Bartholomew's Notes

…at least as it appears on the Clarion Fund website. Here’s the new one, on the left, compared to a previous version, to the right:

A couple of weeks ago I raised the suggestion of a physical resemblance between the man on the right and someone else (my point being, although I didn’t spell it out, that the picture had perhaps been chosen because of a resemblance to Obama).

I didn’t get much feedback beyond a commentator venturing the opinion that “you are a moron”.

It should be noted (a) that the Clarion Fund website carried material explictly endorsing McCain until it came to general notice; (b) that the Clarion Fund’sObsession DVD giveaway apparently targeted swing states; and (c) that at least one of the “experts” featured in the Obsession film – namely Walid Shoebat – has been known to promote the conspiracy theory that Obama is “really” a Muslim.

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Daily Mail hack Peter Oborne provides what is perhaps the most preposterous opening to an article on the global financial crisis from a serious journalist:

Western civilisation was founded upon one astonishingly revolutionary idea: free will.  This doctrine, taught by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago, held that all human beings are responsible for their actions.  Sinners went to Hell. Criminals were punished. Debtors were sent to prison.

This philosophy prevailed for centuries and did not come under serious challenge until Karl Marx made the compelling case that rather than being subject to free will, everyone was a victim of uncontrollable social forces.  Sigmund Freud had a similar message  –  undermining the idea of individuality by arguing that we are all driven by our subconscious, and therefore shaped by urges we cannot begin to understand.

As a result of these two great intellectual powerhouses, the idea of individual free will became subverted.

…And the upshot of that was that stigma surrounding debt collapsed in the 1960s, leading to reckless borrowing and now demands for bail outs.

Journalistic attempts at grandiose and sweeping openings are usually risible, but this has to be one of the worst examples I’ve ever seen. Firstly, where exactly does Jesus pronounce on the subject of “free will”? Secondly, “free will” was discussed and disputed by Greek philosophers centuries before Jesus, and the debate has continued ever since. And rather than teaching simply that “sinners went to Hell”, the traditional Christian view is that everyone is a sinner and that the only way to avoid damnation is through Christ’s Atonement – which is actually a cosmic-scale “bail-out plan” for the unworthy. And just because Oborne went to a posh Catholic school (Sherborne) doesn’t excuse ignorance of some strands in Protestant theology: Calvin on free will is a more complex subject than is often supposed, but the perception that he opposed it has been influential for a long time. And here’s Martin Luther:

So, if we believe that Satan is the Prince of this World…and that he does not let prisoners go unless he is driven out by the power of the Divine Spirit, it is again apparent that there can be no “free-will”…

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An update on Peter Mullen. First, from the comments on Ruth Gledhill’s blog:

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An e-Newsletter from James Hutchens’ Jerusalem Connection introduces a certain Bill Wilson, who bandwagons the current financial crisis to push a “New World Order” conspiracy theory:

The United States is leading the world into a “new world order” where financial systems will be taken over by governments and coordinated by a central committee of the ruling elite. Using the cover of media catch phrases like “the worst financial crisis since the market crash of 1929,” the Federal government and Congress have frightened Americans into relinquishing wide sweeping powers of private home ownership and financial independence to a powerful central figure in the government–the Treasury Secretary. The Treasury Secretary is now emboldened to create a one-world order economy without the approval or even the knowledge of the people whose tax money he will use. … Who would have thought that America would lead us there?…The world is at the very least preparing a type and shadow of the one world system used by the antichrist as prophesied in Revelation 13:16-17.

Wilson is apparently a journalist, and he runs a radio show and blog called The Daily Jot, where he rails against “B. Hussein Obama” (a sure sign of crankdom). He is also associated with the Christian Zionist “Koenig’s International News” website, and he has written a book, entitled WARSHOD: Living Victoriously in the End Times. The volume has a Crusader soldier on the cover, and a particularly clunky blurb on the back:

More than any time in the history of the world, there are vast connections between Bible prophecies, the nation of Israel, the Church international leadership, and world events that are hurling humanity toward the end times at a rate that is exponentially accelerating with each passing day. International Christian communicator and journalist Bill Wilson shares from a unique perspective just how these current events are connected with Bible prophecy using information that you will not be able to find anywhere else.

Wilson is also associated with a “Word of Faith Ministry and Chapel” in Mt Airey, Maryland, which does not appear to have a website. While he was writing the book his computer’s hard drive crashed, but the manuscript was saved and further “attacks” were held off the “prayer covering” of his pastor, Gerry Baker.

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The ever-absurd Debbie Schlussel turns to self-parody as she rails against the anti-Semitic practice of affirming “the false claim by Arabs that falafel, hummus, and other Middle-Eastern food is ‘Arabic’ food”:

In fact, Jews have been eating these dishes for centuries, longer than there has been an Islam or an Arabian empire, as I’ve pointed out. These foods are an intrinsic part of Sephardic [“Spanish”/Orientalist/Asian] Jewish culture and history…Yes, now, those who hate Jews and Israel have resorted even to lying about Mid-Eastern food for their attacks and fraudulent public relations.

And for good measure, for no apparent reason she throws in the claim that “Christians tend to disavow any association with being Arabic”.

Schlussel was moved to outrage by a review of the book Cuisines of the Axis of Evil, by Chris Fair, but her complaint comes as a new conflict between Israel and Lebanon looms:

Lebanese food makers aim to prove that dishes including hummus originated in their country in a campaign to stop Israeli manufacturers from using the names to market the same foods.

“Our battle is to prove that all these names and specialities and foods are Lebanese, as Greece did with feta cheese,” said Fadi Abboud, president of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists.

…”The row with Israel is very easy (to win), because clearly Israel did not have a common food culture before it was formed,” said Sami Zubaida, an expert on the history of Middle Eastern food. “What is a problem is to say that they are specifically Lebanese as opposed to Syrian, or Palestinian or southern Turkish,” he said.

Of course, there’s no reason to doubt that Sephardic Jews have been “eating these dishes for centuries”, but that hardly resolves the question of origins – and it’s more sensible to think in terms of a shared middle-eastern heritage rather than “Sephardic Jewish” vs “Arabic” (or vs “Coptic” or “Syriac” etc). Ken Albala (Food Historian at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California) has written a book entitled Beans: A History, which touches on the controversy over falafel (p. 85):

…The origins of the dish are of course unknown, but one could probably trace an ancestor back to an earlier cuisine, most likely to Egypt where a similar dish is made with fava beans (ta’amiyya). That any one people could own falafel is of course a ridiculous notion, but it nonetheless illustrates a very common tendency – to associate a people with a particular food and then claim it as an integral part of national identity.

In 2004 the word “Falaphilia” was coined, although it failed to catch on.

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Here’s one I missed, from a month ago:

Israeli Member of Knesset Professor Arieh Eldad (National Union) unveiled plans today for Facing Jihad, a summit of European parliamentarians united against the threat of Islamic expansion.

The summit, to be chaired by MK Eldad at the Knesset – Israel’s parliament – in Jerusalem on December 14-15, 2008, will play host to some 30 European parliamentarians from Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K., who oppose Islamization as well as immigration policies that disrupt social cohesion.

…In addition to sessions expected to be led by European Parliamentarians and internationally renowned intellectuals, MK Eldad plans to hold a screening in the Knesset of Fitna, the controversial film by Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders about the reality of Islam. Mr. Wilders will also speak at the conference.

Wilders is, of course, an attention-seeking humbug who has nothing sensible to say about the problem of Islamic extremism – and like all demagogues, all he has to offer are absurd and unworkable authoritarian measures (such as banning the Koran) and some overheated rhetoric. The idea that “internationally renowned intellectuals” would have any use for him is laughable.

Eldad’s conference has a website, although the content looks rather thin; this is unsurprising, since the its entire purpose can be summed up in one sentence: “Muslims are evil, and to stop them taking over the world you should support Greater Israel and bring in some anti-Muslim legislation”. Plus it’s been done before anyway – Eldad probably got the idea from last year’s “Counterjihad Brussels” event, where he charmed Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs. The schedule consists mainly of vague discussions about “various pieces of legislation”, leading up to what promises to be a self-important and vacuous “Jerusalem Declaration” before the delegates move on to dinner. And there are no signs of any “internationally renowned intellectuals” – all we have are the inevitable Daniel Pipes and yet another ex-Muslim-turned-Christian polemist, by the name of Sam Solomon. A report from the Jerusalem Post adds the name of Baroness Cox (1).

Back in March, Eldad called for the execution of Israeli politicians who concede Israeli territory. Naturally, he was careful to clarify that “he intended only to act within the confines of the justice system”, but only an idiot would fail to recognise this as a call for political violence, and a return of the same kind of rhetoric that led to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

****

(1) In recent years Cox has positioned herself as a champion of Christians facing persecution; those of us with longer memories will recall her 1980s meeting with Nicaraguan Contra leader Adolfo Calero, who had been brought to the UK by Jack Abramoff’s (South African-backed) International Freedom Foundation.

Name variation: Aryeh Eldad

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From Stuff:

Waikato University has abruptly pulled a student’s thesis from its library after complaints from the subject of the research – a right-wing extremist.

The thesis, exploring satanic and neo-Nazi themes, had already been marked and published, earning its author top marks.

It is a highly unusual move to remove a student’s work after publication.

The thesis, published six months ago and titled Dreamers of the Dark: Kerry Bolton and the Order of the Left Hand Path, a Case-study of a Satanic/Neo Nazi Synthesis, was submitted as part of a Masters degree by philosophy and religious studies student Roel Van Leeuwen.

Bolton describes the (MA level) thesis as “a poorly contrived smear-document” which, according to Stuff , “made him feel literally and physically [sic] sick”.

Some alleged background on Bolton is available from anti-racist website Fight Dem Back!, including the following:

• 1980 — Founded the Church of Odin. This was based on worship of the ancient Viking pantheon and stressed “Loyalty to Race and Culture”. Jews were explicitly banned from membership and material referred to “…a scummy tribe of Hebrews”. Left it after it wasn’t doing what he had hoped. He has also been a Mormon in the past and claims to be a Christian as of 2004….
• 1998 — Produced magazine The Nexus which contained adverts for Waffen SS patches, advert for Australian Occult Nazi Metal band “Spear of Longinus”, reviews of international Nazi mags, anti-Jewish articles, obituaries for Nazi general Otto Remer and Satanist La Vey etc….
• 2004 — Satanist.net still listed information about Bolton’s Satanic organisations Ordo Sinistra Vivendi, The Black Order and The Order of the Left Hand Path.

Bolton maintains a website, where he rails against “Zionist Smear-Mongering Posing as ‘Scholarship'” (Van Leeuwen’s supervisor, Dov Bing, is Jewish and pro-Israel). Bolton also publishes some correspondence with Van Leeuwen, in which Van Leeuwen agrees to remove certain passages from his thesis, while not conceding any libel.

Van Leeuwen, meanwhile, has a long-standing personal interest in the esoteric. According to this website,

Roel van Leeuwen is a graduate student in History, with a particular interest in military history and alternative spiritualities. He is currently working towards his Ph.D. thesis, ‘Child of Earth: the Legacy of Dr Robert Felkin’ and the History of Esoteric Societies in New Zealand. As well as his academic interests, Roel is, or has been, a member of various Orders and Societies in New Zealand since 1987. These include the Builders of the Adytum, SRIA and Order of the Table Round.

(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog)

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Rev Peter Mullen is in trouble; the BBC reports:

A Church of England clergyman has been ordered to remove comments about gay people from his blog, remarks described by his diocese as “highly offensive”.

The Rev Peter Mullen, who ministers in the City of London, said he had gay friends and the words were “satirical”.

He suggested in his internet blog that homosexuals should have their backsides tattooed with the slogan: “Sodomy can seriously damage your health”.

…The Diocese of London spokeswoman said officials had met Mr Mullen and it had been agreed that the comments should be removed.

Mullen’s outburst (which was on his blog for a couple of months) was provoked by comments from the gay atheist conservative journalist Matthew Parris. Mullen is a long-time controversial figure, and he is identified as belonging to the “libertarian” movement – as well as being Chaplain to the Stock Exchange, Mullen is also Chaplain to the Freedom Association . And while of course there is a genuine “libertarian” intellectual tradition, the label is often appropriated by posturing right-wing cranks who like to gloss over their actual authoritarianism with some middle-brow philosophizing – see my blog entry on David Marsland for an example of this kind of pseudo-libertarianism (As it happens, Marsland and Mullen have several political associations in common).

Here’s some more of that “satire” in context, from Mullen’s now-deleted blog:

…for [Matthew] Parris, the views of billions of Christians, Jews and Muslims worldwide are of no more consequence than a couple of obscure sectional interests. From what point of privileged judgement does he thus discount 4000 years of civilisation? The great world religions have survived the criticisms of far more intelligent and better informed opponents than the ignorant upstart Parris. There is a whole history and literature of distinguished apologetics for religious belief, but Parris will attend to none of it – sufficient only to attract his disdain is mainstream religion’s disapproval of homosexual acts.

Since Parris will not dirty his hands by entering theological discussions with his readers, perhaps I might answer for religious believers in the purely utilitarian terms which even the lofty Parris is bound to engage with. We disapprove of homosexuality because it is clearly unnatural, a perversion and corruption of natural instincts and affections, and because it is a cause of fatal disease. The AIDS pandemic was originally caused by promiscuous homosexual behaviour. Such promiscuity is itself an evil because its perpetrators merely use others indiscriminately for their own gratification, treating their fellows as sex objects and as means to an end rather than as ends in themselves. I should have thought that Parris, having rejected religious belief, might want to construct his moral beliefs on this Kantian humanistic imperative. But I suspect he is not really interested in morality of any kind – except as a special plea to excuse his lust for gratification at whatever cost to human dignity and the sanctity of human life.

It is time that religious believers began to recommend specific utilitarian discouragements of homosexual practices after the style of warnings on cigarette packets: Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH and their chins with FELLATIO KILLS. In addition the obscene “gay pride” parades and carnivals should be banned for they give rise to passive corruption, comparable to passive smoking. Young people forced to witness these excrescences are corrupted by them…

One wonders what Mullen’s sermons are like – I think I’d prefer going to the nearby St Paul’s Cathedral.

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When will the end of the world be? WorldNetDaily is currently pushing no fewer than three alternative armageddons on its credulous readership.

Here’s the closest:

The author of a unique best-selling book on the year 2012 and the return of biblical Nephilim claims mankind may be on the precipice of an earth-shaking event far beyond the imagination of most people…

Or, if you a bit more breathing space, there’s this:

In “Temple at the Center of Time: Newton’s Bible Codex Deciphered and the Year 2012,” by David Flynn, a book that has skyrocketed up the best-seller charts following its release this month, the author makes a correction to Isaac Newton’s research, pointing to the year 2013 as “the time of the end.”

I blogged on Flynn and his book here.

A third imminent eschaton is expounded here:

Will Jesus Christ return to Earth in the year 2015?

And can studying NASA’s website provide evidence for such a scenario?

This is the theory of Pastor Mark Biltz, of El Shaddai Ministries, and it appears to be the one favoured by Farah, as Biltz has now produced a video series “in conjunction with WND Videos”. Biltz believes that the date of Jesus’ return can be determined by considering the yearly dates of Jewish feasts and relating them to lunar eclipses:

He noted a rare phenomenon of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, known as a tetrad.

He says during this century, tetrads occur at least six times, but what’s interesting is that the only string of four consecutive blood moons that coincide with God’s holy days of Passover in the spring and the autumn’s Feast of Tabernacles (also called Succoth) occurs between 2014 and 2015 on today’s Gregorian calendar.

…”What’s significant to me is that even before 1967, the next time that you had four blood red moons again was right after Israel became a nation in ’48, it happened again in 1949 and 1950 … on Passover and Succoth. You didn’t have any astronomical tetrads in the 1800s, the 1700s, the 1600s. In the 1500s, there were six, but none of those fell on Passover and Succoth.”

But what about the Biblical injunction against date-setting?

He responded by referring to the annual Feast of Trumpets holiday, saying Israelites never knew the precise moment it began, “because it was based on the sighting of the new moon.”

“When He (Jesus) says you won’t know the day or the hour, He’s telling you it’s the Feast of Trumpets because that was known as the feast where no one knew the day or the hour that it would begin,” said Biltz. “So it’s kind of like if I told you, ‘I’m not going to tell you when I’m coming, but “Gobble, gobble, gobble,'” [pointing to] Turkey Day.”

Maybe we should imagine Jesus winking and nudging Peter in the ribs… or consider the alternative, which is that Biltz’s Biblical interpretation has simply been pulled out of his backside and imposed on the text. However, Biltz has a get-out clause for when 2016 rolls around:

“We don’t know that that will be the concluding year of the tribulation period … so we’re not setting a date and saying this is a warning. We’re introducing the possibility of a watch.”

Biltz’s website is also sprinkled liberally with the word “IF”. WND is particularly keen on Biltz’s idea because it fits with an increasing evangelical desire to appropriate aspects of Judaism – a trend I blogged here. Under the heading “Yom Kippur not just for Jews”, WND gives more detail:

The spring and fall feasts, Biltz says, were not intended only for the children of Israel. They are, the Bible says, “the feasts of the Lord” – and they have special meaning with respect to the life, death, resurrection and return of Jesus…

The spring feasts – or appointed times – were fulfilled by the first coming of Yeshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus, which means “Salvation,” explains Biltz. The fall feasts will be fulfilled by His Second Coming – in the very near future…The video series pinpoints the specific day on the Hebrew calendar for the return of Jesus. The only unknown, according to Biltz, is which year that return will occur – though he makes the case it is very near.

Farah enthuses that those who watch the video series “will be stunned by what they learn about the meaning of these feasts in our lives”. Meanwhile, Hal Lindsey, who knows a thing or two about failed prophecy (he wrote The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon), cautions that all this is “pure speculation”.

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From an opinion piece in the Kampala Monitor, 11 September:

Corruption in Uganda has reached unacceptable levels. In a civilised nation, one would expect that law enforcement agencies would be useful in the fight against corruption. Now we know that the Police is one of the most corrupt institutions in Uganda…Some magistrates have also  been accused of forging court proceedings (for trials that never took place) leading to conviction of innocent persons at the behest of influential ‘clients’ who pay handsomely for the service…Parliament lost its respect when a large number of MPs in the 7th Parliament accepted a Shs5 million bribe to push through the obnoxious amendment that lifted presidential term limits…Now we run the risk of a military coup by a possibly opportunistic officer who would promise to rid the nation of corrupt people.

Fixing all this corruption is a tall order, but luckily Uganda has a designated Ethics and Integrity Minister, by the name of James Nsaba Buturo.

So what’s Buturo’s top priority?

“Who is going to occupy Uganda 20 years from now if we all become homosexuals. We know that homosexuals don’t reproduce,” James Nsaba Buturo told a press conference.

“There is now a globalisation of homosexuality and people in Uganda are attempting to take advantage of the globalisation,” he said. “It is an attempt to end civilisation. It is that serious.”

Buturo, a devout member of the Church of Uganda, part of the Anglican Communion, called for anti-gay legislation to be enacted.

I’ve blogged on Buturo’s anti-gay obsession before; his other ministerial efforts include banning The Vagina Monologues (“the idea was to promote lesbianism and glorify the vagina – even elevating it to god-like status”). Recently he called for mini-skirts to be banned on the grounds of “road safety”, resulting in a wonderful Monitor editorial entitled “Buturo Requires a Brain Transplant“:

Buturo said (and I assume he was not joking) that mini-kirts should be banned – because women wearing them distract drivers and cause traffic accidents! And, dear reader, I am afraid it gets worse, for he went on to say that wearing a miniskirt was like walking naked on the street!

Can you imagine a naked Mr Buturo walking along Kampala Road, manhood dangling and all of that? Well, you should try, because I assume he sometimes wears shorts, and the male equivalent of his comments is that Buturo wearing shorts is like Buturo walking naked on the street…

Buturo also recently unveiled a plan to tackle prostitution by “shaming” prostitutes.

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