Tisha B’Av Continues

It’s the Christian Sabbath. On the other hand, it’s also Tisha B’Av, the most calamitous day in the Jewish calendar. I guess the good news is that we’ll all be praying today. And boy, is it a good day for it. I was just watching the news, about the war between Russia and Georgia. I don’t know enough about the conflict to know who has the better claim to the disputed area, but I do know that Vladimir Putin is dangerous and ruthless. People are dying. Homes are being destroyed. And the Russians refuse to stop.

I wonder what the humanitarian aid situation is over there. We’ve had so many natural disasters over the last few years, I’ve gotten used to thinking of disaster relief as something that applies chiefly to things like hurricanes and earthquakes. But I suppose need is need, regardless of how it arises.

I’m checking, and predictably, World Vision has already reacted. These people are fast. Here is a link.

If there is one good thing about this mess, it’s that it lacks the scale of a natural disaster. It’s not another Burma. I have no idea what finally happened in Burma; they fought so hard to keep aid out, I quit reading about it. I can’t imagine a populous country nearly free of Judaism and Christianity. Talk about hopeless. If I lived in a place like that, I would expect a catastrophe every week. My personal suspicion is that the presence of believers is the only thing that keeps the world from being destroyed. I would not want to live in a country that contains fewer than 20 Jews and has an official government program to eradicate Christianity.

I have never understood what drives a person to oppose Christianity. Atheists make wild claims, with no evidence, that Christianity causes most of the world’s problems. What world are they talking about? The Inquisition and the Crusades were over a long, long time ago. The excesses and atrocities of atheist leftism continue to this day, and the horrors of anti-Christian Nazism (in many ways a form of leftism) are still fairly recent. And their scale dwarfs that of any problems caused by Christianity. As for the Jews, they’ve never been numerous enough to make trouble. On the other hand, they tend to provide us with inventions and vaccines and music and huge charitable gifts.

What’s the worst thing that could happen if Christians completely took over? Conversion by the sword is out of style, so that’s not a concern. You might have to sit through a prayer at the beginning of your next ball game. You would have a hard time finding pornography, which, as we all know, is essential to a healthy, happy life. If you’re a woman and you carelessly conceive a child, you might be expected to carry it to term instead of turning your womb into your child’s abattoir. The US would give a bigger percentage of its tax revenues to protect Israel. Can minor “evils” like these compare to leftist practices such as lining up hundreds of thousands of suspected political enemies and machine-gunning them so they fall into ditches? Can they compare to nearly wiping out the educated class of an entire country? Do they look bad juxtaposed with gulags and purges and forced abortions and infanticide? Those things are the rancid fruit of enlightened atheism.

Life tends to be pretty good in nations with a history of Christianity or Judaism, and it tends to be pretty awful elsewhere. There is a reason why countless people have risked death to move from the USSR and China and Cuba to the US, while virtually no one wants to go the other way. There is a reason why Muslims sneak into Israel and then refuse to leave.

I doubt anyone reading this today will live to see a wave of immigration to Burma. I feel safe making that prediction.

I think the US is facing its own slow-motion Tisha B’Av. The Jews lost their temples overnight. Americans have been watching God’s favor slip away since at least 2001. And our brilliant response was to legalize gay marriage and push Israel to give away more land. And half of us want a President who carries a Hindu idol wherever he goes. Even to the Western Wall, which is the foundation of the temple in Jerusalem.

Have you read about the idol Obama carries? The “god’s” name is Hanuman. He is the son–an incarnation–of Shiva. Many people consider Shiva to be the Hindu homologue of Satan. So what does that make Hanuman, in Christian terms? Figure it out. Here’s a hint: the incarnation of God is Christ.

Here’s a link to a story about Obama and Hanuman, with a photo of the large idol sent by Indian admirers.

Very creepy, for a Presidential candidate to carry the graven image of that particular heathen deity. Insignificant, to a person who doesn’t believe in God. But to a Christian? Highly disturbing. And taking it with him while praying at the temple…it’s like something out of a shlocky horror movie. An abomination.

It’s a strange type of Christianity Obama practices. It allows him to carry an idol and have a pastor who pals around with people who seek the destruction of the Jews. I’m having a hard time seeing the connection to the other type of Christianity, which says we are to have no graven images and no other gods, and that the Jews are the apple of God’s eye.

If only some nice leftist would put me in a camp and reeducate me, while distributing my property to local leftist officials. Then I might understand.