What’s Wrong with the World

The men signed of the cross of Christ go gaily in the dark.

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What’s Wrong with the World is dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism...read more

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December 2018 Archives

December 11, 2018

Phillip Zodhiates begins prison term

According to Lifesite, Phillip Zodhiates has begun serving a 36-month federal prison sentence for having helped Lisa Miller and her daughter Isabella escape the country back in 2009. Presumably he will be eligible for parole some time sooner than that, as Kenneth Miller was, but one can't be sure. When I last updated on this story in March, 2017, Zodhiates had been released pending appeal. It would seem that his appeals have been unsuccessful. So, like Kenneth Miller before him, he will serve a prison sentence for helping a biological mother escape the country with her own child rather than turning the child over in full custody to the mother's former lesbian lover, no relation to the child.

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December 13, 2018

Evangelical college associations capitulate in return for exemptions

The boards of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and the National Association of Evangelicals have endorsed federal laws explicitly enshrining sexual orientation and gender identity as specially protected classes, as long as such laws contain exemptions that they think will exempt their own explicitly Christian institutions.

Robert Gagnon's comments are apt:

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December 17, 2018

Tidings of comfort and...wellll...hmmmm

As we move toward the Christmas season (at the moment it's technically Advent) and start thinking about the star, the wise men, the shepherds, and the manger, I decided to talk once more about the way fictionalization theories of the New Testament ruin everything.

Even Christmas.

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December 24, 2018

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

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Tidings of comfort and joy. We are reminded this Christmas that, for some, not easily found are comfort and joy. Bereavement and loss remain so near. When the holiday season links with grief that is particularly hard. Remember in your prayers those who mourn.

So while I open this Christmas post on a somber note, our true joy lies in the Hope of the Incarnation. Our Sovereign Lord will not abandon us. He has not. He entered into our broken world and no power can thwart his plan to make everything right.

Below is a sizable passage from the second chapter of Fulton Sheen’s Life of Christ. We need not share Sheen’s views on any detail of scriptural exegesis, or even principle of interpretation, in order to profit by his marvelous discourse on the first Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all!


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Everything in space and time exists because of the creative Power of God. Matter is not eternal; the universe has an intelligent Personality back of it, an Architect, a Builder, and a Sustainer. Creation is the work of God. The sculptor works on marble, the painter on canvas, the machinist on matter, but none of them can create. They bring existing things into new combinations, but nothing else. Creation belongs to God alone.

God writes His name on the soul of every man. Reason and conscience are the God within us in the natural order. The Fathers of the early Church were wont to speak of the wisdom of Plato and Aristotle as the unconscious Christ within us. Men are like so many books issuing from the Divine press, and if nothing else be written on them, at least the name of the Author is indissolubly engraved on the title page. God is like the watermark on paper, which may be written over without ever being obscured.

[. . .]

Caesar Augustus, the master bookkeeper of the world, sat in his palace by the Tiber. Before him was stretched a map labeled Orbis Terrarum, Imperium Romanum. He was about to issue an order for a census of the world; for all the nations of the civilized world were subject to Rome. There was only one capital in this world: Rome; only one official language: Latin; only one ruler: Caesar. To every outpost, to every satrap and governor, the order went out: every Roman subject must be enrolled in his own city. On the fringe of the Empire, in the little village of Nazareth, soldiers tacked up on walls the order for all the citizens to register in the towns of their family origins.

[. . .]

In the filthiest place in the world, a stable, Purity was born. He, Who was later to be slaughtered by men acting as beasts, was born among beasts. He, Who would call Himself the “living Bread descended from Heaven,” was laid in a manger, literally, a place to eat. Centuries before, the Jews had worshiped the golden calf, and the Greeks, the ass. Men bowed down before them as before God. The ox and the ass now were present to make their innocent reparation, bowing down before their God.

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December 28, 2018

Sharia enforcement at Mall of America

It's been about 5 1/2 years since the City of Dearborn decided to settle out of court in the lawsuit brought by David Wood and ex-Muslim Nabeel Qureshi over the unconstitutional arrest and prosecution of Wood and Qureshi when they were talking with Muslims about Jesus at the Arab festival. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, and our brother Nabeel has gone to the arms of our Savior as a result of stomach cancer. But the sweetness of that legal victory remains.

Now a new case has come up that bears notable, though not perfect, similarities to the arrest of Wood and Qureshi.

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