be as well treated as we are? No, I don’t think so. It’s that standard bearer thing again. America’s influence has made the world a better place. 

I believe that the best person to lead the United States of through this tumultuous and dangerous time is President Trump's
firm and decisive leadership. Over the next four years, he can set the course that leads America into another period of unparalleled prosperity and happiness for everyone, not just some. He will protect and care for the nation’s most vulnerable (as we’ve seen him do in appointing conservative pro-Life judges and defunding the despicable abortion business of Planned Parenthood.) 

Good people of America! Do something to save the greatest nation ever to exist. Please, get involved to re-elect President Trump. The election in November will decide the fate of America. Don't set the sun set on America.

MDP

[1] FRANKLIN ON THE CONSTITUTION in READINGS IN WORLD HISTORY, ed. Leften S. Stavrianos, Loretta Kreider Andrews, George I. Blanksten, Roger F. Hackett, Paul L. Murphy and Lacey Baldwin Smith (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1962) p. 258.