The Anabaptist Option:

Neo-Calvinist Cornelius Van Til was a lifelong Republican voter, but couldn't crack the application of Reformed theology to politics. How does the Christian worldview manifest in the political realm with regard to particular parties and politicians?

Van Til's student, Francis Schaeffer, motivated by his postmillennialism in the Cold War context, promoted Christianity as antithetical to communism. Fundamentalist friends like Jerry Falwell found political motivation in the moralist message of Schaeffer's A Christian Manifesto.

The aforementioned mindset put the Moral Majority (1979) into motion right around the time of the Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention (1979) and the presidential run of Ronald Reagan (1981). Similar rhetoric and results followed in the years to come.

Politicians, knowing they had to secure the votes of the Moral Majority, or 'Values Voters,' or 'evangelicals' as a voting bloc, pandered to them by citing their 'Christian faith' and 'pro-life' positions which ran counter to Roe v. Wade (1973), another Schaefferian target.

Those left unpersuaded by the aforementioned project were no longer merely political opponents, but morally inferior people, most likely owing to a lack of true Christian faith and practice. Clearly, the moral failings of Bill Clinton weren't consistent with his Christian faith.

BREAKING: For the fourth time this week, the Supreme Court has voted 6-3 to clear the way for a last-minute federal execution before Trump leaves office. Justices Breyer and Sotomayor write dissents. Justice Kagan also notes her dissent.

Dustin Higgs has COVID-19 and will be executed tonight despite lung damage that could turn his lethal injection into an egregiously painful death.

Here is Justice Sotomayor’s closing.

Here is Breyer on the SCOTUS majority’s rush to execute

Sotomayor names the federal inmates who have been killed since Trump revived the federal death penalty—a punishment that Biden will put a moratorium on next week

Sotomayor: “This is not justice.”

LDF-UDF:

Why did Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan (PV) say what he did about IUML?

Even in 2016 when LDF won, @iumlofficial /UDF won 18 seats from Malabar/North Kerala area. Note that LDF has only 9 Muslim names within its list of MLAs.

PV has always been attempting to break the UDF-IUML unity and influence in North Kerala region.

As the CPM secretary, he attempted to split the votes by supporting Madani, Indian National League (a breakaway faction of IUML), KT Jaleel (an ind).

Madani is now in jail.

Don’t believe? In 2009, the LDF candidate in Ponnani was Madani nominee – Hussian Randathani. He lost to ET Muhammed Basheer.

A group of people within IUML had the party for not being angry and fierce enough in the aftermath of the Babri incident. They wanted IUML to breakaway from the Congress. When IUML did not, they broke away and formed INL. It was led by Ibrahim Sulaiman Sait.

INL has 1 MLA – PTA Rahim - in Assembly & they are part of LDF. PTA Rahim was with IUML. Left it. Joined hands with the Left in 2005 to win Panchayat polls. Defeated K Muraleedharan in Koduvally with help of LDF. Formed his own Party – National Secular Conference. Then joined INL

One Facebook worker to me on Trump's indefinite suspension from the platform: "All it took was an armed insurrection of the cap building and two weeks left of his presidency."

Tough choice: @GavinNewsom and @JoeBiden speaking at the same time...

Going w/@GavinNewsom budget talk:

"There's no better investment than #teacher preparation."

You have my attention...

2/

Adding funds for Special Ed, Early Childhood and Preschool- "Historic investments".

Of the $13B in deferrals $9.2B will be paid off- if #CaLeg adopts proposal

$2B to support reopening schools for in-person teaching

Go on... #Budget2021
3/

"We're going to be serious about women re-entering the #workforce" $2B action package for equity
Early childhood support (3 & 4 YOs)
#Preschool PreK/K

Schools will also get federal funds $6.7B to help re-open
4/

Now onto #highereducation
No tuition, fee increases
More student aid
Community College support (hooray!)
Open source text books (smart)

5/

@RepThomasMassie I am a huge supporter of yours but the notion that Congress should sit this one out isn't correct. Adams and Jefferson discussed making decisions on how to count ballots 1796 & 1800. ECA is unconstitutional. In event of no ascertainable majority House elects iaw 12th Amendment.

Courts didn't want to do their duty to settle controversies? Fine. Congress must but not through invoking the ECA. That creates a new unconstitutional way of electing President. Instead support the House election method iaw w/ the 12th A. when the time comes. Thanks.

People will say, "but Biden will have majority."

No, he doesn't. AZ, NV, WI, MI, PA, and GA are ALL in question. Subtract those as being indeterminable due to fraud and/or Constitutional election law violations and you're left with Trump winning.

BUT.....

There isn't a mechanism for excluding states totally from the process so every reasonable step should be take to ensure they are all able, in one way or another, to have their due input. That way in this situation is by having the House elect iaw the 12th Amendment.

So...

Instead of Pence just excluding ballots & declaring Trump winner he should exclude the controversial ballots & then send the election to the House, explaining it's the fair option in view of the circumstances instead of just handing Trump a victory while excluding several states.

It seems to me people are deliberately ignoring the differences between elections and referendums.

Referendums are single issue votes that have seismic impacts. Massive change is enacted if change wins.

That is why they cannot be every few years.

Uncertainty kills economy.

Today the Electoral College will confirm what we learned in November: @JoeBiden is the legitimate President-Elect of the United States. @realDonaldTrump lost. I lost (ie, voted for the loser).

This is worth pointing out because learning how to react when God doesn’t give you what you want is a major element of Christian discipleship. It’s the element of discipleship most avoided by the Prosperity Gospel heresy that has taken the lead in claiming Trump won.

Paula White has been at the forefront of this movement. @ericmetaxas has said that he knows President Trump won because somebody he trusts “prophesied” it (prophecy is real, but this hogwash deserves scare quotes).

Yes. Hogwash.

We are tempted to buy the hogwash when we didn’t get what we wanted. Just like the cancer patient at a Benny Hinn crusade. Just like the person contemplating bankruptcy at a Creflo Dollar meeting.

THREAD Last night’s vote against delaying the budget deadline means nothing can stop the Knesset dissolving @ midnight. Election on 23.3. I explained in @haaretzcom last month why Netanyahu doesn’t want a March election. Too many factors beyond his

A March election means the campaign will be dominated by 3 events beyond Netanyahu’s control: 1. 3rd wave of covid crashing down on Israel before vaccines have an impact 2. From January 20, a much less friendly administration in the US 3. Early February his bribery trial resumes

Netanyahu’s biggest advantage is that he’s going in to the election serving PM with control over the critical finance and health ministries. Gantz and his B&W ministers will remain in office but have much less power as discredited members of a zombie

Netanyahu’s campaign is going to have 2 themes: Only I could have brought millions of vaccines early to Israel (expect another show when he gets his 2nd jab) and my diplomacy brought peace with Arab states (he’s desperate to visit the UAE during the campaign). No-one else could.

Netanyahu’s biggest problem going in to the election, he won’t have Gantz to kick around any more and brand “weak left” but much more experienced right-wing challengers determined to take him out. Sa’ar, Bennett, Lieberman. Sa’ar tried and failed last

PM @narendramodi's vision 'sabka saath sabka vikas', reflects in #JalJeevanMission to provide assured tap water supply to every rural household by 2024.

#JJM is implemented in partnership with States to ‘improve quality of life’ & enhance ‘ease of living’.

@PMOIndia

To fulfill the aspirations of every family to have piped water supply in their home, #JalJeevanMission aims to provide tap water connection to every rural household by 2024 so that people do not have to wait in a queue to fetch water or depend on tankers/ trains during summers.

#JalJeevanMission aims for universal coverage of all rural households by following the principle of ‘equity and inclusiveness’, i.e. every family in the village gets tap water connection and ‘no one is left behind’.

@PMOIndia @gssjodhpur

Under #JalJeevanMission, every family, irrespective of their socio-economic background, to have an assured piped water supply in their home. The principle is ‘no one is left out’.

@PMOIndia @gssjodhpur

#JalJeevanMission is making relentless efforts to bring improvements in the lives of people by ensuring the provision of potable water supply to bridge the rural-urban divide in terms of such a basic necessity of life.

@PMOIndia @gssjodhpur

This message is 100% worth your watch and share, not just on Twitter, but Facebook etc
https://t.co/xpqPnsMvq0

A message from a Republican leader and an iconic figure in our culture, who gets it, and maybe might pierce thru the fever dream too many fell into.

That is, please also share it with those co-workers, friends and family who don't realize the stakes of what is going on, and the near-miss to our democracy of what just played out.

In sifting thru video, I have seen not just the stupid things we all saw like the selfies and literally crapping on the floor. But people need to understand that there was also a harder, darker part...

The crowd chanting "Hang Mike Pence, Hang Mike Pence" as they stormed the police line looking for him (Note: his wife and daughter was also there with him),

officers literally crying in physical pain as the mass of the crowd did a coordinated "heave-ho" to physically crush them with their combined body mass, officers beaten and one killed with a fire extinguisher blow to the head...

I know that most VCU students--really most college students in general--do not pay attention to their local politics.

Well, I'd like to enlighten them on something that is happening in RVA City Council ... something all VCU students should be aware of (THREAD)

1/ We're talking about Ordinance # 2020-117 ... Which would continue and expand an agreement between RPD and VCU that allows the school's police force to use RPD's records management system.

It was first introduced on May 11, 2020, by Mayor @LevarStoney

2/ It has since bounced around council for several months. The last motion was made on Jan 11, 2021, where it was tabled for an upcoming subcommittee meeting on Feb 8.

You can read the whole bill by clicking the link

3/ Now, some important context:

-VCU has the largest campus police force in VA
-VCUPD has assisted RPD and VSPD with crowd control at protests
-VCU is seeking leads on the $100,000 of windows broken at protests

These are all facts that have been verified publicly.

I'd like to also state that, while the information presented below may seem authoritative, a lot of this is a guessing game because the bill is written so vaguely. There's only so much a person can actually understand about this ordinance.

So, do your own research.

With the @WhiteHouse as the backdrop, @POTUS about to take the stage at the #SaveAmericaMarch.

As 'God Bless the USA' plays, @POTUS now on stage.

"We have hundreds of thousands of people here," claims @realDonaldTrump. "These people are not going to take it any longer. Turn your cameras please."

"The media is the biggest problem we have," says @POTUS. "They rigged an election...Last night they didn't do a bad job either if you noticed."

#Election2020 being stolen by radical Democrats" and "the fake news media," claims @realDonaldTrump. "We will not take it any more...We will stop the steal."

The Republican Party doesn't understand the situation it is in. The blowback for what happened on January 6th has only begun. There is no way any politician or political organization even remotely connected to the incident can come out of this with their reputations intact. 1/

The smart ones are already trying to perform acts of contrition but even they are miscalculating. They are not going far enough. Not even close. 2/

I’m not talking about how it might be a little more difficult to do fundraising in the future. I’m talking about fraternal organizations expelling members; professional credentials being revoked; companies cutting business ties; forced resignations from positions of authority. 3/

Not to mention the actual legal prosecutions and civil lawsuits they will have to face. There will be many. Some of them will succeed. 4/

And then there’s the response from the actual voters themselves. The Democrats are going to be able to hold this over the Republican’s heads for YEARS TO COME. This will not have all blown over by mid-terms in 2022 or even by the next presidential election in 2024. 5/

BREAKING: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed an *election* lawsuit against Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the United States Supreme

Texas brought the suit straight to SCOTUS. Key allegations:

1. Unconstitutional changes to election laws
2. Unequal treatment of voters within each state
3. Voting irregularities "consistent with
the unconstitutional relaxation of ballot-integrity
protections."

From the bill of complaint: "These flaws cumulatively preclude knowing who legitimately won the 2020 election and threaten to cloud all future elections."

PDF:

"Our Country stands at an important crossroads. Either the Constitution matters and must be followed, even when some officials consider it inconvenient or out of date, or it is simply a piece of parchment on display at the National Archives.We ask the Court to choose the former."

On the Electoral College deadline: "That deadline ... should not cement a potentially illegitimate election result in the middle of this storm—a storm that is of the Defendant States’ own making by virtue of their own unconstitutional actions."