Gen Z & church

Polling in America has told us for decades that the number of people claiming no religious affiliation (the "nones") is rising. But that's leveled off. Bible sales are increasing and Christian entertainment has grown.

Generation Z (born 1997-2012) is a significant part of this trend. They generally seem to be curious about Christianity and are looking for hope.

 

It's especially interesting that young men lead the trend. Gen Z men go to church more than Gen Z women. 

Similarly, the Bible Society in partnership with a research team in Britain says:

"We found that the Church is in a period of rapid growth, driven by young adults and in particular young men . . . [Y]oung adults are more spiritually engaged than any other living generation, with Bible reading and belief in God on the rise."

from USA Today

EU immigration

Immigration (or shall we say invasion) is a monster-sized issue for Europe. Vast numbers have been allowed to overwhelm native populations in Germany, the UK, Ireland, and more. Mainstream political parties like AfD (labeled "far right") tap into very serious concerns.

Only days before the US vice president's address, Munich suffered another attack by an immigrant. The man, who was to have been deported back in 2020, sped up his car and drove into a crowd, injuring at least 30 people. It happened "just after a series of deadly attacks in Germany, all allegedly involving immigrants."

Though the chancellor says the man must be punished and deported, whether that will really happen remains to be seen.

You probably remember immigrant rape gang stories from the UK. Prime Minister Starmer seemed not to care. But maybe he feels a certain political pressure from the "far right" to start limiting the invasion:

Konstantin speaks

ARC's (Alliance for Responsible Citizenship) conference in London presented some good people. Last week I mentioned the brave and admirable Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Konstantin Kisin, whose parents brought him to Britain from Russia, is another. He likes to joke about woke thinking.

Some lines from the talk of this combination comedian and clear thinker:

"I love this country, and that is how you know that I still haven't integrated into British culture!"

"DEI, a system of anti-merit discrimination, is being dismantled [in America] and in the global corporate world as well. Once again we can dream that our children will be judged on the content of their character [referencing Martin Luther King] . . and not the color of the square they post on Instagram."

Stop hiding

A widespread, public discussion about immigration is urgently needed across the United Kingdom and the West. Despite that vote (yesterday's post) against investigation in Parliament, grooming gang crimes should no longer be hidden (photo) in Britain.

Konstantin Kisin names a basic issue that should be talked about openly, civilly, honestly, without censorship and without fear of reprisal:

"Western countries won't stop suffering terrorist attack after terrorist attack until they let go of their most cherished belief: that all people are equal and that all cultures are the same."

A crime is a crime in Britain and everywhere, whether it's committed by natives of your country or by immigrants to your country. 

UK still hides it

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

All the evidence, all the stories, all the first-person testimony "shamed" the United Kingdom Parliament into considering a new, thorough investigation into the ongoing rape gang crimes. 

Are the crimes of these rape gangs being covered up?

So members of Parliament (MP's) voted on whether they should do an investigation of this outrage. They voted about 2 to 1 against it. In other words, the authorities decided not to investigate whether the authorities are covering up the crimes of rape gangs.

UK Prime Minister (photo) was too busy to be present for the vote, but he instructed the MP's of his party to vote against it.

Rape gangs 3

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

Yes, authorities knew about the rape gangs and chose to ignore them. Many acknowledge it.

For decades in the West in general, students have been taught that no society or culture is any better than any other (multicultularism) as I saw for myself in my son's history text book. In Britain, many don't dare to complain or even mention that the gangs are largely immigrants from Pakistan who prey on white, working-class girls. They, including police, are silenced and terrified of being called "racist."

All this is open now because a few outraged people are talking about it. Elon Musk has been posting evidence on X (former Twitter) to his enormous global audience:

 

Well-known psychologist Jordan Peterson is outspoken (48.00-49.30) in this interview. It's sickening, he says, to watch the UK ignore these crimes and then gaslight people who try to tell the truth.

Rape gangs 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

Were the authorities in the dark about the scope of these gangs? No, they knew, and there have been a few prosecutions like the example in yesterday's post which is now 12 years old. Then why has it continued for many years? Because the crimes were ignored, the story buried.

"It's the biggest crime--and cover-up--in British history. . . Thousands of young girls, mostly children, were systematically groomed and raped by immigrant gangs across the UK over a period of decades. Police turned the girls away. Detectives were discouraged from investigating. Politicians and prosecutors did their best to sweep it under the rug. Journalists skipped the biggest story of their lives."

Different levels of fear motivated the silence according to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Police feared that they might be called racist. Politicians could lose important votes from immigrant communities. Neighbors and journalists feared violence from Muslim men.

Two other factors are involved: multiculturalism and elite disdain for working class girls.

from The Free Press

To be continued

Rape gangs 1

A journalist spent six months investigating a crime in Britain for NBC : the "organized sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13." He called it a "grueling" experience which gave him nightmares: 

"Graphic accounts of rape and sexual abuse are not easy to put out of mind, especially not when the victims are barely pubescent."

Nine men were convicted of those crimes in 2012. This is old news. But the crimes continued and the number of victims kept multiplying, right up to the present. I've seen estimates that  hundreds of thousands of girls have been assaulted in perhaps fifty cities, some girls murdered.

How is it possible that thousands of these brutal crimes could continue over so many years in so many cities without authorities taking enough action to stop it? That question is suddenly convulsing British politics and capturing worldwide attention.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Blessing 2025

Every year since 2020 I sing this blessing along with the recording of these Christians of various churches in the United Kingdom.

God's attitude toward us is that He is for us. A verse not quoted in this particular song but in sync with the revelation of God's good intentions is this one:

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Immigrant POV

Konstantin Kisin was born in Moscow, but came to Britain at the age of 12 with his parents. Naturally, he has a somewhat different point of view than the average Brit. He's grateful to be there, and published An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West.

It seems to him that his adopted country has turned to "self-loathing." As an "anti-woke" comedian, he offers a different POV.

Before you post

Maybe you've seen the videos of protest, mobs and riots taking place in Britain in the last week. As one Brit puts it, the UK has been on fire.

Their new Prime Minister wants to crack down on the turmoil. To squash the protests, he's going after freedom of speech. His government called on big tech firms to do more censoring. The owner of X doesn't feel compelled to comply.

Now they're warning all individual users of social media:  

"You may be committing a crime if you repost, repeat or amplify a message which is false, threatening, or stirs up racial / religious hatred." Wait, who is the judge of social media posts? Who decides what is false or hateful? They have police who scan for guilty posts and arrest the perp.

This author traces a pretty long decline in freedom of speech in Britain.

from Spiked

 (cont'd tomorrow)

Reparations? 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A London school headmistress is the first speaker to make a case against reparations, and her arguments are as follows.

First of all, the West agrees today that slavery was evil, in agreement with her opponent. But the fact that slavery was practiced in the West does not mean that they should pay reparations.

Second, "the West" was far from being alone in slave traffic. She notes that Brazil, for example, took in 5,000,000 slaves. Arabs enslaved over a million white European Christians. Africans enslaved Africans for thousands of years. Native Americans (20,000) sided with the South in America's civil war for the right to preserve slavery. About 4,000 free blacks owned slaves in America's South. Clearly, slavery was not all about race.

Third, it's difficult to define who should get the money. She, for example, is the descendant of both slaves and slave owners. And sometimes those who should get the money are defined simply as "black." What about people of mixed race?

Finally, "it's bizarre to suggest that human beings should inherit the outrage of the deeds of their parents. Should the child of a mass murderer be sent to prison for his father's crime? No. We do not inherit the sins of our fathers."

Reparations? 1

Here is a debate held in the United Kingdom on whether reparations should be paid. A professor of black studies (and descendant of slaves) explains why he thinks that the governments of the West should pay money to today's descendants of slaves. Today we're looking at his arguments; tomorrow we'll look at his opponent's arguments.

Back in the 1830's when the slave trade was abolished in the UK, he says, the government gave a large sum to slave owners to compensate them for the price they had paid for those slaves. He thinks that this justifies the whole idea of paying reparations, and it's his main argument.

He also claims that Western countries are wealthy today because of that payment to slave owners and because of the wealth those slaves helped create. Clearly his Marxist opinion is questionable as it ignores 190 years of monumental economic history since then, and I don't share it.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Europe burns 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Overwhelming waves of immigrants/refugees have been crashing into Europe for years. 

In a report from 2015, five times the normal limit were daily coming over the borders between Slovenia (map) and Croatia. Slovenian interior secretary of state said, "If this continues we will have extreme problems. Slovenia is already in dire straits, an impossible situation."

European countries were still trying to handle the crisis in 2018, combining humanitarian aid with new border laws, all strategies provoking controversy and argument.

Illegal immigrants still flood into Germany, which expects more of them in 2024 than in any year since 2016. Citizens who object (called "far right") are gaining political success, to the point that the establishment government is paying attention. 

They hope to speed up deportation of failed asylum seekers, and to enlist the help of other countries (like Turkey or Nigeria) in restraining them from making the journey across the Mediterranean.

from BBC

Sustainable 4

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

Global fast food brand McDonald's says that they want to do what's best for people, for our shared planet, and for animals. So they have been working with a "regenerative" farming business in the United Kingdom, working to produce the kind of outcomes that Will Harris had on his farm (see posts last Wednesday-Friday).

CAFO, contained animal feeding operation, is still the system used by most farms. It's cheaper -  but less humane and not considered sustainable. In regenerative systems, the animals are freer while the soil holds more water and is full of microbial life and CO2. (And . . er, meat will be more expensive, but I think global elites already want that.)

McDonald's is under pressure to comply with the UN's IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). 

Pressure may be coming from the European Union, too. Remember that Ireland and The Netherlands are moving to kill off cattle, ostensibly in response to the same climate change mandates. Could regenerative farming save European beef and farmers? I hope so.

from The Cattle Site

Russia pays

Note: the SpaceX update will continue after a post or two regarding Ukraine's crisis

Pres. Putin of Russia sent troops to invade and attack the nation of Ukraine to steal it from its people on February 24. The Ukrainians are bravely fighting back.

There's a price to pay for this brutality, maybe a higher price than Putin expected. 

Sanctions were placed on 26 Russian billionaire individuals by the European Union this week, in addition to sanctions on hundreds last week. New this week is a $29 billion man who owns a majority stake in a Russian steel company. The sanctions include an asset freeze and a travel ban. The EU is going after heavy-weight influencers.

photo

Shell Oil company, based in the United Kingdom, earned about $700 million in its investments in Russian energy projects last year, but they're going to leave the country. UK oil company BP is also pulling out, a decision which will cost the company billions.

Shell's CEO says, "We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security . . . We cannot - and we will not - stand by."

from Forbes and CNN

Hymn

Beauty, honor, respect, majesty, all appropriate to this music set in Westminster Abbey last March. The Queen and the royal family all take part in this celebration of Commonwealth Day.

"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation," "Ponder anew what the Almighty can do" - much of the hymn is taken from the Bible. I know the words, I sing along from my heart.

Maybe you are tempted to scorn the pomp as hypocritical. Do most in this abbey join their faith with the genuine historic faith of Britain? No. We're well aware that Christianity has severely declined in all of Europe.

But I love to see this remnant of historic faith still honored. May these God-inspired words and ideas still have impact. 

Something beautiful to enjoy this Monday.

Armed pensioner

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A mother in America can be confident that both the law and her neighbors will support her when she must defend her children and her property. 

A mother in Britain could confidently defend her family too, right? Maybe not.

A 78-year-old Englishman (a "pensioner") who lives with his disabled wife scuffled with two burglars who broke into his home. One of the burglars was wounded and later died. The elderly man who tried to defend his home was arrested on suspicion of murder and later released.

The man and his wife have fled the neighborhood to live in a police safe house somewhere - because they are in danger from supporters of the burglar.

After Alfie

Tom Evans' little boy Alfie was sick, so they took him to the hospital. Doctors decided the child should die. Tom didn't want the boy to die. But the British government enforced the doctors. Police guarded hospital exits to prevent Tom from taking him home. A judge prevented Alfie being moved to a hospital where he could be treated. The government won. The child died.

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust had paid  over £145,000 in legal bills in its quest to bring the child’s life to an end.

Alfie's aunt commented about that: “Over £145 to kill my nephew?!” she wrote. “We had a hospital. We had the money to take him elsewhere. We had the plane ready. We had Alfie fighting, and they paid this to kill him? Ask yourselves why.”

Tom and Alfie's mom plan to go public soon with more information on the last days of Alfie's life. “Me and Kate will never come to terms with it and will never accept Alfie’s death or cause of death.” 

photo: nationalrighttolifenews

Fight for Alfie

Alfie was a 23-month-old boy in a British hospital who had some kind of deteriorating disease. The hospital decided that removing the boy's life support was in his "best interest."

His father, Tom, organized opposition to the hospital's decision. He went to court, and the judge sided with the hospital. Italy made Alfie an Italian citizen and offered to treat him at Bambino Gesu Hospital. The judge would not allow it. Tom wanted to take his child home. It was not allowed.

"Pope Francis met with [Tom] earlier this month, and the distraught father told him, “Our child is sick, but not dying and does not deserve to die. He is not terminally ill nor diagnosed. We have been trying our best to find out his condition to treat or manage it.”

"But days after that meeting, Britain’s High Court again rejected the couple’s appeal, and last Monday the European Court of Human Rights refused to hear their case. Hours later, the hospital removed Alfie’s ventilator."

Tom finally submitted to the national "health care" system, and Alfie died.