By Brandon Smith
During the past week I’ve been watching the frenzy over Donald Trump’s cabinet confirmations, specifically because the fabric of his cabinet will give us insight into how the next four years of his presidency will play out. One hearing that I found very interesting was Pete Hegseth’s. The level of hostility on display by Democrats entered the realm of slander.
Hegseth was barely confirmed as the Secretary of Defense with Vice President JD Vance making the tie breaking vote. The political left (and some Neo-Cons) seems to HATE this man in a special way, and initially I had difficulty understanding the real reason why.
Hegseth’s opposition to trans membership in the armed forces is surely one reason, but Trump is removing such mentally unstable people from the military regardless. His opposition to women in combat roles might piss off some feminists but the majority of American war fighters agree with him and every concrete study done on mixed gender combat units has shown terrible results.
Then, I watched a debate between progressive commentators vs Michael Knowles and Dave Rubin which illuminated the situation. The conversation was strangely focused on leftist accusations against Hegseth’s supposedly nefarious tattoo and how it relates to the Christian crusades.
The fury over Hegseth, in my view, gives us a peak behind the curtain at what the establishment truly fears, and their fear is triggered by unabashed Christianity. But not just that – It’s Hegseth’s veneration of old Christianity and a time when Christians controlled much of the known world. People like Hegseth are usually obstructed from entering government because they are standard bearers of a philosophy which terrifies globalists.
Is Hegseth a proponent of Christian empire? Maybe he is, maybe he isn’t. However, if he is, I wonder if that would be such a bad thing?
The above debate is predicated on classic revisionist propaganda largely conjured by “anti-colonial” academics in the 1990s; a part of the growing Political Correctness and Deconstructionist movements in universities that eventually became the woke monstrosity we are dealing with in 2025. This propaganda has become so ingrained in our educational consciousness that most people today have no knowledge of the crusades, they only know that “crusades = bad”.
The first Christian Crusade is perhaps one of the most important events in western history and one of the most neglected by our academic institutions. The prevailing narrative today is that the crusades were a mindless murderous rampage by Europeans trying to steal the Holy Land from innocent Arabs. This is complete nonsense.
As Michael Knowles points out, the Holy Land, most of the Levant region, northern Africa including Egypt and all lands around the Mediterranean were ruled by Christians from 300 AD onward. This was the old Roman Empire which converted to Christianity officially in 323AD (when Constantine the Great took full power). Yes, that’s right, most of the Middle East and Northern Africa were Christian for centuries.
This Christian realm, which included what we now know as Israel, was split in two during an event called “The Great Schism” in 1054 AD between the Catholics in the West and the Orthodox Church in the East.
The divide existed for centuries before this event, however, and created territorial weaknesses which were swiftly taken advantage of by Muslim conquerors when they captured the Holy Land in 640 AD. Islam, founded by the warlord Muhammad in 610 AD, had united the tribal Arab world under a single religious banner, but also a philosophy of conquest. The Muslims, directed by at least 109 verses in the Quran that call for the subjugation of non-believers who refuse to embrace Islam, set out to capture all of Christendom.
Over the course of a few decades the Islamic armies spread throughout the Levant and Africa, and even began taking lands in Europe including parts of Spain. Christians were persecuted under Muslim rule and often enslaved. Christian cities were sacked and lands stolen. When the Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos asked Pope Urban II for help, the Pope called for Christians to unite and end the Schism.
The East called for aid and the West would answer in 1095 AD. If the crusade was unsuccessful the fall of Christianity was assured.
Without the war to retake Christian lands, Europe as we know it would not exist and much of our world would probably look like one big Taliban village. This frightening prospect is obscured by outliers, events which ended in tragedy or crime. As in all war, villains can pop up on both sides. That said, there would have been no crusades without the Muslim invasions.
Today we face another ideological and cultural invasion, but this time the conditions are more complex.
I believe the progressive attempt to memory-hole the historical record of the Crusades is designed to prevent a new united western world. One could argue that religion is no longer the uniting factor that it once was, and ten years ago I would have agreed. But things are starting to change and if you have a discerning eye you might see, as I do, a movement forming ahead of us that is increasingly spiritual, not secular.
Regardless of how you might feel about Donald Trump, the cultural shift surrounding his return to office cannot be denied. After four years of Biden and Harris trying to institute medical tyranny, instigate a mass immigration crisis, label conservatives a “threat to democracy” and force woke cultism into daily life, it seems as though Americans have had enough. There has been a dramatic evolution within our society; a recognition that we are on the verge of destruction if we continue on the current progressive/socialist/relativist trajectory.
The west stands at the edge of a precipice. I suspect it’s the kind of moment that Pope Urban II witnessed in 1095 AD. Witnesses that wrote accounts of the period describe it as a kind of miracle, a coalition to save civilization from a looming dark age of barbarism. This is how many of us in conservative circles feel now: That there are great changes coming to erase generations of trespasses if we are willing to seize the day.
In 2025 a lot more people treat leftist ideology and globalism with disdain rather than complacency. The borderless multicultural agenda of the elites is finally facing substantial opposition, at least in the US. I would also argue that there has been a resurgence of interest in Christianity and Christian history; a natural consequence of Americans rediscovering their western cultural roots.
For thousands of years most of human civilization has been a cesspool of primeval domination. There have been no innocent empires, white, brown, it doesn’t matter. The core of nearly every empire has been war, slavery and genocide. The strong have always sought to subsume the weak. Every group of people has engaged in the most sickening of behaviors.
Africans were enslaving each other long before Europeans arrived on the scene. American Indians were participating in slavery, tribal warfare, human sacrifice and cannibalism as a way of life long before white Europeans showed up in their boats. The Chinese and the Mongols were committing the mass slaughter of peaceful kingdoms for most of the Middle Ages, yet progressive historians ignore these events in favor of admonishing the Christian Crusades.
Arabs were some of the worst perpetrators of human bondage and their treatment of the people they conquered made the slavery of early American history look quaint. Often misrepresented as the “Islamic Golden Age”, it is a modern academic myth that Muslims brought “peace and prosperity” and coexistence with them as they sacked the Levant and Europe. Anyone not adhering to Muslim belief was subject to brutality.
Today the west faces a takeover from within as much as it faces a takeover from without. Our own governments have been engaged in covert sabotage, flooding our borders with migrants from the third-world and inviting in ideologies and politics that are completely antithetical to western ideals. Many of these people come have one foot in the archaic. They don’t believe in things like equality, they believe that predators must rule and victims must submit.
Inviting such people into the US and Europe is clearly an agenda to destroy our civilization through foreign saturation. No government does this by accident. At the same time there has been a progressive/communist insurgency operating in our midst, funded by globalist interests using corporations and non-profit institutions as support structures for the revolution.
They don’t want a stand-up fight because they know they would lose. Rather, they are seeking to weaken our foundations, to demoralize us so they can pillage at will once we are broken and self-loathing. This is most evident in the UK and Europe where people with common sense are looking from afar at the positive changes in America with a sense of longing. They feel like they’re being left behind – A sacrifice to the multicultural behemoth.
This begs the question: Is saving America enough? Or is it time for a new and perhaps final crusade?
Leftists often talk about “tolerance” and accuse conservatives of going against their Christian fundamentals by refusing to remain apathetic to those who engage in destructive behavior. The political left and globalists speak of tolerance because it goes hand-in-hand with degeneracy. With tolerance comes social decline into debauchery and evil, which is what they most desire.
Tolerance is about suffering through the crimes and violations of others without expecting an eventual correction. Tolerance has NEVER been a Christian value. Rather, the Bible teaches of compassion, and many times it is more compassionate to correct a bad behavior than let it continue. Spare the rod spoil the globalist. We call it “tough love” and it’s necessary for the survival of humanity.
The first crusade was far more than just a geopolitical effort by governments to take back lands that were stolen; it was a massive spiritual correction. It was an endeavor which inspired great unity of purpose among common people. In fact, it was the common people, not the monarchies, that made the first crusade possible. If this kind of event were to happen again it would have to be grounded in similar high minded purpose and populism.
It’s hard to say if such inspiration is possible anymore. I think in America it certainly is, but Europe is questionable. There are growing efforts by conservative leaning parties to defend western values in the EU but they are being met with a vicious totalitarian opposition.
It’s not coincidence that Europe has been overrun with third-world migrants, most of them Muslim, in the past decade. These groups are acting as a blunt weapon, used by the elites to silence dissent by native born citizens.
As I write this the British are being subjected to increasing Orwellian oppression. The AFD party in Germany is under threat even as they grow more accepted by voters; progressive elites are seeking to ban them from elections entirely. The French establishment is using lawfare against their political opposition in the National Rally party and they are working to subvert voter demands. Both Germany and Romania claim they have the right to ignore election outcomes if conservatives continue to win.
There is a coordinated effort across Europe to stop conservative groups from entering government. The only place where the tide has truly turned is in the US (and perhaps Argentina). But we still face a long road and government reform is slow. A movement outside of politics will be needed to stop the mechanical march of the “New World Order”.
The great fear among centrists and libertarians is that a religious inspired movement will result in theocracy. I share these apprehensions. Yes religious institutions can be corrupted because institutions are controlled by men, but this is true of ALL institutions. How well has secular leadership performed in the past century? Yeah, not so great.
The idea of “separation of church and state” was never intended to remove Christian influences from government. It was designed to prevent government from interfering with individual religious expression. America was founded under Christian doctrine and Christian leadership. A return to that dynamic would be welcome, as long as personal freedom (freedom with responsibility) is maintained.
Make no mistake, the enemy has been trying to build their own religious empire. The woke movement is driven by self worship and the worship of bureaucratic power. Behind the curtain they are not secular and they have more zealotry than any cult in recent memory. They claim to be atheistic and progressive in their principles, yet they happily ally with third-world fundamentalists that hold completely contrary beliefs. Why? Because Islam is not a threat to their ultimate aims; Christianity is.
If a new crusade were to happen, it would have to start here in America. However, if we were to “take up the sword”, as it were, we can do so knowing we are not alone. There are million upon millions of westerners around the world that would welcome us.
There is a deep desire in our society for a return to principles; a need for purity of purpose. I see it daily. People are lost and they need a compass. The question is, who will give it to them? The Luciferian globalists? The woke cultists? The Islamic horde? Or us?
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32 Comments
Bravo! I do hope Christians are waking up to the need to defend our Faith and our culture built on that Faith! I appreciate your giving clarity on a topic that most Christians in the west get wrong: the Crusades, especially the first three, were pilgrimages done for penance and to preserve access to holy sites taken by the Muslims who would not share access. As a body, they never went for money, but lost fortunes and health. Reading their writings, this is apparent.
The sacking of Jerusalem in the 1st Crusade was horrible, but not out of the ordinary for attackers when a city chose not to surrender but fight back. That was the unfortunate norm. Although this does not make it better, it should be seen in the context of history. Further, the blood on the streets up to the knees of the horses was literally impossible. There were not enough people in the city to fill the streets at even a fraction of that depth. This was a scriptural reference by the Crusaders about the final victory of God.
Yes, war is hell. The odd thing is how some people change their attitudes towards a massacre depending on the context. For example, leftists will actively and joyfully defend the bombing of Dresden – Which was by all accounts a tragic mass murder involving the deaths of 30,000 civilians. But, since the civilians were Germans, lefties are fine with it. They only become indignant over massacres involving people they view as “ethnic minorities” killed by westerners.
Interesting article. I’ll post later of the Crusader and the Moors, Charle Martel defended Christian Europeans.
712 Other Sephardim (“Eastern” Jews from the African and Asian tribes) follow the Islamic Jihad into Spain. This initiates a new “Golden Age” for the Diaspora, a period of Jewish supremacy among merchants and bankers across the known world. International trade is soon dominated by this people without a country who, by their international connections, common language and mercantile skill began to amass great wealth, trading not only silk, spice, sugar, rice, oranges, jewelry and slaves, but also information and intelligence — mercantile, political, religious and military — for it is the merchants who carry the news to their bankers, and the bankers to the kings.
732 Charles Martel halts the Islamic horde at the Battle of Poitiers. Europe is saved from amalgamation with Moorish
Well, finally some recognize the issue is a SPIRITUAL BATTLE… Good vs Evil…
The living, Creator God will not be mocked and if you are in Rebellion…
STOP IT! Ask for His forgiveness and PEACE… He will grant His Grace and Mercy to you! John 3:16; 10:10; 14:6… Romans 3:23 & 6:23… blessings…
Very well stated, sir! Yes, past time actually but the moment may indeed be now. Liberate Constantinople for starts, better late than never.
“The level of hostility on display by Democrats entered the realm of slander.”
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Democrats seem possessed by a spirit of darkness. There seems to be little Light within and among them. All they seem to do is tear down, destroy, and bring down the energy level of the Nation. This is bad for them… and certainly bad for America.
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“… what the establishment truly fears, and their fear is triggered by unabashed Christianity… veneration of old Christianity…”.
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Religions like Christianity are incompatible with the Globalist One-World Order View of Their total rule over our Planet. Globalists hate anything that challenges their twisted view of reality and our place within it. Globalism is basically just another flavor of False God and False Religion which keeps popping up in various forms over the Ages. As with Democrats, this is bad for them and bad for all the People of the World. Their attempted rule over the Planet would come at the literal price of our souls. They appear to not have much a soul left – and they want the rest of us to live as soul-less as they seem to be as well.
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“Regardless of how you might feel about Donald Trump, the cultural shift surrounding his return to office cannot be denied.”
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Sane America never lost its bearings. It never lost it’s sense of purpose and direction. Sane America was just waiting for a chance to reassert itself against a Hurricane of Woke Insanity. Trump just happens to be the one person still standing that Sane America can see some of Themselves in. Americans are tired of feeling left out. Americans are sick of feeling powerless against Godless Forces. Americans are tired of apologizing (or being told that they should) for tried and true legacy values by those who have no right to make such demands. Americans want to have a voice in the affairs of our Nation and our personal and collective future. In short… Americans want to be free to be ‘Americans’ and not some hideous distortion of that which Leftism and Wokeism has tried so hard to institute and codify. For Sane America, the taste of that hideous stuff the past four years has been awful and needs to be fully spit out quickly.
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As with all cultures.. Young People are always the key. Will enough Young People embrace Sanity in our future or will they become Woke Toxic from all the garbage peddled by America’s State Media, Anti-Social Media, and peer-pressure from other Young People who are already lost to sanity. As we all know who have been through the developmental years… it takes a courageous person to stand up and stand out from the Crowd Group Think. So many seem to lack that courage and the fundamental sound values structure that is required to do so. If you don’t know what you stand for – you stand for nothing. And The Group will quickly impose Their values on you. And if that happens often enough – it’s Goodbye America.
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“The great fear among centrists and libertarians is that a religious inspired movement will result in theocracy.”
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We already have a theocracy of sorts. Not a theocracy with a traditional God… but a deification of substitute saviors like ‘The Science!’ and our growing belief in ‘Technology’. By deifying Science Dogmas and Technology written by False Prophets as always being The Good… this again is just another flavor of how humans can worship False Gods.
“There is a deep desire in our society for a return to principles…”.
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The desire for such a return is real among the slightly-over 50 percent of Americans who remain relatively sane. But there is a significant minority of Americans who have already swallowed so much Woke Kool-Aid that sanity and reality and principles no longer has an affect on them. They are temporarily stunned but will look to find ways to regroup and attack again.
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Arriving at and having a useful, liveable America is dependent upon Sane America remaining above the 50 percent level while also holding on to the levers of power. Without that… we’ve already had a taste of what the future on Planet Earth will look and feel like.
Excellent points as usual Shaman!!
One of your best articles… a must read by every American imo.
Epic article… came here from ZH to find out more. Thanks!!
EPIC ARTICLE !
I have been around and promoted ZEROHEDGE on money
forums going back to 2007.
SI TO THE MOON ! LOL !
The history of Europe is an open secret and brutal.
There is a lot there. This article covered 1000 years
of history, and did a good job, which is very difficult.
May 29 1453 Constantinople Fell.
Europe was already occupied, a total pincer move,
Spain , Vienna, we were almost snuffed out for good.
The Battle of Malta, Knights of St John ,
Italian Republics owning the MED, …
The Barbary Wars, John Adams, The Philadelphia,
The birth of the MARINE CORP, …
The attackers have never stopped.
READ WHITE GOLD , amazon still sells books like this for now.
“Religion poisons everything”……absolutely everything. There is NO religion superior to another or a worldview based on reason, evidence, science and common sense. Mythology, superstition, faith, belief etc are all the dwelling place of ignorance, intolerance, violence and tribalism.
Pick any point in history that you would rather be in instead of SECULAR modern culture.
We DO NOT need another Crusade, we need an end to and rejection of religion in all its delusional make believe forms.
Everyone worships something. You likely worship Modernity. That’s your religion. It killed over 100,000,000 people in the 20th century in the form of Communism, Socialism, Fascism and Capitalism—all “rational” “scientific” systems. Go back to listening to Immagine by John Lennon. And read more.
Yes, we’ve all heard the Maoist/communist rhetoric you espouse, and look at where it has led us – Multiple communist genocides and a globalist shadow government that wants to normalize the mutilation and rape of children, not to mention normalize every sin under the sun. Yes, we do need another crusade to erase these people from the Earth.
Being born and baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church and learning its history, I too have skepticisms of the Western world which I reside in.
Many events have taken place historically like the sacking of Constantinople, the enslavement of Greek society by Ottoman Turks for over 400 years and the like. I visited the historical revolutionary sites in Greece like where Bishop Germanos rose the rebel flag in Kalavryta to start the revolution against the tyranny. Much like our revolutionary war. In the same town, my late father told me to visit the religious site where the Nazi’s massacred 1,243 Greek men and boys due to the successful Greek resistance under Nazi occupation. My father was 8 years old at the time and my grandmother shielded him from capture on the farm by being Christian to the regular (not SS) German soldiers. Normal German soldiers prayed before they broke bread, and my grandmother saw this as an opening.
Back further, a Turkish Colonel was stationed on the farm. Even on the island of Samos, where my mother was born, my grandparents had encounters with the Nazi’s searching for information and the like. My Aunt tells the story of how the large sewing machine in the home fell on the Nazi commanders’ foot when they were trying to look under it and stuff. Too funny.
Bottom line, oppression sucks, to be under the boot of this bullcrap. Always fight and protect freedom at any costs. That is why I joined the U.S. Marines 30 years ago to not only honor my grandfathers decorated service in WWII with the two Greek Divisions under the British 8th Army, but also to honor the U.S. and America’s first foreign battle victory where the 15-star flag rose on foreign soil for the first time in what is today, Tripoli, Libya.
A Greek Captain led 26 Greeks to work with U.S. Marines and a young American Lt. to capture gun artillery positions. The American flag rose to victory and the Greeks were right there in support. Bottom line is Christianity is under attack still today.
The head of the Orthodox Church in Istanbul is like a prison. Surrounded by massive security because the grey wolves and other Turkish groups will kill the head of the church given the chance. The Kosovo war, the West stood by to defend radical Albanians when over 150 Christain churches were burnt to the ground, and Christians had to be escorted by armored personnel carriers to go to church. I recall the image of NATO troops guarding old Orthodox monastery’s complete with machine gun nests and sandbags everywhere.
In Syria, while we supported al qeada and other radicals because of bad man Assad, it was Assad that gave Christians guns to protect themselves. Now we have al qeada in suits and already there is talk about abuses in the Christian communities in northern Syria. The radical muslims have called for the Greek Patriarch to be removed in Syria already. Same holds true in Gaza where American bombs supplied to Isreal hit one of the oldest Christian churches ran by the Greeks.
Regarding Ukraine, a nation under the illegitimate Zelensky (cancelled elections) have been ransacking Orthodox churches to selling relics and confiscating property including arresting priests for the crime of being under the Russian Orthodox Church. Yet, the West targets a Christian nation with UAV’s, missiles and bombs in Russia for Ukraine? Most of Ukraine is Orthodox, Russian speaking and does not truly follow the regime in power. The regime in power in Kiev is the problem, not Ukraine or Russia. Yet, we side with the nonsense and chaos.
Yes, we need a crusade in the West. Maybe this whole Ukraine episode is the catalyst to remove the evil over our lands in the West. Enough of the bullcrap wars and go back to our roots, our Christian roots.
If we do not stop this, thermo-nuclear war awaits us all.
Very interesting stuff Pete
Pete, seems we have similar backgrounds. I’m a first gen American from both sides with Russian family from Northern China. My parents and grandparents were there when the Soviets took Harbin, and later, the beginning of Mao’s takeover of China. In 1947 my dad’s dad was taken to a gulag and died there after an estimated 10 years of hard labor. Growing up in the US, my childhood was not like others. I too grew up Orthodox (Russian) and completely agree with what you say above regarding Ukraine, the Serbs and so on. Side note: My mom’s neighbor (late 80s) is Greek from Greece and witnessed what the Nazis did there.
Many of us ROCOR are not on board with the reunification that happened in 2007, where the Moscow Patriarch (MP) took control of our churches. This was followed by a visit from Putin to the Synod in NY. True Orthodoxy is under attack and has been for centuries. The murder of the last Czar was effectively removing the last Coronated Christian monarch and that of course is by design. Americans have been cleverly shielded from this history since WWII by the prosperity following the war. While my American friends were telling me stories of their parents having hot rods, listening to the original rock and roll bands, the fabulous 50s, and so on, my parents were trying to not get murdered by the communists. My parents, like other Russians from China, came here through Brazil. Some through the Philippines. It was not possible to enter the US directly from China at the time.
While the Trump faithful are rejoicing, I fear what lies ahead. Of course, it’s a wait and see game; but history shows that after the roughly 50 years of political promises of a better life, is anything better? Are we safer? Is daily life more affordable? The crisis, reaction, solution, strategy – with the solution not being what the public wants – is the only thing that has been consistent. The goals of world communism are moving forward and the best we can hope to do is to delay the process.
This is a good history lesson and great question Brandon. For once it does feel like we have the wind at our back. The last several years we spent with our face in the mud. I contend that our biggest saving grace is the neoliberal’s complete detachment from masculinity and reality. Shit can you imagine if all of us (people reading this) had gone leftist crazy or even just half of us lol. Now that’s a scary thought.
PS Though it’s been many years reading this got be in the mood to watch “Kingdom of Heaven” again.
https://youtu.be/KartNo8EDWY?si=ACMhkIsed0ognw-_
To be fair it’s been damn near 20yrs since I went to see this movie. Like I said Brandon’s pep talk got me in the mood. Apologies if this flick might actually be pozzed. 😂
Onward Christian soldiers!
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. – Bill of Rights Amendment 1, Constitution for the United States of America.”
Nowhere is there any mention of the “separation of church and state” in the Constitution for the United States of America. The 1st Amendment only restricts the “Congress” in not making any laws that “prohibit” the free exercise of any “established” religion. There is however a constitution where you do see the phraseology of “separation of church and state” though:
CONSTITUTION (FUNDAMENTAL LAW) OF THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, Adopted at the Seventh (Special) Session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Ninth Convocation, On October 7, 1977. Article 52. …(2) In the USSR, the church is separated from the state, and the school from the church.
You’re right that Christianity isn’t about “tolerance” – which for leftists means letting them subjugate Christians and everyone else under a leftist dictatorship without anyone fighting back. I’m positive God wants us to fight for liberty, like the Founding Fathers did.
Jonathan,
Trinitarianism is globalist, like the chauvinist nationalism which spawned it. Also, the FF’s didn’t fight for “liberty”, per se, but to overthrow the old regime of crown and altar so that a new regime of planters, merchants, industrialists, and financiers could rule. It appears that a few people had a good sense of where the world was headed several decades before the cretins of communism began to figure it out.
Several valid observations in the article, but I’m confused about this passage:
“This Christian realm, which included what we now know as Israel, was split in two during an event called “The Great Schism” in 1054 AD between the Catholics in the West and the Orthodox Church in the East.
The divide created territorial weaknesses which were swiftly taken advantage of by Muslim conquerors when they captured the Holy Land in 640 AD.”
The sequence of dates, seems to indicate that the territorial weaknesses contributing to the fall of the Levant, began with the excommunication of Cerularius. What am I missing?
My confusion about the above passage notwithstanding, I’d always thought that the great schism was something of an echo of the conflict between Rome and Greece that had been simmering from the fall of Corinth onward. I’m no historian, so that’s just an impression, possibly a spurious correlation.
That said, there does seem to be a fairly wide consensus that the great schism had been building for centuries, which supports the central thesis of the article.
If I’m misunderstanding the timeline, I’d appreciate it if anyone could clarify.
The article actually says: “The divide existed for centuries before this event, however, and created territorial weaknesses which were swiftly taken advantage of by Muslim conquerors when they captured the Holy Land in 640 AD.”
I was trying to convey that there was a history of divide between the East and West Christendom for centuries and that this caused territorial weakness well before the Schism.
I think there is enough room for disagreement on the Crusades. The Crusaders were motivated by more than just a desire to free the Holy Land from Muslim domination. There was the lure of glory in dying for a cause greater than themselves, and also the promise by the then Pope of indulgences sufficient to guarantee entry into Heaven.
Sound familiar?
There is ample historical evidence that they were zealous in their quest to a fault. The sacked both Jerusalem and Constantinople (Byzantium). Their slaughter was pretty indiscriminate. I don’t think we should be lionizing them uncritically.
Of course, I admit that history is messy. It’s quite true that Muslim incursion into Europe was a definite threat. But I think the Crusades were a mixed bag as far as halting the Muslim advances. After the first Crusade, the Crusaders were not as effective a deterrent, mostly because the Muslims, but that time, had learned to stop fighting each other long enough to concentrate on fighting the “infidels”.
Dr. James White (aomin.org) has had a few recent programs on the Crusades, dating back to late summer of 2024. He comments mainly from the theological aspects of the Crusades but mixes in a lot of history as background.
I agree with many of the comments here that what the left and the One-Worlders fear most is not a theocracy, per se, but a Christian resurgence which rejects their theocracy of the worship of science (so-called), technology, and secularism, which amounts to a rejection of their plans for the world.
What some are concerned about is a return to sacralism (a merger of Church and State) and nominal Christianity. That has already been tried and found wanting. Many reformed commentators on the current scene are praying for a true spiritual revival, which only the Spirit of the living God can accomplish.
To be sure there are plenty of ugly events surrounding the crusades. As noted in the article, most wars produce villains and tragedies for all sides involved. The problem with the history of the Crusades as they are taught today is that academia ignores the primary cause and the primary goal of the wars: Islamic invasion into the west was the cause and booting them out was the goal. The crusades succeeded in accomplishing this. Christianity and western civilization would not exist today without the crusades, this is undeniable. The woke academic fold would rather nitpick specific mistakes and disasters while ignoring the bigger purpose of the event. It’s how they control the narrative today; by rewriting history or only telling the part of the story that supports their ideology. They specifically hate the crusades because it is a glaring example of Christians refusing to “turn the other cheek” and accept cultural eradication.
A “Christian empire” wouldn’t be America anymore. It sounds like Americans wanna be ruled by the pope which is exactly what the pilgrims didn’t want and why they fled Europe.
I am a Christian and the last thing I want is for this country to be ruined by becoming a theocracy or a monarchy ruled by the church (as in the time of the crusades).
Perhaps you should actually read the article before commenting? I specifically cite the problems surrounding theocracy. However, America was a Christian nation for CENTURIES; secular rule was only forced into vernacular in the past 60 years. If you really are a Christian then you would never stand against the assertion that our society was better off during this period. We didn’t have mass murder of babies, we didn’t have communists running our schools, we didn’t have degenerates targeting children with grooming propaganda and trans therapies and we didn’t have forced mass immigration from the third world. Beyond that, if you knew anything you would understand that the Pope is not a Christian, he’s a globalist, and the globalists are exactly who we need to defend against in a final crusade.
This article brings to mind the recent goonergate situation because there seems to be a large contingent of people on our own side who want to promote the same form of libertinism as the left but with a more aesthetically pleasing coat of paint, particularly in gaming, and they are screeching bloody murder at the mere mention of dialing back the titillation and T&A in games and entertainment.
It’s important to remember that a large portion of the anti-woke movement is libertarian and a lot of them are only concerned with individual freedom. Conservatives are concerned with freedom AND responsibility. Unchecked freedom has never been a good thing and it leads to degeneracy, which is why some government will always be necessary. American culture has gone FAR into the realm of the libertine; trying to dial it back will take decades and I think there’s too many other priorities right now. That said, it’s not a violation of anyone’s “freedom of speech” to point out that turning games into porn is not necessarily the best way to counter the woke leftist takeover of pop culture.
I can confirm that my sons (ages 19 & 21) are devout Christian men. Their circle of male friends are as well. We are seeing a movement of young adults moving towards faith as they witnessed the evil over the past 8 years and have grown up in an age of the Plandemic. Their eyes are open to woke gaslighting and struggle to reconcile the challenges created by a government that only cares to line their own pockets against the need to feed, clothe, and house themselves. This why this demographic overwhelmingly voted for Trump. They are aware of the significant changes that are required in our culture and our institutions to be able to have a decent future. Their faith will be their guiding light to make these changes to our society. I can testify that these future leaders will have the resolve to do whatever is necessary to rid our country of the evil that is evident. The future is certainly brighter than it has been in several years!