Showing posts with label Catholic Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catholic Church. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Commentary on “Mayor Pete Butt-Gig and the Crackup of Christianity”(by Pat Buchanan) – Religions vs Religiosity


https://buchanan.org/blog/mayor-pete-and-the-crackup-of-christianity-136855

In some ways, religiosity is stronger than ever. Indeed, paradoxically enough, the reason for the decline of traditional religions is because they no longer offer the moral high and high ground of religiosity. People are abandoning them not because they are rejecting religiosity but because they can find it or more of it in something else.

Now, religiosity is not the same thing as religion. Religiosity is the state of strong commitment, righteousness, and/or moral outrage. Religiosity can be gotten from anything, even non-religions. Marxists and Maoists were surely riding high on religiosity as they firmly believed that history, humanity, truth, and morality were on their side.

A religion has power only if it retains the element of religiosity. Consider so many religions that have fallen by the wayside. Zoroastrianism for example. Today, it is mostly a matter of scholarly, mystical, and/or theological interest. Almost no one gets worked up over it.
Some people seek out Eastern Mysticism, but it will never gain power because it lacks religiosity. Buddhism, Taoism, and such religions are about peace of mind, the search for the Way, the harmony. This was one reason why the East was less dynamic than the West, the culture of which was driven by Greco-dialectics and Judeo-monolithics. According to the Greeks, if there is A and B, the two must duke it out. Thus, the philosophical and historical pendulum swings violently back and forth, left and right. It causes a lot of friction and even trouble, but it also sets off lots of sparks. If both A and B remain viable, the dialectics continues and keeps shooting off sparks, some of which are destructive, some of which are constructive. But if A or B were to overcome the other or arrive at synthesis, it goes up against a new force: C, D, E, etc. As for Judeo-Monolithics, it says the ONE idea is absolutely true and all the power must be exerted to spread that idea far and wide. This is the core of Western Messianism and puritanism. Greco-dialectics made for dynamism, and Judeo-Monolithics made for commitment, aggression, and expansion. The Crusading or Jihad Mentality.

In contrast, Taoism and Buddhism seek to rise above conflicts. Taoism seeks the Way, or the hidden harmony behind all chaos. It urges people not to involve themselves directly in world conflicts and instead to recede and contemplate with a cup of tea. Buddhism says everything is an illusion, and people should meditate to reach Nirvana and eternal extinction. With such spiritual outlooks, it's no wonder the East was less dynamic(though it allowed for longer stretches of peace and stability, albeit of the repressive kind by today's standards).

Modern religiosity thrives on psycho-cultural legacy of Greco-dialectics and Judeo-monolithics. Pat Buchanan loved politics all his life as a kind of sports. Political season is like sporting season. And so many people see the world in terms of 'we are right, and you are wrong'. Most people don't seek the middle-ground or the Way. They savor the dialectical bloodsports of politics. This owes to the pagan Greco-dialectical tradition. But Greeks and Romans, with their many gods, weren't really into the cult of self-righteousness. Through endless discourse, they believed somethings were more right than others, but they didn't believe there was anything or any people that was the holiest in the world for all eternity. They regarded everything, even the great gods, being in a state of flux.
In contrast, Jews did see the world in absolutist and monomaniacal terms. They weren't just another tribe, but the Tribe, the Chosen, and their God was the only true God, and they were blessed by the true God. So, Jews were filled with sanctimony and (self)righteousness, and this mindset flowed to the West via Christianity. If Greeks politicized conflicts, Christians spiritualized and moralized them. In the Athens vs Sparta conflict, both sides knew that it was all about power, economics, and influence. Sure, each side called on their gods for favors, but it was a conflict of 'mighteous' than righteous. It was dialectical politics. In contrast, infused with the mindset of Judeo-monolithics, Christians saw their conflicts in strongly moral and spiritual terms. So, there was a greater sense of moral outrage in conflicts involving Christians(which is why the US tries to morally justify everything it does around the world, a factor that blinds so many Americans to the true nature of what is really going on). Each side among Christians was totally holier-than-thou, even though many of the wars were triggered by political or economic factors than spiritual or moral ones.
The Thirty Years War was even more destructive and harrowing than the Peloponnesian War because of the sense of spiritual outrage. If Spartans and Athenians were merely seeking political advantage over the other, Catholics and Protestants, armed with Judeo-monolithic moral outrage, was trying to totally crush the other for all time. When Spartans finally won, they let Athens survive. But if either Catholics or Protestants had gained total victory, the losing side would have been totally crushed and rubbed out. But as it happened, the stalemate finally led to some kind of understanding, and the art of Greco-dialectics prevailed over Judeo-monolithics. Catholics and Protestants would have to co-exist in lively conflict and not try to crush the other totally in the spirit of moral/spiritual absolutism.

Why did Christian religion lose its religiosity in the 20th century?

We know the usual suspects. The rise of science undermined religion, especially among the elites. Around the time the US was founded, many of the most intelligent people in both Old World and New World still believed in God, sought meaning in God, attended religious schools, and spread the Gospel. Religion back then had spiritual and moral authority, from top to bottom.
But with the rise of modernity, most intelligent people abandoned religion, and if they did remain religious, it was on the personal level than on moral, spiritual, and social one. With best and brightest eschewing the religious life, the leadership came increasingly from the less intelligent segments of the population. Also, as religious authority lost prestige, fewer men were willing to give up worldly happiness for God. Back when the Catholic Church was like the Harvard of the West, many intelligent men were willing to sacrifice sex and good times to serve God. As priests, they had much respect in society. But when society no longer regarded priests as anything special, what was the point of giving up sex, marriage, and good times? So, an increasing number of priests came from eccentrics, derelicts, perverts, and homos. Some homos sought repentance for their sinful ways by serving God. Other homos figured they would take over the Church and make it 'gay' to serve toot-toota-loop homo vanity.

Mainline churches replaced saving souls with saving the world with good work. But what is 'good work'? As worldly matters and issues were defined by secular forces, Mainline church's idea of 'goodness' came to be defined by academia and media. Then, it's no wonder than Mainline churches now think god is all about the 'gays'. After all, Ivy League, Hollywood, and NYT said so. Evangelicals were more traditionalist and moralistic, but they were dumb, and dummies lose out to smarties. Being dumb and childlike, Evanjellies could easily be manipulated by the Power. It's no wonder so many Evanjellies are into 'muh Israel' and 'Jews are holy' even though Jews despise them and turned the Holy Land into Sodom and Gomorrah. Also, Evanjellies put emotions before dogma. It's all about the FEELS. Then, it is no wonder that homomania is making inroads even among childlike Evanjellies. Also, as most Evanjellies, like Mormons, suffer from inferiority complex of status and class, they tend to suck up to the rich and powerful. Look how Mormons are changing full-steam ahead toward homomania because the rich and powerful now worship it as their main cult. And many Evanjellies are suckers for televangelists whose shtick is 'god made me rich' and 'Jews are great cuz they are so rich'.
As for the Catholic Church, it shot itself in the foot by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. While some of the reforms were good and necessary, others presented the Church in the position of weakness, especially via Jews and modernity. The main mode was of concession and contrition, and this put the Church on the moral defensive than offensive. Instead of judging the world with the One True Faith, it sought forgiveness from the world. Thus, being a Catholic came with less religiosity and more perplexity.

While people may be drawn to religions for metaphysical or philosophical reasons, religion has power ONLY WHEN it has the element of religiosity. Religious or secular, people are more prone to organize, unite, and rally IF they the run the fever of religiosity. This is why the anti-homo voices tended to come from the religious. There are non-religious people who oppose the homo agenda, but they feel less worked up because they just believe it is wrong, not an affront to God. There are secular people who are anti-abortion, but again, they see it as ugly and wrong, whereas religious people see it as a grave sin. Because of their element of religiosity, the religious often united to push for or against certain issues.

This is what Jews hate about Christian religiosity. (They hate Islamic religiosity too, but at least in the West, they make alliances with Muslims against Christians.) Those armed with religiosity are more likely to leave the house, meet with others, gather together(esp in churches), and protest. Even when people dislike or oppose something, the chances are they are not gonna do anything about it unless they are armed with religiosity. They see it as a personal matter -- "I don't like it" -- than as a grand moral/spiritual one -- "It is an affront to God".
But Jews fear Christianity far less now because it's either been bled of religiosity or infected with neo-religiosity of PC, e.g. all those churches that are now all about Diversity, Globo-Homo, Anti-Whitey, Holy Negro Worship, and Jew-Worship. Catholic Church is no longer a force of religiosity because it's in cucky-wuck apologetic mode. "We are sorry so many of our priests buggered boys". "We are sorry for having aided and abetted imperialism, genocide, etc." "We must fill up Europe with Africans and Muslims because Christians have so much to atone for." There is no moral pride or spiritual authority. It now even has what looks like closet-homo pope, aka the Poop, who says Europe must be Afro-Islamized as fast as possible. Because the Church is still officially opposed to 'gay marriage' and abortion, progs still eye Catholicism with disgusts and trepidation. But because it is so cucked and wussy, traditional Catholics feel nauseous about sticking with the Church. There is hardly any real religiosity found in Catholicism anymore.

But people love religiosity because it's like a drug. It gives them the high of moral sanctimony, the rush of holier-than-thou rage, and a sense of unity with 'history is on our side'. The thing is religiosity can be gotten from anything: Ideology and 'Idology'(or idolatry as ideology).
Those Red Guard lunatics during the Cultural Revolution were surely filled with righteous religiosity. Incidentally, the Cultural Revolution showed that religiosity had little to do with truth and more to do with control of information and indoctrination. After all, Mao's policies had killed tens of millions in the Great Leap Forward. He should have been disgraced forever based on historical facts, but with control of propaganda and the military Mao and his gang were able to instill countless young people with fever of religiosity and set them loose to smash 'class enemies' in ruthless abandon and righteous rage.



It's like no amount of destruction done by Black Savage Reversion, Crazy Jewish Supremacism, and Nutty Homo Perversion has made any real dent in the holiness of those three groups. Given all the black crime and thuggery, one might think Americans would have wised up to the fact that blacks are the crazy savage race, but Jews control the media and they keep rerunning the Emitt Till and MLK narrative over and over. And come Superbowl season, white cucky-wucks are back to worshiping blacks as sports hero demigods. And given what Jewish Power has done to the US in terms of financial distress and foreign Wars for Israel(that created WWII situations in Middle East), you'd think people would have wised up to Jewish power by now. But every year, it's Holocaust this, Holocaust that, and "Jews are eternally holy holocaust people" and "If you notice Jewish power, you're an anti-Semite." So, even 'literally Hitler' Trump spends most of his time with his lips wrapped around Netanyahu's pud. And given the HIV mess caused by deranged homos, you'd think people would have woken up to the danger of homo influence and practice. But Jews(who run the media) 'sacralized' homos in movies, TV shows, and advertising. And Jews associated homos with the 'rainbow', and whore politicians just can't get enough of pontificating about how the New Normal of morality is all about celebrating homo fecal penetration and tranny-penis-cutting.

If Rob punched you but has the megaphone and says that you punched him while he makes himself out to be the poor poor victim, people will side with Rob and denounce you and maybe even punch you. Worse, even people who saw Rob punch you may not come to your aid because Rob's megaphone can attract many more people to his side. Or, even those who witnessed Rob punching you may believe you deserved to be punched because you're a bad person. This is what Jews are doing with 'punch a nazi' meme. They are saying that if Jews, Antifa, or blacks attack whites who happen to be 'nazi', then the righteousness belongs to the puncher because 'nazis' are evil and deserve it. This is how religiosity works. It's not so much about objective definition of right or wrong or legal or illegal. It's about holy vs unholy. It's about blessed vs the wicked. Just like Christians in their hyper-religiosity could be inspired to carry out violent acts against heathens, the PC crowd can be driven to rages of religiosity to attack any people and feel good and righteous about it.

As Jews control academia, media, entertainment, and whore-politicians, they control the levers of religiosity. Academia writes the sacred texts, the canons of officialdom. Media relay them as 'news' and sermons. Entertainment turns certain figures and narratives into idols. And whore-politicians use oratory to push the acceptable narrative.

People are leaving the church and flocking to PC, Homomania, and Afromania because most of the hottest religiosity is now to be found there. PC slogans and chants about 'Diversity' and 'Inclusion' are the new mantras and catechisms. And 'gay rights' became Gay Rites, a neo-religion. There was a time when NO ONE was worked up over homo issues. At most, some supported the legalization of homosexuality because they figured homos were born that way. Also, they figured homos are deserving of individual rights too. It was a legal matter, not a moral one. No one thought there was innately holy about being a homo. No one felt he was holier or more righteous because he was pro-homo.
But Jewish media spun the HIV crisis to make homos out to be victims of something akin to a holocaust even though homos did it to themselves by acting like a bunch of butt-bang-boys in bathhouses. Movies like PHILADELPHIA and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN made homo lust the highest and most tragic kind of love. Homos were made into saintly icons. Such ploy would have been thought outrageous when the US was more religious and moral, but in Boomer-dominated America of the 1990s and 2000s, it went over with post-religious people and young people raised on degeneracy. Also, as Bush II was such an awful posterboy of the Christian Right, young people turned away from religion. Furthermore, what with religions being so cucked & apologetic while AND homomania got more judgmental & aggressive, young people realized that there was more religiosity points to be found on the holy-homo side than on the religious side. While homomaniacs are passionately and aggressively sure of their cause and position, the Religious Right seemed confused, cowardly, and castrated. As Jews came to dominate the GOP and bought off most top church leaders, NO ONE on the Right mounted any counter-attack against homomania. They kept their heads down like the worthless Rich Lowry lest they offend Jews as allies of holy homos. Also, young people, raised on celebrity culture, were addicted to the cult of the cool. So, what some pop star or famous actor said mattered more to them than what some crusty religious type said. Mormons for one are really a bunch of Mammonites who will sell their mothers down the river for thirty pieces of silver. Look at those worthless piles of shit Mitt Romney and Harry Reid.

Now, it may well be that the current religiosities of PC may blow away. After all, where is Maoist religiosity today? Where is Stalinist fervor? Secular forms of religiosity have short-shelf lives because history proves them wrong. History proved communism wrong. All the icons and altars to Marx and Lenin came to mean nothing to Eastern Europeans with the fall of the Iron Curtain. Hitler, who was once the much revered icon of glory among Germans, has been disgraced. In contrast, God cannot be deposed and may yet win again in the long run. That said, in any given MOMENT in history, those with more religiosity win over those with less. And the fact is religions have lost the fire of religiosity either because people lost faith or because the religions have become cucked and apologetic. There was a time when to become a Christian was to be filled with a sense of salvation, glory, and pride. Now, joining the church means you should kneel before a homo and apologize for the church's 2000 yrs of 'homophobia' against guys like Butt-gigs who thinks dicks-up-my-ass is great because 'god made him gay'. Using such logic, a fatso should take pride in his gluttony since god made him want to pig out like a hippo. And I suppose a drunken Irish can argue that his alcoholism is a wonder to behold because god made him want to hit the bottle.

Ideologies can be full of religiosity because they offer a formula for understanding history and fixing humanity. As such, they are more than mere ideas but a worldview of 'what REALLY happened' and 'what must happen'. It has an element of prophecy, and so, ideologues are armed with religiosity. In time, ideological religiosity may fade as people get tired of the same-old-same-old and/or because the promises don't come true. This was true enough with communism.
Or, even if the ideology does succeed -- such as the Americanist individualist-capitalist ideology -- , it can lose its righteous luster if critiqued endlessly by radicals and subversives. Notice how the very founders and makers of the American nation have been so drastically 'discredited' by Jewish use of PC that now says MLK is the true 'founding father' while all those 'dead white males' were a bunch of hypocrites who owned slaves. (Never mind Jewish bankers funded much of 'white supremacist' imperialism around the world, and Jewish immigrants worked alongside whites to wipe out Indians and enslave & exploit blacks.)
In our increasingly post-literate age or what Christopher Hedges calls the Empire of Illusion, the power of 'idology' or neo-iconography may now matter more than ideology. Why are so many people reverential toward rappers even though all they ever say is 'muh gun', 'muh dick', 'muh bling', 'muh ho', and etc? Because idolatry makes them look cool and badass, and that's enough for neo-worship in our deracinated and degenerate age. But then, because of the narrative and iconography of the Noble Negro as victim of 'white racism', the image of black cool is fused with image of black tragedy, and this makes them even more potent as idols for young people to worship and that means a lot of religiosity points in the 'idolic' worship of the Negro. And of course, nothing is holier to SWPL crowd than the holy holy of the 'rainbow' valley. Compared to that, what does the current Church have to offer except butt-hurt apologetics and "I'm sorry".

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Commentary on "Debate with Nick Fuentes: What Caused the West's Decline?" -- Why Fuentes is Wrong to blame the French Revolution as the Source of the Fall



Nick is wrong to pinpoint the French Revolution as the beginning of the Decline of the West. French Revolution and American Revolution(that shared similar ideals) opened up new possibilities and paved the way for Western greatness and domination. From the time of the French Revolution to World War I, the West saw rising numbers, wealth, might, and influence. There was advancement in every field of science and technology. More people became educated, ate better, and lived longer. The historical trajectory of Western Might was on the up and up for the West until 1914 when World War I destroyed much of Europe. Still, consider the rapid recovery of Germany in the 1930s. Had Europe avoided WWII, things might have been great all around. But Hitler sunk Europe into WWII and tens of millions died.
EVEN SO, the fact is that most Europeans never had it so good as during the post-WWII era. All European economies recovered quickly, living standards rose, and most people were better off than ever. And in the US, the majority entered the middle class. Even communist Eastern European nations saw considerable rise in living standards from end of WWII to the 1960s -- though behind the Capitalist West, they were better than any other part of the world. The West was mostly riding high after WWII. For example, France became a real industrial power only AFTER World War II. Prior to the war, 1/3 of Frenchmen were farmers. It was in the 50s and 60s that France became truly industrial and modern. Living standards improved markedly after the war. Also, the loss of empires didn't hurt the European economy at all. For one thing, nations like Sweden and Norway, which never had overseas empires, did very well. And France and UK saw their economies rise higher just as they were letting their empires go.

So, why did things begin to fall apart for Western Man?

1. Jews took over the US that controls the rest of the West. Jewish Supremacists, filled with virulent resentment against whites, used media power to fill whites with Guilt and Fever. 'White Guilt' paralyzed white pride and confidence. Whites were told that their history was one of oppression of others, and therefore, any notion of collective white identity and interest must be denounced and suppressed. To atone for 'white guilt', whites must serve OTHER peoples, beginning with the Holy Holocaust Jews.
And 'White Fever' made white boys and girls addicted to black music, black sex, and black cool. Today, white boys imitate rappers, and white girls want to have mulatto babies with black guys who are seen as superior studs. If the black race didn't exist in the West, white decline would have been far less dramatic. It was blacks who destroyed white male pride and confidence by kicking white ass and conquering white pussy. Blacks have been especially threatening to whites because blacks win so much in the areas that give whites the biggest collective orgasms: sports, pop music, oratory, and sex culture. Faceless white crowds cheer like mad for black sports heroes. White guys act like cucks before black athletes who hump 100,000s of white women. And white butts and groins pump and grind to black music whose message is "white girl, suck my big black dick". And because blacks have louder deeper voices, whites react to Negro speech like it's the voice of god. Would MLK cult exist if King didn't have a bellowing voice?

2. Good times and youth culture led to decadence and degeneracy. When times are good, people take things for granted. They lose the fighting spirit and survival instinct. Americans got soft and flabby in their post-nationalist affluence. A people who feel secure and well-fed don't care about nationalism. And young people lost respect for tradition and old people. They got addicted to new fashions in youth culture that were all about 'me, me, me', and 'admire the Negro singers'. Young people's idea of culture became loose sex, drugs, and imitating trashy celebrities(marketed by Jews). Look at Miley Cyrus and other shikse cunts pulled by Jewish puppet-strings. Jewish globalists want white girls to be turned into sluts for portnoic Jewish and black men.

3. Rising economy meant more jobs, and that meant more women at work. As more women found work, they grew more independent and spent much of their spare time and money on having fun than raising family. Also, when women take good jobs from men, there are fewer men with good jobs to afford family formation. So, they have a hard time getting married. And women with good jobs have a hard time finding mates because they want to find men with good jobs. But if women take good jobs from men, there are fewer men with good jobs. Also, as women became sexually freer, they had tons of premarital sex, and this made them less appealing to men who want marriage. Most guys don't want to marry some 'ho' who's been at spring breaks and been sprayed upon by lots of frat boys and wild Negroes.

4. Pop Culture in general. Prior to electronic media, people felt lonely unless they were with other people. So, they wanted to get married to be with other people and have a sense of belonging. And they joined local communities to feel human connection and warmth. But with TV in every home, even lonely individuals could just turn on the TV and live with substitute family members and friends(who were prettier and cooler) on TV. This affected old and the young. Check the last scene of Barry Levinson's AVALON where the kid just stares at the TV.

5. Spread of universal-elitism. As more people got college education, they came to value only fancy jobs and higher status. This is a problem in the East as well as in the West. In the past, people had kids just to have kids. Today, people don't want to have kids unless they feel assured that their kids will grow up to go to good college and get fancy jobs. So, both whites in the West and Asians in the East have fewer kids. This socio-demographic trend leads to labor shortage, and that means FOREIGNERS must be brought in to do all the 'dirty, dangerous, and demeaning' jobs. Even Japan finally decided to let in hundreds of thousands of foreigners to fill up jobs because Japanese don't have kids. Why don't Japanese want to have kids? Japanese don't want to have 'loser children' who may not attend good schools and get fancy jobs. When a people come to despise labor, they are doomed. This is why we all need a bit of socialist mindset. Socialism respects the working class, the laborers. But in today's globalist world, whites and yellows only respect white-collar professional jobs. They see working class jobs as 'dirty'. So, they figure they should bring in foreigners to do the lowly dirty jobs.

Finally, French Revolution and American Revolution were actually good for the West. The theme of both was nationalism, the idea that the national elites should represent and serve the national masses. Prior to the French Revolution, the French aristocratic elites looked upon their own people as subjects. If anything, fancy elites identified more with aristocrats of OTHER kingdoms than with their own French folk. It was like a network of elites, all of whom regarded their own folks as lowly subjects.
In contrast, the French Revolution said that the people matter too, and that the main role of the national elites is to represent and lead the national folk. The populist-nationalism we see today is very much in the spirit of the French Revolution. The globalist rhetoric is neo-aristocratic and much like the elitist worldview PRIOR to the French Revolution. Globalism says the elites of the world should link up together in their own cloud castle realm and look down all the masses as 'deplorables' to exploit. Yellow Vests represent the French Revolutionary Spirit. Emmanuel Macron represents neo-aristocratism. Aristocrats were fancy-pants and dressed like fruits because they recruited haute-homos to make fancy things for them, like those puffy wigs that the French aristos wore. Is it any wonder that the globalist neo-aristos promote Homo Stuff as the 'new progressivism'? It's really just neo-aristocratism.
What the West needs is to recapture the national-revolutionary spirit of the American and French Revolution. It must break free of the globo-homo neo-aristocratic rule of Jewish Hegemonists. (Notice that Jews, even as they undermine the unity of elites and masses among goyim, insist on the unity of Jewish elites and Jewish masses, esp in Israel. When Jewish masses in Israel demand a wall to keep out Arabs and Africans, Jewish elites listen and deliver. That's why Israel is so sturdy; it is founded on the unity of elites and masses. But when Viktor Orban in Hungary tries to serve his own people the same way, Jews shriek with horror because they see goy nationalism as a barrier to Jewish penetration and total takeover. Jews know nationalism means ethnic solidarity and power. That is why they guard nationalism for themselves but denounce it among other peoples. And they bribe goy-cuck-collaborators to do their bidding.)

According to Nick Fuentes, the heart of the matter is the European Man lost the sense of spiritual authority, and THAT began the process of inexorable decline. But notice that Byzantine, French, and Russian Monarchies all fell to foreign armies, popular revolt, or minority-subversion DESPITE their adherence to tradition. If traditionalist spiritual authority is such an effective bulwark against degeneration and destruction, why didn't the Byzantine Empire go from strength to strength despite its arch-spiritualism? Why was the French Monarchy, despite blessings of the Catholic Church, unable to stem the revolutionary tide? Why was the Russian Czar, despite the backing of conservative Russian Church, fail to stave off the Socialist Revolution?
While there is something to be said for spiritual roots and guidance, history shows us that church authority, like any other kind of authority, tends to grow corrupt, stagnant, and dull over time. But then, this problem goes back to the very moment when Early Christians joined with the Roman Empire. A religion founded on peace, forgiveness, and brotherly love made a pact with the 'devil', the very imperialist power that sacked Jerusalem and used ruthless violence to maintain military hegemony over much of the known world. Once politicized, religion turns into just another arm of Power Politics and Insider-Privilege, and then, especially in times of severe duress(when people are desperate) or happy affluence(when people are decadent), traditional religious authority seems either supportive of 'tyranny' or obstacle to good times(aka party poopers, like when Moses returned from Mt. Sinai and said NO MORE to the festivities with the Golden Calf).