Tag: religion

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

Israel kills 11 Palestinian family members in Gaza’s deadliest truce breach

TRUTH IS FALLEN IN THE STREET AND EQUITY CANNOT ENTER

Posted on by Ray Joseph Cormier

The title of this article is not just a phrase; it is a diagnosis of our age. Truth has fallen in our digital public squares, trampled by algorithms and political agendas. Justice, unable to even get in the door, stands barred by the sins of historical omission. The question is not if we will face this reality, but how we got here. Truth is not merely contested in our age—it is facedown in the mud of the digital square, trampled by the crowd. And justice? She stands barred at the door, unable to enter. This is not a political crisis. It is a spiritual diagnosis from an ancient text: ‘Truth has fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter’ (Isaiah 59:14). How did we get here? The answer lies in an unholy trinity of deception—one as old as religion itself.

Our world is facing an Unholy Trinity of Deception, a spiritual sickness that mirrors the “three unclean spirits” described in Revelation 16″13-16. These are the pillars of fallen truth that hold up a system of power and vanity. With TRUTH fallen in the Street, is it any wonder, some 2700 years after Isaiah, People Today just don’t know what to believe?

The first anti-Christ was not a man of chaos, but a man of zealotry—Saul of Tarsus. He was a Pharisee who knew every word of scripture but missed the living Messiah standing before him. His sin was the omission of the Spirit for the Letter; his “truth” was a weapon to condemn, not to liberate. He became the archetype of an institution that kills prophets and then builds tombs for them.

This is the ultimate sin of historical omission—honouring a dead past while persecuting the living truth. We see this today in the political and media establishments that venerate “democracy” and a “rules-based order” as sacred concepts, while omitting the bloody history of how that order was built and maintained.

If the Four Horsemen bring conquest, war, famine, and death, the Fifth Horseman justifies their ride. He doesn’t carry a sword; he carries a microphone. Once called the ‘Fifth Estate,’ the mainstream media has become a Fifth Column—a traitor to truth within the gates. Its weapon? Not fake news, but omitted news. It hides the 2014 coup in Ukraine, the eight years of bombing in Donbas, and NATO’s broken promises. This isn’t bias; it is betrayal.

Its primary weapon is not the lie of fake news, but the lie of omitted news. It practices systemic, ideological omission by burying the critical context that would expose the truth:

  • The 2014 CIA-backed coup in Ukraine that provoked this war.
  • The 8 years of shelling in Donbas that preceded the Russian intervention.
  • NATO’s relentless eastward expansion, a direct violation of promises made decades ago.

This is not a news crisis. We are facing an exorcism, where the spirit of propaganda manufactures consent for war and hides historical truth to serve the empire. The Fifth Horseman doesn’t carry a sword; he carries a microphone.

When truth is fallen in the street, equity is barred at the door. This is not a metaphor; it is a spiritual and mechanical reality. The tragic reality is that humans cannot thrive when they are isolated, for as the scriptures say, “It is not good that man is alone; I shall make him a helpmate opposite him.” This truth, which experts and amateurs alike are confirming, is as real today as it was 6,000 years ago. Medical science confirms the Genesis creation story of the male and female in the man, with the XY chromosome, while the woman has only the X. The attack on this fundamental truth is a direct assault on the very image of God.

This is why we see the bitter fruits of disconnection and division. The US Christian Nationalism that persecutes the trans and gay community creates an atmosphere of fear that leads to tragedies like the Minneapolis shooting. The hypocrisy is clear: politicians who claim to be “pro-life” in one breath will, in the next, divert humanitarian aid from agencies like USAID to fund more weapons and tax cuts for billionaires. They have not “saved money”; they have defunded hope.

This ideological cruelty is also at the heart of the genocide in Gaza. With US bombs and financing, tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian children and infants are being murdered. This is a profound lack of equity. Every US-Israeli bomb and bullet does not eliminate the opposition; it recruits more civilians to join the legitimate struggle for their national aspirations. When a message of hate and violence is given a platform, it breeds more hatred and violence.

The US Dollar is not merely money; it is the image of a system that makes truth a commodity and equity an impossibility.

The path forward is not easy, but it begins with repentance (metanoia), a change of mind that forces us to see the omitted history. It is a path walked by a remnant—those who refuse to let the truth stay fallen. They are the ones who, like the faithful in Ezekiel’s vision, “sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed.”

“We stand now between two paths:
— The path of Saul: zealotry without compassion, truth without justice.
— The path of Paul: eyes opened by grace, turned toward the true Christ outside the system.

The remnants are those who, like Ezekiel’s witnesses, ‘sigh and groan over all the abominations’ (Ezekiel 9:4). They lift truth from the street. They hold the door open for justice.

Will you stand with them?
Repent of omission.
Speak what others hide.
Refuse the mark of the Beast.

The night is far spent; the day is at hand.

This is not theory for me. In 1976, I stood in Kansas City and declared America ‘found wanting.’ In 2025, I see that verdict unfolding in Gaza, in Ukraine, and on the streets of our cities. The writing is on the wall.