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We are involved in a war, a war between spirituality and egoism, a war between truth and falsehood, between right and wrong

Against the Rulers of Darkness


Jim ONeill image

By —— Bio and Archives August 22, 2009

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image"We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age." (Eph. 5:12) [To Lucifer] ..the first radical known to man, who rebelled against the establishment, and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom." From the Dedication page of Saul Alinsky's "Rules For Radicals" We are involved in a war. It is a war between differing political ideologies, mind-sets, and world-views. It is a war that has been going on for millennia, and it is now rushing towards a conclusion -- or at least the end of the act.
At its heart, it is a war between spirituality and egoism, a war between truth and falsehood, between right and wrong. As I write this, two Florida teachers may lose their retirement benefits, and spend six months in jail for their "flagrant" violation of the First Amendment. Their crime? They said Grace before eating a meal, while on school grounds. I can envision the trial: Before placing one of the defendants in the dock, he's asked, "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God." He says, "I do." The prosecutor asks if he invoked God, while on school property. The defendant says that he did. The judge bangs his gavel and roars "Six months in jail!" Do you see anything just a tad crazy about any of that? The charges were filed by the ACLU, (which, I believe, is short for the American Collectivist-Lawyers Union) -- the same folks who brought us the Anti-Life/Anti-God legislation of Roe vs. Wade, and defended the right to teach left-wing "racial purification," in the Scopes "monkey" trial, (which I discussed in my last article). Be that as it may -- it's no "news bulletin," to point out that mankind's spiritual growth has lagged far behind our technological advances, or to point out that spirituality and religion have been under constant attack by the Far-Left for over a century.

It is well past time for America to stop the insidious spread of secularism in our culture

It is well past time for America to stop the insidious spread of secularism in our culture, and to place God back in His pivotal role, as the central pillar of liberty. It's time to grow up, spiritually speaking, and clean house -- both individually, and as a nation. Permit me to define some of the terms that I will be using throughout this article. These are merely my personal definitions, and are not meant to be viewed as something Moses brought down from the mountain. I mean no slight to any religion, and apologize in advance for any offense I might inadvertently give. First, reasonably enough, is the term "God." I use this term when referring to the creator of all that is, and I believe that the creator is also the creation -- there is nothing outside of God. God is the only constant, or "rock," in an ever shifting world. God's presence shines brightly in some areas, and seems to be all but extinguished in others, but whether shining brightly, or hidden under a bushel basket, God is there. God, being infinite, is beyond labels, and I use the masculine pronoun "He" when referring to God, only as a means of communicating in a traditional, and therefore less confusing, manner. I don't really believe that God is a he, or a she -- or an it. I believe that God transcends all such labels, and is ultimately, ineffable. I don't believe that God's genesis, the creation of the universe, is something that happened in some misty past. I believe that creation is very much an ongoing affair, with the universe constantly coming into being, in the eternal now. God to me is not some absent "landlord," but a vibrant reality, all around me and through me. As Paul said, "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." "One God...of all, who is above all and through all, and in you all." (Eph. 4:6) I also believe that God is intelligent. In Psalm 94 we read, "He who made the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see?" You could add, "He who designed intelligence, shall He not be intelligent?" By "spirituality" I mean anything that deals with the experience of God -- not knowing about God, but knowing God experientially. The key to this experience is surrender. Let me define how I use the terms religion, and spiritualism, and then get on with the meat of my article. By the term religion, I mean the framework that supports the spirituality at a religion's core. Religion is not spiritual, in and of itself, but is a method of conveying spirituality. Take away its spiritual heart, and religion becomes simply a vehicle for moral instruction. That is not a bad thing, of course, but moral instruction by itself, lacks the vital element of spiritual experience. I further separate religion, between true religion, and "religion" -- religion in quote marks. More about that in a bit. By "spiritualism," I mean any of the numerous teachings and beliefs that are simply esoteric ways of entertaining and strengthening the ego -- ESP, channeling, astral travel, telepathy, etc. These various systems are not spiritual, because they do not promote surrender to God, but are simply arcane methods to prop up the ego. Immersing oneself in spiritualism, is the equivalent of switching deck-chairs on the Titanic. It may result in an interesting change of view, but you're still going down with the "ship" -- i.e. the ego. Let me move on to the atheism that is so near and dear to the Far-Left. The various philosophies that the Far-Left follows, are all based on atheism -- the nihilistic premise that the universe has no governing intelligence. It follows that atheists don't believe in an immortal spirit, hence when they "shuffle off this mortal coil," that's the end of them. Some atheists come up with absurd visions of death being a sort of "eternal darkness." Well, darkness is something, and you can't experience something, if you are no thing. So they can at least take that worry off their table. If you take God out of the picture, let me explain how you'll think and feel after you die. Ready? That little "paragraph of nothing" speaks volumes. If there is nothing immortal about you -- nothing spiritual -- then when your body dies, you cease to exist. Period. End of story. As far as atheists are concerned, after death, they may as well have never existed. That bears repeating: They may as well have never existed. The implications and ramifications of that last statement, seem to just zoom by an atheist's head. Most atheists show a striking lack of imagination in this regard -- a certain willful dimness of mind. They gamely go about their lives, ignoring the fact that their lives are utterly meaningless. You'll never find me ever accusing an atheist of profound thinking. They generally erect some puerile concept of divinity, and then dismantle the "strawman," so that they can go about their narcissistic way, without any bothersome worries about morality, and such things. No matter how busy, influential, and powerful an atheist may be, at the end of their life, it means squat. It's no more than "...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Nothing. The various nihilistic philosophies, so popular with the Far-Left, say as much. One of the reasons that the Far-Left is so hell-bent on social engineering, is because it provides a distraction from the spiritual wasteland inside themselves. They seek to inject meaning into their lives, by forcing everyone into some perverted collectivist parody of spiritual truth. Speaking of truth, it is a spiritual axiom, that no one else can do your spiritual work for you.

The Far-Left's leitmotif of , "Let the government do it for you," is soul destroying poison.

Spiritual mentors of various types can assist you by sharing their wisdom, and like-minded spiritual travelers can give you support, but the journey itself is taken by you alone. This is in alignment with the American principle of individual freedom. The Far-Left's leitmotif of , "Let the government do it for you," is soul destroying poison. Adding to the Far-Left's insipid view of spirituality, is a noticeable dearth of moral values. In fact, they take pride in their stance of moral relativism. The late Alan Bloom correctly observed that a belief in moral relativism "...takes one into very dark regions of the soul, and very dangerous political experiments." (Let me make a brief aside, and point out that moral degeneracy is not confined to the left side of the political spectrum -- you may have noticed this already). The Far-Left cannot, or will not, see their ideological positions as the tragic, dangerous, and idiotic fallacies that they are. Because they are devoid of spirituality, and a moral compass, the people who populate the Far-Left consist largely of vociferous infantile narcissists. The atheistic ego sees everything that is not "self," as a danger to its existence. This puts their ego into a paranoid position. It sees itself as alone against an uncaring universe -- an infinite universe that is "not me." The formula looks like this: 1 vs. INFINITY. Those are not good odds, people. As a result, the atheistic ego is fear-based -- which helps to explain their need for the security blanket of group-think, and a collectivist social system. It also helps explain the viciousness that they spew towards anything they regard as a threat to the collective. In direct opposition to the atheist's infantile narcissism, is the religious, spiritual path of surrender to God. The spiritual path is, of course, anathema to the self-obsessed Far-Left egotist. "Rules for Radicals," a Far-Left "bible," is dedicated to Lucifer. In his book "Paradise Lost," Milton envisions a scene after Lucifer had been kicked out of heaven, and into hell. Milton has Lucifer look around his new domain, and say to one of his aides, "Tis better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven." That quote could serve as the motto of the Far-Left, and of the ego itself. The spiritual aspirant's struggle towards salvation and enlightenment is anything but any easy path. The ego resists in any way it can -- and it is extremely clever. The Hindu holy book, the Bhagavad Gita, is an allegorical tale about the various "battles" that the human ego goes through on its way to being consciously united with God. The hero of the Bhagavad Gita is Arjuna, who represents the human desire for conscious unity with God. Near the beginning of the book, Arjuna looks out over a vast battlefield filled with his enemies, and collapses in despair. He drops his weapon, falls to his knees, and says to himself, "No way, Jose" -- or, the Hindu equivalent. The "enemies" represent the various ploys that the ego will use to keep him entrapped in its clutches, and the "battlefield" represents the struggles that Arjuna must face. Arjuna'a friend and mentor, Krishna, sees Arjuna's despair, and walks over to give Arjuna some advice and moral support. Krishna tells Arjuna to show some guts, some courage, some backbone. "Stand up, Arjuna!" Stand up indeed. In America we are free to practice the religion of our choosing, because we live in a free republic, not a theocracy. A theocracy is a government run by a religion. We are about to lose our free republic, and have it replaced by a collectivist "religion of the state" -- a secular theocracy Making a religion out of government, is an idea that goes back at least as far as Rousseau. After the French Revolution, the various traditional religious holidays were banned, and replaced with celebrations of the "state religion." The Far-Left revolutionaries of the day, threw out the "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," and blessed themselves in the name of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." The United States has slowly, imperceptibly, had its religious freedom stolen away. In its place is a smug, arrogant "religion" of state, that ridicules God, and exalts the self, with all the hubris and passion of unbridled narcissism. It is time to put a stop to this vile trend. To not just stop it, but to take back the ground that we've lost, and to expand it. It is time to put America back in its rightful place as a "shining city upon a hill." It is time to do vigorous, open legal battle with the forces intent on mocking the Constitution, making us slaves to a fascist/communist collective. These people have robbed America, and are continuing to rob America, of its spiritual roots. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, we need to grow up spiritually, both as individuals and as a nation. I'll end this article by briefly discussing these two subjects. We need to mature individually in regards to our spiritual understanding. One of the areas of greatest importance is grasping the essence of spirituality itself. Spirituality is concerned with experience, as opposed to "book knowledge." D.T. Suzuki put it this way, "When Zen (Buddhism) wants you to taste the sweetness of sugar, it will put the required article right into your mouth and no further words are said." In other words (no pun intended), words are merely labels -- the word "sugar" won't sweeten your coffee. Verbal knowledge is no substitute for direct experience. The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who certainly knew words, said, "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." This includes stilling the words in our head -- our thoughts. Direct experience, not book knowledge, is the spiritual path to conscious awareness of God's presence. Knowing about God, is not the same as experiencing God. All of the world's major faiths teach this -- this is at the heart of the world's major religions. It is sometimes lost amid all the ecclesiastical panoply, but it is there. It is this vital spiritual experience that America needs to get in touch with. I'm not talking about emotional religiosity; I'm talking about a committed dedication to the truth. To experiencing the truth. We need to strengthen God's presence in our hearts, and in our country. Let me move on to "religion" in quote marks. All of the world's major faiths have renegade denominations, or sects. Such "religious" sects have pirated their respective faiths, and use them as a cloak for decidedly un-religious ideologies and practices. America may not be able to do much about these "wolves in sheep's clothing" in the rest of the world, but we can do something about them here at home. Any place of worship, which preaches intolerance and hatred, should at the minimum, have its tax exempt status yanked. Such "religions" are an insult to true adherents of all faiths, and are in direct opposition to the teachings of any of the world's holy scripture. We need to stop "#-footing" around with such duplicitous, dangerous demagogues, and their congregations. They are, at best an embarrassment to the faithful, and at worst, an arrow aimed at the heart of all true religions. They are not religious, but merely "religious," and any official recognition of them as bona fide examples of religious expression should cease as soon as possible. Another form of "religion" that needs to have their tax exempt status taken away, are the various forms of spiritualism -- those "religions" that fleece the flock, and ignore, if not denigrate, true spirituality. These circus side-show forms of "religion" do nothing but confuse people honestly searching for answers, rob their purses and wallets, and side-track them from true spirituality.

We need to recommit ourselves to being pro-free republic, pro-individual freedom, pro free enterprise, pro-Constitution, and pro-God.

We need to get America back on track, and stop coddling these crooks, scam artists, and villains. We need to stop, and reverse, the anti-God secularist trend, that is immersing our country in a soulless limbo of moral relativism and deceit. We need to recommit ourselves to being pro-free republic, pro-individual freedom, pro free enterprise, pro-Constitution, and pro-God. I ask you to join me in a prayer that God's presence may ignite our hearts.



Jim ONeill -- Bio and Archives | Comments

Born June 4, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Served in the U.S. Navy from 1970-1974 in both UDT-21 (Underwater Demolition Team) and SEAL Team Two.  Worked as a commercial diver in the waters off of Scotland, India, and the United States.  Worked overseas in the Merchant Marines.  While attending the University of South Florida as a journalism student in 1998 was presented with the “Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii AEJMC Research in Journalism Ethics Award,” 1st place undergraduate division.  (The annual contest was set up by Carol Burnett with money she won from successfully suing a national newspaper for libel).  Awarded US Army, US Navy, South African, and Russian jump wings.  Graduate of NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School, 1970).  Member of Mensa, China Post #1, and lifetime member of the NRA and UDT/SEAL Association.


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