Tag: religion

THE NAUGHTY LIST VS. THE BOOK OF LIFE: A CHRISTMAS WARNING

Posted on by Ray Joseph Cormier

DIAGNOSIS: THE FALSE SANTA & THE LIST

“He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake.” For generations, a playful myth. Today, a secular prophecy fulfilled. The omniscient, judging Santa has been resurrected not at the North Pole, but in the Surveillance State.

This new Santa is no bringer of gifts. He is a curator of consequences. His “naughty list” is built from the dust of your digital life—your movements, purchases, associations, and speech—fed into algorithmic engines that presume guilt and predict non-compliance. His elves are data brokers and fusion centers. His workshop is a Constitution-free zone. His gift for the “naughty” is not coal, but a loss of liberty: travel bans, financial suffocation, and the brand of “pre-criminal.”

This system demands a new goodness: silence, anonymity, and compliance. To “be good for goodness’ sake” is to vanish into the herd, to never question, to accept that being watched is the price of safety. It is a theology of control, a gospel of fear where innocence is a forgotten doctrine. It is the “might makes right” principle applied to the inner life of a nation, the ultimate harvest of lawlessness institutionalized.

ANTIDOTE: THE TRUE LIGHT & THE LIFE

But December 25 is not the birthday of this False Santa. It is the invasion day of his total opposite.

The Surveillance State sees to condemn and control. The Nativity reveals a God who sees to heal and liberate.

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  • Where the List classifies, the angels announced: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (Luke 2:10). Not for some people. For all. The first word of the gospel is an algorithm-smashing universality.

  • Where the State demands you prove your worth, the manger declares: “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.” (Luke 2:11). The gift comes first. Worth is conferred, not computed.

  • Where the watchers seek to blind you with fear, the prophet foretold the child’s mission: “To open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:7).

This is the ultimate confrontation: The Naughty List vs. The Book of Life. One is a record of your failures, maintained to enforce debt. The other is a record of your name, written by grace, to confer Sonship.

The birth in Bethlehem was the planting of the Resurrection seed. The same voice that would one day call “Lazarus, come out!” first cried in a stable. Christmas is the first frame of the victory over every form of death—physical, spiritual, and political. The “pre-crime” of the State is answered by the “post-resurrection” of Christ. He does not predict your failure; He forgives it. He does not police your potential; He resurrects it.

THE CHOICE: WHICH SIGHT? WHICH LIST?

The article “The Surveillance State Is Making a Naughty List” performed a vital service: it gave a name to our spiritual malaise. It diagnosed the archetype of our captivity. But diagnosis is not cure.

The question of December 25 is not about holiday sentiment. It is: Which omniscience do you serve? Which list defines you?

Do you live under the sleepless eye that catalogues to condemn? Or do you step into the gaze of the Love that saw your condition from the foundation of the world and invaded history to rewrite it?

The birth of Christ is the restoration of sight to a world blinded by principalities and powers. It is the resurrection of hope in a graveyard of fear. It is the declaration that the last word belongs not to the watchers in the shadows, but to the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.

We do not protest the Naughty List. We incinerate its premise with the news of a better list, written in blood, not data. A list from which no power in heaven, on earth, or in the surveillance state can scratch your name.

This is our Christmas proclamation. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness of lists, algorithms, and false Santas has not, and will not, overcome it.

https://rayjc.com/2019/10/17/leaked-us-military-manual-for-policing-homeland-internment-camps-for-political-dissidents/ 

Jesus is the Bigger Brother with the Power to LiberatE

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The Devil Don’t Knock Twice

Posted on by Ray Joseph Cormier

The Title comes from an email I received this morning from Michael Brenner. He doesn’t have a Blog or an account on X. He is a prominent American scholar specializing in International Relations, American foreign policy, and transatlantic affairs. He is best known for his critical analyses of U.S. geopolitical strategies, European security, and global power dynamics.

This is what he wrote: BRETHREN

There is an old blues ballad called: “The Devil Don’t Knock Twice.”* Assuming that he knocks at all — or just sidles up to you at a Delta crossroads with a proposition that you can’t refuse. The specter of Satan requesting entry – into your home, into your soul – suggests that you have a choice whether or not to let him in. That evidently is true for even the most downtrodden, the most desperate, the most vulnerable.

We Americans – individually and collectively – have been privileged with three knocks, each seeking entry.

The first time, we took a deliberate look through the peephole, sized him up as off-beat, hyper, a little weird but quelled our doubts in opening the door. After much strained and acrid palaver, we agreed to a 4-year lease on the premises.

At its end, he aggressively demanded an extension of the same duration – the 2nd knock. With decidedly mixed feelings we turned him down. An inspection of the property had revealed widespread damage. The house was desecrated with Satanic graffiti and reeked of foul sulfuric fumes. Worse, the Evil One had turned it into a refuge for a coven of unisex demons from the nether world. 

Furious at the rejection, he incited them to ransack the place and to seize it in his name. We managed to repel them – just barely. That wasn’t the end of it, though. Hardly. The diabolical schemer launched a massive all-out campaign to overturn the eviction. Spurious lawsuits, incessant protest rallies, random acts of vandalism – even blatant intimidation of judges and prosecutors. 

Satan himself raging everywhere – fuming, breathing fire and brimstone – vowing revenge against all who had played a part in his eviction, who had thwarted him in any way – or else! This went on for years.

Then, he knocked on the door a 3rd time – declaring loudly that he would make the house a great mansion again – if we let him in – or else. We opened the door wide.

Searching Google for the original ‘The Devil Don’t knock Twice’ found this: Unearthed from the depths of the American South, [LOST TAPE #013 — “The Devil Don’t Knock Twice” by Jeremiah “Dust Bowl” Reed (1934)] captures the haunted soul of early Delta Blues. Recorded on fragile acetate in a dusty roadside chapel during the Great Depression, this lost field recording reveals the raw emotion, pain, and faith of a man who sang not for fame—but for survival. The cracked voice of Jeremiah “Dust Bowl” Reed echoes through time, blending gospel roots, delta slide guitar, and an atmosphere so authentic you can almost smell the rain on dry soil.

Woke up on a Monday, sun behind the ground Look out on the future, couldn’t tell a place of time Been chasing that dollar, brother, in a field of wooden yield Now the dust is my blanket and the highway is my field

[Chorus] Cuz the devil don’t knock twice, son You just walk right through your door Leave you standing in the ruin Wonder what you suffered for He don’t send no letter, don’t whistle no sweet tune The devil don’t knock twice He just come and take the moon

I had a good woman, pretty as a newborn day She stood by the fence post ’til the wind blowed away Had a house made of timber, a roof to keep me dry Then the bank man came calling with the death note in his eye

[Chorus] Cuz the devil don’t knock twice, son He just walk right through your door Leave you standing in a ruin Wondering what you suffer for He don’t send no letter, don’t whistle no sweet tune The devil don’t knock twice He just come and take the moon

I walked a thousand miles, man, just to keep my spirit whole Try to run from the bad luck that will stamp upon my soul But whether it’s the drought or the poor man’s power line The darkness is a shadow and it follows close behind I’m standing by this doorway, listening for a sound Just a grid on the wind, brother, blowing across the ground

I learned my lesson early, the hard way, cold and fast When the devil wants your life, he don’t need a second pass

[Chorus] Cuz the devil don’t knock twice He just walk right through your door Leave you standing in the ruins Wondering what you suffer for He don’t send no letter, don’t whistle no sweet tune The devil don’t knock twice He just come and take the moon…

For those who prefer a Rock & Roll cover of the original Country Music:

While the World Watches Gaza: The Unreported Israeli War for the Annexation of the ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED West Bank

Posted on by Ray Joseph Cormier

This article, published in The Guardian is the logical followup to my last post The Apostolic Manifesto: The Major’s Seal—From a Canadian Jail to Gaza’s Cry

While the eyes of the world are on Gaza, Israeli settlers in the West Bank still behave with impunity

As the harvest season begins, attacks on Palestinian farmers and their land are spiralling. The words of peace following the Gaza ceasefire ring hollow.

Last Monday, when the US president, Donald Trump, addressed the Knesset alongside the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, my compatriot lawmaker Ayman Odeh and I raised a banner calling them to “Recognise Palestine”. We were brutally expelled by force from the parliament’s plenum, revealing the fragile state of the supposed “only democracy in the Middle East”. How can Trump and Netanyahu speak of peace in the Middle East without recognition of the people deprived for decades of their basic liberties and rights under vicious occupation?

Nowhere is the deceit more clear than in the occupied West Bank. There, the words of peace are but a weak and distant voice, but the horrifying sounds of settler violence and terror still echo loudly. More than 30 occurrences of settler violence against Palestinians have been documented since the announcement of Trump’s 20-point plan at the end of September, including physical assaults, theft of agricultural produce and torching of vehicles and property.

The rise of settler terrorism is not coincidental. This period marks the start of the harvest seasons. More than a vital economic event, it is an important social and national moment that exhibits endurance under occupation. Precisely for these reasons, year after year settlers target Palestinians during this precious time. During the 2024 harvest period, Yesh Din (an Israeli human rights group that collects and disseminates information regarding violations of Palestinians’ human rights in the West Bank) documented 113 separate incidents of violence, harassment, harvest-thwarting or damage to olive trees and crops involving Israeli civilians and soldiers, which took place on lands belonging to 51 Palestinian villages, towns and communities.

Yesh Din also found that “Israeli security forces appeared to have played a greater role in obstructing the olive harvest”. In about 70% of forceful prevention of access to lands, soldiers, border police officers and settlement civilian security coordinators (CSCs) were actually present. They either personally prevented Palestinians from accessing and harvesting in their own lands, or failed to stop settlers who harassed or assaulted them.

This comes as no surprise, as the leader of the settlers’ political party, Bezalel Smotrich, was appointed as an additional minister in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). In Umm al-Khair, for example, a special COGAT unit uprooted private olive trees of Palestinians, citing lack of permits, but ignored violations of an illegal nearby settler outpost. Last week, the Jerusalem district court ruled to halt all building work in the outpost, which was built on lands seized by Israel and unlawfully transferred to settlers.

In the occupied West Bank, settler terrorism is nothing but a tool by the government to pursue de-facto annexation. Earlier this month, Smotrich led a march of thousands of settlers in support of annexation of the West Bank. He was quoted as saying, “We are continuing to take hold with our feet of the Land of Israel with many pioneers, many heroes, and hundreds of thousands of settlers who live in this part of the land … we need to normalise it and make it eternal.”

The settlers and their supporters in the Knesset are clear on their motives and intentions. Why, then, do political leaders in the west refrain from meaningful sanctions and diplomatic measures? Smotrich was sanctioned by the UK in June, but the effect of the sanction has been minimal. He may not be able to travel to the UK and tour the West End, but he still enjoys the ministerial power to grab lands in the West Bank. Even in the announcement of sanctions, the UK highlighted they take place “in his personal capacity” solely.

If the UK government acknowledges the reality of settler violence and its grave implications on Palestinian life, why does it still allow settlement produce to be sold in markets and shops in Britain? If Starmer is serious about recognition of Palestine as a state, how come it allows the Israeli government to violate its sovereignty with such violent means? Or was the recognition an empty ploy to shut down dissenting voices in the UK, a hollow act only to be realised in the rebranding of some maps?

A just peace must respect the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people for self-recognition, sovereignty and liberty from military occupation and siege. Only when every human being’s dignity between the river and sea is respected can we truly say peace has been achieved.

True peace requires an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel: this is the sole formula that enjoys consensus among the international community, the Palestinian national movement and the Israeli peace camp.

Trump may have inflicted pressure on Netanyahu to halt the genocide, but he probably only did so because the burden of his relationship with the pariah regime of Netanyahu had become too great. The mass protests across the globe for the liberation of Palestine, and the unwavering anti-government demonstrations inside Israel, are the real forces behind this pressure.

It is thanks to this enormous civil movement that a ceasefire has been signed, the hostages released and the people of Gaza can enjoy safeguard from annihilation. After the ceasefire agreement has been signed, it is vital to keep applying this pressure. The world has turned a blind eye to the atrocities in Gaza for too long; it must not repeat the same mistake in the West Bank.

  • Dr Ofer Cassif is a member of the Knesset, representing the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) since 2019

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