Introduction
So we just now learned that the FBI had at least 8 agents inside the Proud Boys during the course of the J6 debacle. We also know that the FBI was up to their necks in that Pinky and the Brain scheme to kidnap the governor of Michigan. And do you remember that masked protest parade of red-pilled automata a year or so ago? That was like some Hollywood director’s feverish nightmarish version of Gilead Prepares for War got together with some night sweats of Kim Jong-un’s chief parade choreographer, and had a baby. And let us not forget the FBI arrests of pro-life activists—a once-renowned law enforcement agency turning into armed goons for a jitney justice department. In addition, as if such were not enough, the top echelons of the FBI have done their level best to fulfill their self-appointed role of becoming partisan hacks, obtaining Russian hoax warrants under pretenses known by them to be false—managing thereby to attain an astounding level of corruption—and all without anybody associated with these monkeyshines ever having to spend any time in the Big House. Kind of a sweet deal. They offered Christopher Steele a million clams if he would only verify his juicy morsels and juicier lies, but no. Maybe he didn’t want a million dollars. But I really don’t know what today’s FBI is doing messing around with any kind of corroboration or evidence at all. Make it up, man. What do they think this is, the Bronze Age?
In short, we now know that the top law enforcement agency in the United States is itself lawless.
“For look! The wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart.”
Psalm 11:2 (NKJV)
And all this happened without any effective witness or testimony brought against it. There have been quite a peripheral few who have seen what has been happening, and who have tried to raise their protests concerning it, but these are the kind of people that academicians would call “marginalized voices.” The people who had the actual responsibility to serve as our actual guardians have declined to do so, quite possibly because of the mortgage payments they have on some very nice homes with manicured lawns in Chevy Chase. That kind of thing can distract one from his duties.
“A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well.”
Proverbs 25:26 (NKJV)
So?
But my point here is not to write directly about the FBI and its festering sores. Or its oozing sores, for that matter. I have a different object in view, and I am fully prepared to tell you what it is. Shall I tell you now? My intent is to prepare you for something regarding our ministry here in Moscow that I no longer regard as a long shot possibility. To use the Southern subjunctive, it might could happen, in other words.
My operating assumption is that our ministry here is under the watchful eye of one or more of the three-letter-agencies, up to and including the possibility of plants in our community. It would be pastoral negligence not to budget for this as a possibility. Given who they do keep an eye on, given the kinds of shenanigans they have been getting away with thus far, and given the fact that we here have had two known encounters with the FBI, we have every reason to suppose ourselves to be on the radar. Maybe a teeny, little humble blip on the radar, but on the radar nonetheless.
Now there are two basic things that such planted agents could do. The first is that they could feed desperately needed INTEL back to the head office about all our nefarious doings—by which I mean our psalm sings, our worship services, our meal trains, our book groups, our pumpkin rugby games, our new book titles, and our tendency to open up new and attractive businesses in which we serve the public with a cheerful smile. Given the pressing threat posed by this kind of thing, it is only reasonable that they would need to spring loose a couple of the agents that they were using to guard Epstein’s client list, not to mention the home of the SCOTUS leaker. So as far as this option of possible surveillance is concerned, we don’t really mind. The church is not a secret society, but rather a city on a hill, and so we do want people to pay attention. So that’s all okay. Provided our FBI agent is baptized, he would certainly be welcome to the Table.
But the second possibility is the thing I am concerned about, such that it makes me want to write about it here. If a news story breaks that says that some of our deacons were implicated in a plot to disappear with $6B in crypto-investments, I am here and now calling upon each and every one of you to be a tad suspicious. Remembering the point above, everybody knows that one of the things that embedded plants do is relay information back to headquarters that can be used in an investigation. But another thing they can do is conduct false flag operations that are designed to discredit whichever group the operation is being run on. So be on your toes regarding that.
Say that a retired military man moves here, along with all of our other new folks. He is sharp, intelligent, dedicated, and pitches in to help with whatever is needed. After a few years pass (I am making this guy up, by the way), he is made a deacon, and three months after that he rolls out his anti-Semitic web site—with Murgatroyd Smith, Christ Church deacon prominently displayed at the top. The maneuver would be designed to get me on camera, sweating like a stuck pig, vehemently denying that we harbor any animus toward the Jews.
So Here’s the Plan
So what’s the plan, guys? If such a thing were to happen, the plan is to let the dogs bark without encouraging the engineer stop the train. The dogs can bark, but the train rolls on.
We intend to keep doing what we are doing, regardless. We want to worship the Lord every Lord’s Day. We want to keep preaching Christ to a Christless world. We want to ransack the Scriptures looking for good things to do. We want to learn how to sing God’s songs, the ones He left for us in His Word. We want to continue to provide a thorough-going classical Christian education to our kids. We want to see if we can make November the second hap-happiest time of the year. We want to continue to apply God’s Word to a godless generation. As Barnabas once put it to Paul at Antioch, we want to keep our eye on the ball.
And if along the way our FBI guy has somehow taken up a dim view of the Jews, then we will all talk with one another about it in low voices, quietly shaking our heads. And if it turns out that he was not FBI at all, but rather a homegrown idiot, for we have had those also, then we will shake our heads even more. We will be wondering how this could have happened in that his mom and dad weren’t idiots.
I am just using the Jew thing as an illustration here, but since I have somehow gotten onto the subject (again), let me expand on it a tad more. I won’t take long. Whenever I take a swipe at any of this bigotry claptrap and rot, invariably I get responses that say that I am generalizing irresponsibly because my correspondent (whom I do not know) doesn’t answer to my description at all. I clearly don’t know my historical onions, and I need to start reading a voluminous newsletter printed in East Toad Flats, AR, put out by Mason T. Beauregard, Esq., researcher, who has discovered a lot about the Jews that none of the rest of us knew before, and who has informed the world about it in 8 point font.
My actual correspondent will complain that when I make up ludicrous examples like that one, I am creating a caricature that does not fairly represent him or his colleagues. “Yeah, there may be some people out there like that, but this is simply a gross misrepresentation of me and my friends.” And I would say, “so then, you don’t like me applying to you and your group your very own methods of induction? Imagine.” As the old blues song put it, it ain’t no fun when the rabbit’s got the gun.
And they would retort that they were not talking about the good Jews. They were just going on about the evil Jews, which they for some reason decided to call “the Jews” for short.
Back to the point at issue. We have a track record that goes back decades. We love the Reformed tradition. We love the Westminster Standards. We love Goudimel psalms. We love the Kuyperian concept of sphere sovereignty. We believe that Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. We love the crown rights of King Jesus. We love the idea of Christ being praised by every tribe, language, people, and nation—including every possible DNA strand, and every color of skin pigmentation.
All this means that we love gospel diversity, and loathe the other kind. So if I am asked if I am a racist according to the metric set forth by BLM activists, I would laugh and say of course . . . right before putting my foot through the side of that metric. I already put my foot through the “white boy dumber” metric, but would be happy to do it again if you would like.
So if anyone tries to tar us with dark allegations, intimating that anything different is going on, or that we have changed directions, don’t believe them. We have numerous ways to establish what we have always taught, and it would be kind of fun to bring out some of those golden oldies again. We are ready to do so. Oh, you want to talk about slavery? Happy to. We believe that by the grace of God we have been equipped to be utterly distasteful to more than one group at a time—whether to the commies on the left, or the reactionary chauvinists on the right. A plague on both their houses.
Just this morning I read a comment online that said I was trashing white people. Given the controversies I have been in over the last thirty years, that would have been quite the pivot. I am also accused of incoherent philo-Semitism—all because I can tell chalk from cheese, and the Austrian school from the Frankfurt school.
But despite calling down a plague on both their houses, we also love the idea of commies repenting. Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ. And of bigots repenting. Come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ. And of FBI agents encountering some difficulties on the Damascus road. Always leave room for that kind of thing.
More NQN Stuff
A big part of what we do here in November is that we give stuff away. As in for free. This helps offset the impression that our refusal to qualify assertions during November proceeds from a churlish heart. Rather it comes from a heart brimming over with generosity and open-handedness. So at the bottom of every NQN post, look for the current offers, whatever they might this week. Please note that these are different from Weeks One and Two.
1. This week’s links to free Kindles are Evangellyfish—truth be told, one of my favorites—and my daughter’s book on identity in Christ for women—You Who (Amazon affiliate links).
2. Also November, anyone can get one free month of Canon+ using the code NQNQ. This only works for new subscribers—sorry, it doesn’t work for existing or annual subscriptions. If you do this, you will be able to watch my new documentary over Thanksgiving, and to do so for free. The name of the doc is “How to Save the World (in Eleven *Simple Steps).” That would be simple steps, not easy steps. Critics should be sure to watch it in order to confirm their suspicions about the apparent megalomania of the title, but which will turn out to be a dud. Since disappointing my critics has become something of a hobby of mine, I do encourage critics to take advantage of this free offer.
3. And this November, current subscribers can give a year’s subscription of Canon+ for just fifty bucks—$49.99 instead of $95.88. That way you can get that pastor, friend, or enemy the Canon+ content they’ve been so wishing for.
4. And in addition to all of that, from my quaint little Mablog Shoppe, over the course of this coming week (Nov. 14-18), you may obtain my book on how the gospel undoes all mimetic striving and vainglory. That book is called All the Condemnation in the World, and is free below. In addition, scarcely to be believed, is a free mp3 file of me singing something. Free. Click on that too.
All the Condemnation in the World
A statement of the gospel, that gospel which vanquishes the spirit of accusation.
Peace Peace Peace (MP3)
Somewhat delayed, but still coming at you as promised, is another song from the album Falling on Deaf Ears. A fuller description of the history of that album can we gleaned from the background included for the song Are You Looking for the City?