This is fascinating to me when you consider the crushing weight and size of the mental health crisis among our young people. Every "expert" ... every "program" (gov't or otherwise) is almost always focused downstream - fixing the problem through "treatment" of some kind, which usually includes medication.
In this event (regardless of whether it is "real" or not), we have energy that is focused upstream - addressing what is causing the problem, which is our lack of connection to a power and a moral authority that is outside of ourselves (you can call it God if you like, or a search for transcendent meaning).
Even if you're not a "believer," you should probably be hoping for more of this. History has shown that a culture that exists without this kind of connection eventually self-destructs, which is why the founders of our country - many of whom were not Christians - believed that our country would work only as long as we were a "moral and religious" people.
I am NOT a believer, but I believe in evil, and as I watch evil people, many of them unfathomably wealthy and powerful, systematically unmoor this great nation to drift in the storm, I do hope for more of this - with an intensity beyond my understanding.
I agree, Jim Wills. I’m not a Christian but this literally brought tears to my eyes. What’s wrong with people believing that there’s something bigger out there? That no, you’re not the center of the world. That it’s going to be okay. And that TikTok isn’t the answer. I say amen to all that.
I think you've pegged what is possibly the biggest problem in America right now - self-centeredness. Too many of us have become convinced that we are the center of the world, seeing only the unlimited entitlement we think will follow. But we also become solely responsible for our own happiness, and when we discover that we're deeply unhappy, we have only ourselves to blame for our own wretchedness. No wonder so many of us are depressed, even suicidal.
God bless Jim it’s happening, it’s about time let’s enjoy it, for I fear Brandon, his Democrats and his radicals will be doing everything in their power to close this revival down.
Agreed 100%. This is his worst nightmare. This is the group he thought he could buy with loan forgiveness and apocalyptic tales of environmental Armageddon.
I do - and to preemptively scotch your next argument - I do NOT believe religion is necessary for either good-ness or to provide the training to know WHAT is good (or evil). Just a conscience and the willingness to listen to it.
Jim, for centuries Western religion was the force for evil. The Inquisition, the slaughter of anyone who varied in belief from what was considered the norm. The Thirty Years War was extremely brutal as are all religious wars.
Religious wars are the bloodiest. You can do anything because you are doing God's work. In the Albigensian Crusade Catholic soldiers built huge bonfires and threw the non-believers, men, women, children, babes in arms into these fires.
It took the reformation and lots of blood to change and temper Western religion.
After saying all of that, I am not anti-religion. Religion brings peace and comfort to billions of people worldwide. It irks me that the left not only is anti-religion but wants to stamp it out and are, in some ways, being successful.
"You can do anything because you are doing God's work."
"Thou shall not take the Lords name in vain."
It took me years to fully understand this Commandment; my family has suffered a serious attack from another who thought they were doing 'God's work'. Disgusting.
Well said. I am dubious of organized 'religion', but use selected texts as reference and history. I think Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" are far more reflective of the current times.
It’s about connection and community, without out both you are doomed. The Democrats proved it to us by shutting us down and locking us up they nearly killed us.
Jim - thanks for your reply! I didn't mean to get off topic, but was curious. I think it's easier to broach the subject with someone you don't know - also a pitfall of the internet - and ask!
If we were to have a serious long convo on it, my next question would be "where do good and evil come from? why do they exist?" But let's don't cause that's huuuuge can of worms and lets just enjoy the fact that these kids are praying and experiencing joy!
Thank you for your graciousness to answer my question!
The standard for good and evil are relative and change as society and social norms change.
Throughout most of history slavery and brutal warfare were accepted as morally correct. By brutal, things we consider as an atrocity today were considered morally correct. Caesar committed genocide in his Galic campaigns and that was considered OK by the Roman citizens.
More recently in the 1800s and early 1900s, look at women's bathing costumes and compare them with what women wear today. If a woman wore a bikini in 1901 she would have been arrested for moral indecency which was considered evil.
The woke tyrants consider anyone who doesn't accept what they consider is moral as evil and try to destroy them. I consider them evil. So there you have it, an impasse. Who is right?
What Religion did so perfectly was to codify human moral behavior into easy-to-remember info-bites: the Golden Rule. The Ten Commandments. Bible stories. And so on. Many people act with honor and morality without being religious. But those who need the guidance of religion to do so, more power to them.
As long as they don't insist I worship any particular God or subscribe to any particular faith, we'll get along just fine.
Sasha Stone just wrote a great Substack column on a similar topic. My favorite passage was:
What it is we’ve been searching for on the Left is simply a way to replace the religion we lost long ago. I know that now. That is something I am going to have to find a way to reconcile in my own mind and heart
"Let’s be clear: it’s your religion that drives you to reject the existence and/or significance of climate change."
Dude, you have no idea why I think "climate change" is one of the great hoaxes of our time--and maybe all time. But it's got nothing to do with my supposed "religion."
You've literally ad hominem-ed the so-called "new science of climate change" as a field that relies on ad hominem arguments, which, aside from being absurdly illogical and hypocritical, is also just false.
Again, to defeat or even marginally contest current scientific consensus on climate change—and to show you aren't just a rote ideologue with your fingers in your ears—you'll have to contend with the actual arguments supporting that consensus, including decades' worth of indescribably voluminous, carefully collected and scrutinized data.
Of course it does. But you'll have to be scientific with your doubt and skepticism for it to have a chance of being persuasive.
Skeptics' arguments don't fail because they fall on deaf ears. They fail because they're poorly reasoned—or, as in this case, nonexistent. After all, neither of you have deigned to challenge decades' worth of ever more careful and ever more conclusive data.
I've encountered flat-earthers who are more intellectually honest.
Well, it certainly seems I wasn’t clear enough for you. Then again, given how obtuse you’re being, I’m not sure anything *can* be clear enough for you.
Your “religion” is your ideology—the same metaphor you attempted to use in your criticism of people worried about climate change—and it is your ideology that causes you to reject the truth about climate change.
If that isn’t clear enough for you, do something I’m guessing you rarely do: reread the words until you can make sense of them.
I just learned, today, about the history of revivals, and the fact that there have been significant revival movements in the past,
After reading Sasha's article a week ago, and then seeing this current revival in Kentucky, I feel a tiny spark of optimism that all of the lunacy we've been dealing with the last few decades may be on the verge of healing itself.
“many of whom were not Christians - believed that our country would work only as long as we were a "moral and religious" people.”
—————————————————
Fun Fact: there’s a whole chapter at the end of the Bible about how Democrats win. There’s no mention of decrepit, cognitively-impaired, child molesting rapists shooting down balloons, but some of it sounds familiar.
(it says the win is temporary and then it gets a bit rough for the ol’ Dems)
God works with individuals, not political parties, religions, professions, unions or any other “group.” That’s what’s different since the day of Pentecost. All who will may come.
I remember the democrat version of a “revival” when its Messiah (aka Obama) promised at the 2008 DNC convention that
“generations from now we can look back and tell our children that that this was the moment we began to provide care for the sick…when the oceans rise began to slow and our planet began to heal…”
It seems the generation attending this revival has realized that Obama and his disciples are false gods.
Yes. Obama is the one who set the trans train running., among other things. Today's PITT is by a disaffected follower. The reader discussion is interesting.
"Dear President Obama
On this Presidents Day I hope you decide to speak up about the out of control transgender train"
Obama is nothing more than a self aggrandizing, opportunistic self serving, egotistic, lying, mediocre, jerk.
I have watched the Nuremberg NAZI rallies and watched as tens of thousands of glassy eyed, drool on their chins NAZIs cheered and raised the right hands in a NAZI salute as Hitler rode by. I thought to myself this would never happen here in the US. We would never blindly worship one person.
Well, Obama said if he won the Presidency he would hold a rally at Soldier Field and he did. Ten of thousand showed up. All that was missing from the glassy eyed drool on their chins mob at the rally was the raise right hand. To the left he was the messiah. What a disappointing delusion.
And then there were the Trump rallies and it was Soldier Field all over again except now it was a white megalomaniac.
It appears as a country, regardless of party, we just as much sheep as the NAZIs.
@Timothy Kaluhiokalani If you click on the three dots ( . . . ) you can edit your comment, which would do more good than trying to correct it in another comment.
No RT isn’t woke as he says. Which means he’s woke and looking for someone to belittle so his/her, probably unsure themselves, feels better about their sad useless life. Some woke, sad, people with very little ability looking to deflect from their own unsatisfactory existence.
I wonder if you hold the same contempt for the secular religion of the left, which acknowledges that race and gender are not real things but then places both at the front and center of literally everything. It bases its entire moral structure on things they acknowledge don't exist, and in extreme cases bow down in worship to shrines of their martyr George Floyd, praising his "sacrifice" from the highest seats of power while declaring that race and gender (which are not real things) must overrule our constitutional rights.
You know the difference RT? Their religion acknowledges they worship things that aren't real, whereas the Christians actually do believe in a real God and a Real Jesus. Another difference is that their religion makes people angry, miserable and suicidal, and the Christians make people joyful and full of hope.
The idea that their might be an evolving living conscious force subsuming the entirety of the Universe that inform's the fact of all life and consciousness is as hard for some to accept as the fact that "..all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable right's..". and, likewise, that it is possible, in fact necessary, to have a conscious relationship with it.
"...like the Sun rising out of the sea it's how you embrace the Mystery..." Robbie Robertson WE WERE BELIEVER'S
And to look at all the elegance and order of life and the universe and NOT conclude it is the work of an intelligent creator takes far for more FAITH than believing in God, IMO.
First you ignored the substance of my comment, then made a host of assumptions about what I personally believe and what "research" I've done. Which were way off the mark - literally delusional.
Your upstream and downstream analysis can be thought of as "internal vs. external" too. If a problem is medicalized, then its solution can only be "treated" with the external interventions that medicine provides: drugs, injections, and surgery. The same is true for other diseases impacted by lifestyle, like obesity - which Miss Reingold touched on last week. The rise of Ozempic and Wegovy is replacing lifestyle change as treatment. This is because prescribing lifestyle changes has not been effective in curbing obesity’s prevalence. The reason is that it’s not simply habits and lifestyles we’re trying to change; it’s establishing a new foundation from which that change can occur: https://buildingdocs.substack.com/p/is-gratitude-medicinal
In the case of Asbury and mental health, this foundation is God. Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
As a young person (I’m 30… I think I still count) and future doc, I hope that we can limit the desire to medicalize and recognize the need for objective values, including spiritual connection.
Was it this connection to power and moral authority that led 90% of white evangelicals to vote for Donald Trump? that inspired the institutionalized rape of children in the catholic church? That led the Mormon church to hide 30 billion behind shell corporations?
This is not about anything outside of ourselves other than other people and the connection we have with them.
Religiosity, in every country in the world right now, is inversely correlated with almost every measure of human well being.
"Was it this connection to power and moral authority that led 90% of white evangelicals to vote for Donald Trump?"
Unrelated. False premise. Was the position of Jupiter last Thursday what led to my diarrhea on Saturday? Doubt it.
"...that inspired the institutionalized rape of children in the catholic church?"
Gotta tighten up your arguments a little bit. Now what is that connection again?
That led the Mormon church to hide 30 billion behind shell corporations?
I'm sure you are going to tie this all together at the end, right?
"This is not about anything outside of ourselves other than other people and the connection we have with them."
True 'dat. Like everything else. You REALLY ARE going to tie this together, right?
"Religiosity, in every country in the world right now, is inversely correlated with almost every measure of human well being."
I'm no friend of (most) organized religion, but that seems a little over the top. Can you show how that is so?
OK - make it all work!
********************
hmmmmmm........Anybody here remember Snoopy's novel?
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
by Snoopy
Part I
It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed.
Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up.
Part II
A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day.
At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital was making an important discovery. The mysterious patient in Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly. Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?
Your downstream comment is a very good one. In addition many of our progressive political leaders are actively contributing to the harm. The Covid school lockdowns were not necessary for children - but they did it anyway and caused great harm. The global warming catastrophizing they push on children scares and depresses them - but they do it anyway. The trans affirming program in schools is confusing and seriously harming many children - but they do it anyway.
On the occasions I fly cross-country (rare now), approximately mid-continent I look down and have the same recurring thought: they say that if you know where to look, you can still see wagon tracks across the prairie, and I think: If you told those people that their children, the ones in the wagon Right Now - would be able to make that same three-month trip in three hours and would do it seven miles straight up at 550 miles per hour, with the outside temperatures near -100° - and do it in perfect comfort while a pretty girl pampered them with food and drink - they would tie you to the wagon for the rest of the trip because you were obviously a lunatic.
That waking dream always finishes the same: just how magnificent the species can be - and how depraved - both seemingly without limit.
I see that Putin has withdrawn from START 2 and has put his nuclear arsenal on alert. I hope we make it. If we don't, I hope I survive to make it even - at least one time. Then I'm ready to go.
But I just can't help but think (I guess I'm too cynical, by and large) that the fervor unleashed by revivals such as this one not only mitigate the pain of the many attendees but would it not raise their expectations too high for God's help in the future? How do people captured in the spirit and intensity of the revival survive life's inescapable trials and travails, often occurring the next day? Are they fortified by renewed strength? Or are they disappointed that what they experienced did not in fact change anything at all? I think it's more the latter. (But that's just me).
Perhaps that's why religious revivals dissipate over time..
Agreed. Just look at the Gospel of John where Jesus does miracles which are intended to be "signs" of who he really is but people want more of the miracles. When there are no more miracles, they not only leave but decided to kill him.
I think of it like this:
Miracle faith <> enduring faith.
Miracle faith < faith in a historical event (with apologies to RT on this thread).
I recently heard Dennis Prager say that he has only asked God for something twice in his life. He said that he is far more concerned with what God wants from him than what he wants from God. While I wouldn't go that far personally, I think he has a great read on what a lot of "religion" is about these days.
I think we'd be a lot better off if we all thought about what God (or outside moral authority, higher power, etc) has created us for instead of the other way around.
That’s right. We tend to be consumers with religion as we are for anything else, and look out for what’s there for us. If we expect God to fix everything in our life, then faith will die as soon as hardship is hitting us. Believing in God will not make our lives easy, but it will give us the strength to go through bad times. Those revivals are a sign of people looking for meaning in their lives, which is great, but then the seed must grow and go beyond the emotional feeling of the moment…
Is it indifference or does it serve an "elite" to create and manipulate the depression, anxiety and confusion American youth is experiencing. Certainly the destruction of the centering power, stewardship and agency provided by family structure in cooking a young male or female seems intentional. Likewise the replacement of education with indoctrination.
I've often though that our moral collapse and the recent embrace of many illogical movements couldn't really be organic. It's got to be part of a larger plan to weaken what the US has created and developed over the past several hundred years.
My take: International criminal finance is funding poseur Marxist's ("woke") who are using Maoist/Stalinist tactic's to disassemble the American Republic. But it's not about Communism. The goal is a world totalitarian financial feudal monarchy. The mass arrest's underway in Great Britain for thought and speech crime's, and the expansion of euthanasia law's in Canada to include depressed teens (10,000 Canadian's last year) and the Fed launch of "experimental" electronic currency say's it all. The Constitution must stand.
"My take: International criminal finance is funding poseur Marxist's ("woke") who are using Maoist/Stalinist tactic's to disassemble the American Republic. But it's not about Communism. The goal is a world totalitarian financial feudal monarchy."
Mike R--if I may quote Biden, "bingo!" Yes, the sudden rise of the woke Left is being funded/pushed by capitalist oligarchs as a means of clearing the way for their total control. After the US is brought down, they will deal with the woke Left acordingly--so they think.
This is exactly right. It's all on purpose and follows the same template as other totalitarian/communist revolutions. Divide the populace. Chase away faith in any power higher than the state. Weaken the (nuclear) family and turn kids against their parents. Sew chaos and demoralize the populace. We are living through a highly orchestrated effort to overthrow the western democratic system of representative governments - especially the USA - and replace it with a digital totalitarian globalist "one world' ruling power.
Agreed. I'm an atheist but I really do think that religion can be for the better for many people and society as a whole. Sense of community, oneness, and choosing love above all are some great messages I see being spread by local churches. It's an overall good message and we all know there are people out there that can greatly benefit from such a calling.
Good comment. Where many secular people feel threatened and resent faith - you are open minded and see the benefit for people, society, community. It is an overall good message, and kudos to you for recognizing that good.
Skip it? Why? Hundreds of millions of people believe in some version of God and religion. Many governments rise and fall on religious authority. Why should TFP not examine these issues from time to time? They're relevant to all of us.
I'm a devout Catholic so this concept is new to me. However I don't care if it's fake or not. The message is still one that is needed. I don't care if it's not my religion. We need God, we need faith again to keep us grounded. I hope this event truly begins a transformation of our country to welcome God again, whatever form of religion or expression it may take.
I’m a Catholic too and I grew up in the town next to the Franciscan University in Ohio. We would go to mass there often. Those students were DEVOUT. It might not have been numbers in the thousands but I recall attending masses there where the energy was I like any other church I had been to (even still today). Stories of Asbury has me remembering it fondly.
I wish more Catholics lost themselves in worship more often. It was a beautiful thing and it cemented to me that God was real.
2 of my children attended Franciscan U. and we experienced the same thing- attended mass with the students who were so joyful and reverent. They have 4 masses a day and all are well attended. My husband and I still go back occasionally for a sit in the arm of HOPE - such a holy ( not perfect, but trying) place
As a former catholic who grew up in an old school house and attended catholic grammar school, I understand where you’re coming from. Personally, I’m all for faith. But we’re a secular nation and praying itself doesn’t change the world. Action does, and for me, praying isn’t action.
Appreciate the article but find it hypocritical for these people praying for? For what? Peace on earth? Ain’t happening. The will of their god? I see prayer as a placebo. Put prayer into action if you want things done. Just my opinion
Don’t let the sins of men come between you and the Lord. And check out the Hallow app if you really want some incredible content to reconnect with your faith.
Big difference between religion and godliness. Religion is man made. Who among us had not been disappointed by people? The scriptures tell us there is God the creator and the god of this world who tried to usurp God’s authority. That god has his hands on EVERYTHING. The battle is spiritual and what you see, hear, taste, touch or smell is worldly knowledge and it will let you down. Sorry you gave up on God, but your curiosity makes me think you really didn’t. You gave up on religion. Good for you. Talk directly to God. Ask God what to do.
Well said. And when you are talking to God and asking what to do you will be praying, because that's what prayer is: speech with God. It's about the most profound action anyone can take.
What do you think cloistered nuns are doing? Twiddling their thumbs? Their prayers are literally the glue for our broken systems, not just the church. i mean all respect but knocking prayer is truly bonkers buddy, regardless of what you believe. Just because you don’t believe it doesn’t make it not real. Radical, appropriate action bursts forth from seismic shifts like this. Action without prayer is completely useless. This is wonderful news.
Some of us believe that we can make better/more successful actions if aligned with Spirit. Just think if politicians stopped engaging in name-calling, for example. How much time would they have to discuss and produce bills?
Richard Rohr, a Fransican friar and priest and the guy who started the Center for Action and Contemplation, was part of a revival in Cincinatti Ohio in the early 80s that led to the establishment of the New Jerusalem community there. Similarly, the young people there gathered for weeks before dispersing, and doing some extraordinary work! Rohr has written and spoke a lot on this — easy enough to find online! I’m a Catholic too. And absolutely ready for a shake up by the Holy Spirit.
We live in a secular nation without belief that any god. Read what the founding fathers wrote and believed. Nothings against faith, but in the history of christianity, more have died than have been saved. Former catholic who’s seen sectarian strife up close.
But my friend: in the Christian faith, death is not anything to be feared. Your metric doesn’t work, regardless of whether it could be believed or not. (By the way, How could you possibly know more have died than have been saved????) At any rate, we’re not trying to avoid death. Someone who is saved (or who has come to this wisdom by other means) will leap into their death joyously, ready. “Faith is the *assurance* of things hoped for.”
You’ve said in many different comments that you’re a former Catholic. That identity doesn’t make you an expert on anything other than your own personal experience, and even on that, we are mostly misguided… very few people can actually say they’re experts on their own personal experience, and they can only say that after a lifetime of deep, sincere, reverential, humbled self-reflection. I think if we’re being honest, there’s probably no one here in this thread who can really claim that. (You *are* claiming that, by the way, with your insistence on letting everyone know you used to be a Catholic, inferring that you wised up and chose the better path — good for you, by the way! Hope it works out!)
Wow! A plain and simple telling of these events without a trace of the common journalistic cynicism one usually finds about them. Thank you, Olivia! Bless you!
Stories about corruption, useless government programs and hopelessness rule in today's media. I pray for revival for this nation - without God we are nothing.
Revival usually and definitionally comes after a generation dies, ie Exodus.
This means it always comes to the children of a generation that let it die. Godlessness is inherited. Revival comes out of the blue. That’s why it always comes in colleges and schools, and rarely in office buildings. Praying a generation of parents sees and doesn’t eye roll or squash it.
I agree that this revival seems to be focused on early 20-somethings, the Gen-Z-ers. This after article after article declared that the Gen Z-ers were a lost generation. That said, in clips around the grass commons outside of Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University, and from inside the chapel, there are a lot of mom and dad and grandparents there. The revival is blessing them, but this is a revival of the upcoming generation. I agree with that.
It is not that simple. While some of this generation were not introduced to faith by their parents many were but rejected it. Some of the negative commentary illustrates the thinking - magic, man in the sky, ...
You’re right. I think maybe a clarification is that the generation above my own age as the most irreligious until mine came of age. And I think even a lot of, not all, faithful parents passed down a faith that was shallow, maybe not for the parents themselves but for their kids, so when it came up against the world, it folded.
But! A more important point may be that parents, especially the ones who are faithful and raising their children o be faithful, have been systematically removed from their role as chief culture makers. This is the revolt happening in VA and Florida.
I agree with your analysis. I am Baptist royalty, meaning everywhere part of my family set down roots they formed a Baptist church, but the modern southern Baptist conference left me cold. And school is so secular so I thought I did not believe because there is no proof. Fortunately I am reasonably intelligent so one day I had an epiphany - specifically that is why it is called faith. You cannot see it, touch it, taste it, smell it or feel it. You just have to believe. And once you do the hope, and thus the possibilities, is/are infinite. And at heart I am fundamentally Baptist because Baptists believe one does good because they ARE saved, not TO BE saved.
Covid messed up so much for young people. There is so much negativity. So much pessimism. So much fear of the future. What will happen next? Will VR and AI make them irrelevant? Will nuclear war wipe them out? Will Marxism/socialism/communism allow the government to seize all property, make them impoverished and subservient with no need to strive for anything? They are confused and hurting. They need hope. No wonder they are turning to God. Hope for the future certainly won’t come from Joe Biden or Donald Trump or the Democratic or Republican parties.
And they are turning to each other, which is also beautiful. The Covid response tore at the bonds of community, forced us - especially children - into solitude, and encouraged us to view one another principally as threats. It was a bleak and dystopian approach and now we need to find our way out. That's why this story is so heartening to me.
We also messed them up. As an old Gen Xer with a child in college, I see how we have fostered this destructive focus on self. We were raised to believe that we could do anything and that our accomplishments were our own, but many of us were also raised with a foundation of faith. As adults, we put that faith on the shelf. We patterned that focus on self for our children and they took it to the next level. Many of this upcoming generation seem to only care about what they want. In spite of the focus on self, they want to belong to a group. The groups that they find tend to be around ideologies of self identities. Whereas most God-centered religious groups focus on putting others before self, these new ideologies focus on self before others. They focus a person's identity, e.g. race, gender, etc. As a Christian, we are called to look at everyone as a child of God, not their personal characteristics. I am grateful for my faith, as it has helped me through some very difficult times in recent years. Faith tells me that no matter what lies ahead of me, God is already there. There is a comfort in knowing that I can trust God's plan for my life regardless of the circumstances, and I can find joy in the most difficult situations. I think these kids are searching for that comfort and being able to release their worries. Thank you, The Free Press, for publishing this essay.
Great points. Be careful though--God loves all because God IS love, but the children of God are those he fathered, not all mankind. There are many who are
“fatherless” or whose father is the god of this world.
Not COVID. Lockdowns. Government policies. They were unnecessary, unscientific, destructive and totally ineffective.
It was not the disease, it was the lies and stupidity of our government that screwed up those kids, for no benefit to anybody but the rich.
Stop blaming the virus for corrupt leadership.
But we agree that the solution will not come from government, which is why I've been a small-government conservative my whole life, and one of the reasons I despise the government-worshipping secular Marxist Democrats.
“When I notice he’s holding back tears, I ask him why. “Seeing this next generation come to life does my heart good.””
———————————————————-
What we really need is a revival where people awaken to the fact that life is supposed to contain suffering and that deputizing the government to end suffering results in much worse suffering.
I agree fully. Most of them, in any event. Saying all of them without qualification is the sort of thing the worst of them do, and I don't want to be like them in any way.
I disagree. Not reflexively, but because I have thought it through.
As one obvious example, this website is run by Democrats. I don't think Bari is a psychopath, and in my view we need to be encouraging all the reflexive "liberals" to wake up and smell the coffee. That becomes less likely if we insult all of them.
My two cents. This is a small ant hill, so I won't fight over it.
I like the C.G. Jung observation that those who gaze outward at the world dream. Those who gaze inward "awaken". Or, in regard to the baggage attached to the word God the old Terrance McKenna line that the force informing the fact of the universe would prefer not to be named at all.
To your point, as an old "men's movement" partisan, the lesson of Christ on the cross and the two thieves. The duty of man to hold the two opposing realities of heaven and hell "well enough" that a third reality is born inside him (-Jung's tension of the opposite's-). In modern Jordan Peterson term's "order and chaos".
But if doing good by others is the goal, and I think it is, it does no good to "awaken" unless one can then turn it outward. And by the way I mean doing good, not being a do-gooder. They are vastly different.
As they say on an airplane, put your own oxygen mask on first before you help others. Getting your own mind right is an essential part of helping others.
What is the point of this response? You know exactly what I meant. I’m not talking specifically about ‘you’, I’m referring to leftist scumbags generally. You knew that and your response is a lie where you pretend to be confused when you are not.
Nonetheless I’m sure you called him a Nazi, murderer, racist, and other things. You can lie about it if you want. We both know I’m correct and you’re lying.
'What we really need is a revival where people awaken to the fact that life is supposed to contain suffering and that deputizing the government to end suffering results in much worse suffering.'
See what you wrote above? Remember it?
Thus my compassionate conservative remark. It was not meant to goad you, Kevin. Relax a bit.
I thought your statement was a good one. Which was why I thought a GOP President trying to mitigate the 'suffering' would have interested you. But I guess not. You end up calling me a liar instead..
Oh good the internet cliche where you tell someone who is showing no signs of agitation to “calm down” because this makes your wife angry and you are on the internet trolling trying to make people angry but you don’t have a very sophisticated approach.
Thank you TheFP for covering this story. If this does end up being reported in the MSM, it will be ridiculed and scorned. I appreciate the neutral, informational tone of the reporting. So many people are trying to find meaning in their lives these days and are turning to false idols (DEI, transgenderism, climate change). It is too early to tell what will come of this, but the fact that it is happening gives me hope.
When people feel compelled to come together in desperate search of connection to their higher self and to the Divine in prayer, song and gratitude, miraculous things always happen. It is our natural state of being. Religion is not required.
This seems to be a documentary about an ethno-nationalist political movement from three decades ago.
Today, finding meaning and moral purpose in ethnic identity is called "white nationalism" and considered the height of moral evil. The secular alternative is DEI, the worship of all ethnic and sexual identity, and it's producing the hopelessness and spiritual bankruptcy of youth.
I can offer one suggestion in my own pursuit of Brazilian Zouk, which some regard as a ritual practice of love, connection and empathy expressed through song and dance. But those things come dangerously close to indulgence and debauchery, and more often than not the spiritual side is overshadowed by competition over status, power and sex.
You’re quick to respond instead of taking the time to hear and reflect. The issue with all recent discourse. And, you also may not have listened to the singing. It would have moved you and inspired you to reflect. There are countless examples of this type of coming together without religion in recent history. This is our current problem. Most everyone senses the Divine with our heart brain. I would say most, without ulterior motives, are drawn to the chapel as a calling to the Divine within their own hearts. But, you don’t necessarily need a chapel or a church to achieve this outcome.
That's a fair observation, honestly I saw the NYT and the LA Times praise the film and almost immediately wanted nothing to do with it.
But as it happens, I have a Master's in Choral Conducting and spent years in elite choirs. The clip of the documentary reminded me of one particular convention of churches, thousands of people across dozens of choirs singing together as flags waved and banners marched. It was spectacular.
I'll have to watch the documentary later, seems worth the time. I view these "movements" as the substance of gods, and it strikes me that music is often their voice. "People don't have ideas, ideas have people" hence when thousands speak in unison, it's valuable to ask who is the speaker?
I myself am what you describe, I prefer the quiet of a humble chapel to the majesty of human masses filled with emotion.
I agree and fall in that category myself. But I also think (self reflectively) that "spiritual but not religious" often means "I don't try that hard or follow any discipline, I just think of myself as a good person." Too often it feels like an excuse rather than a conviction.
Another way to look at it (as is the case with those in my spiritual circles) is that by not tying oneself to one specific religion, you're free to choose which beliefs, principles, doctrines, practices that most resonate with your soul. This 'buy-in' actually strengthens one's commitment and dedication to the spiritual world; whereas being required to believe or do certain things in the name of "faith" often has the opposite effect of pushing people away.
I think religion and spirituality are extremely important and undervalued in this day an age. But this has all the trappings of a social contagion. God only started speaking to one of the people in the story once the church was packed and it was cool? Hmmmm... Sounds like a fad, God can come to you alone praying on a mountain top. You can meet Buddha walking alone.
I respect your reasons for caution but "alone" is exactly the problem with so many of us these days, especially kids. Also, the greatest historical dispensations of the Spirit have been public and massive (see Acts 2).
Sorry but, no. The revival kicked off when a couple of students at chapel on Wednesday the 8th refused to leave, lingered at the railing in front of the chapel, continued to pray, and a few others joined them. Their prayers turned to repentance and honest expressions of spiritual need. Then word went out to the student body that chapel was still going, and many were led back to the auditorium, and it exploded from there and hasn't stopped for almost two weeks now. Whether revival comes because God falls on one or two people (which it can -- I experienced a spiritual renewal when I went on a personal retreat by myself, when I was contemplating chucking the whole Christianity thing), or it can fall on a thousand in an auditorium, that's up to God. Historical revivals have always had their detractors, who say that the revival is a "fad," or "emotionalism," or a demonic, or whatever. In true revivals, the detractors are forgotten by history, while the fruits continue. The First Great Awakening in America in the 1740s was shepherded by Jonathan Edwards. The revival's most notable detractor was Congregational minister (the greatest opposition to revivals are always professional religionists) named Charles Chauncy. Here he is: https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/9_7_chauncy-227x300.jpg History has largely forgotten Charles Chauncy. Don't be Charles Chauncy.
Yes, but it’s not up to God. It’s up to people. When people come together with genuine seeking and gratitude, God will be among them; not the other way around. God, whatever you believe that to be, is always there; the All; we merely become blind to it, and consequently, suffer.
Some of us are careful to stay away from all religions - and that includes wokism, climate alarmism, gender ideology, CRT, communism, scientism (Fauci style) indigenous history revisionism. Have I missed anything?
As Jesus said ‘the kingdom of God is inside you’ I believe the energy of the group here is amped up. It’s a good energy. Positive. Who’s to say it’s not God inside each person collectively.
We have entered a NEW AGE. In Jung's ANSWER TO JOB (written at the end of his life) he present's the idea that the force we call God intend's to be consciously manifest in human kind. To your point: That the transcendent is no longer above but within us.
I was raised Catholic and did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. I now belong to a Christian church and found that I do not need a priest to be in the middle of my relationship with God. However, going to church and to be in community only strengthens my faith. God wants us to be with people to support and love us. And the way the secular world calls you crazy if you believe in God, you need other believers to keep your faith.
Yes I hear you. This story is awe-ful, by that I mean inspiring awe and fear. Awe that people are hungry to share a spiritual experience. Fear that that makes them vulnerable. Responsible religious leaders have a valuable role to play in this.
This is fascinating to me when you consider the crushing weight and size of the mental health crisis among our young people. Every "expert" ... every "program" (gov't or otherwise) is almost always focused downstream - fixing the problem through "treatment" of some kind, which usually includes medication.
In this event (regardless of whether it is "real" or not), we have energy that is focused upstream - addressing what is causing the problem, which is our lack of connection to a power and a moral authority that is outside of ourselves (you can call it God if you like, or a search for transcendent meaning).
Even if you're not a "believer," you should probably be hoping for more of this. History has shown that a culture that exists without this kind of connection eventually self-destructs, which is why the founders of our country - many of whom were not Christians - believed that our country would work only as long as we were a "moral and religious" people.
Peace
I am NOT a believer, but I believe in evil, and as I watch evil people, many of them unfathomably wealthy and powerful, systematically unmoor this great nation to drift in the storm, I do hope for more of this - with an intensity beyond my understanding.
There’s such a thirst out there now. These folks are dried out human husks seeking replenishment, and here is a source of water!
“Drink from this well and you will never thirst again”
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
I agree, Jim Wills. I’m not a Christian but this literally brought tears to my eyes. What’s wrong with people believing that there’s something bigger out there? That no, you’re not the center of the world. That it’s going to be okay. And that TikTok isn’t the answer. I say amen to all that.
I think you've pegged what is possibly the biggest problem in America right now - self-centeredness. Too many of us have become convinced that we are the center of the world, seeing only the unlimited entitlement we think will follow. But we also become solely responsible for our own happiness, and when we discover that we're deeply unhappy, we have only ourselves to blame for our own wretchedness. No wonder so many of us are depressed, even suicidal.
Evil doesn’t know wealth. I know many beautiful wealthy and evil poor.
It is easier for a camel.....
Well said, cute!
God bless Jim it’s happening, it’s about time let’s enjoy it, for I fear Brandon, his Democrats and his radicals will be doing everything in their power to close this revival down.
Agreed 100%. This is his worst nightmare. This is the group he thought he could buy with loan forgiveness and apocalyptic tales of environmental Armageddon.
💯 correct
Interesting Jim. You believe in evil. Do you believe in good? Just curious - not a troll.
I do - and to preemptively scotch your next argument - I do NOT believe religion is necessary for either good-ness or to provide the training to know WHAT is good (or evil). Just a conscience and the willingness to listen to it.
That's not for everybody; so far it works for me.
Take note and remember this day. I predict many believers are now praying for you, including myself. :) Jesus is not religion. Jesus is love!
Jim, for centuries Western religion was the force for evil. The Inquisition, the slaughter of anyone who varied in belief from what was considered the norm. The Thirty Years War was extremely brutal as are all religious wars.
Religious wars are the bloodiest. You can do anything because you are doing God's work. In the Albigensian Crusade Catholic soldiers built huge bonfires and threw the non-believers, men, women, children, babes in arms into these fires.
It took the reformation and lots of blood to change and temper Western religion.
After saying all of that, I am not anti-religion. Religion brings peace and comfort to billions of people worldwide. It irks me that the left not only is anti-religion but wants to stamp it out and are, in some ways, being successful.
And the left has no self awareness that Gender Fairy/GI ideology is religious - of the cult variety. Dissent/non-belief isn't allowed.
"You can do anything because you are doing God's work."
"Thou shall not take the Lords name in vain."
It took me years to fully understand this Commandment; my family has suffered a serious attack from another who thought they were doing 'God's work'. Disgusting.
Well said. I am dubious of organized 'religion', but use selected texts as reference and history. I think Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm" are far more reflective of the current times.
It’s about connection and community, without out both you are doomed. The Democrats proved it to us by shutting us down and locking us up they nearly killed us.
Jim - thanks for your reply! I didn't mean to get off topic, but was curious. I think it's easier to broach the subject with someone you don't know - also a pitfall of the internet - and ask!
If we were to have a serious long convo on it, my next question would be "where do good and evil come from? why do they exist?" But let's don't cause that's huuuuge can of worms and lets just enjoy the fact that these kids are praying and experiencing joy!
Thank you for your graciousness to answer my question!
The standard for good and evil are relative and change as society and social norms change.
Throughout most of history slavery and brutal warfare were accepted as morally correct. By brutal, things we consider as an atrocity today were considered morally correct. Caesar committed genocide in his Galic campaigns and that was considered OK by the Roman citizens.
More recently in the 1800s and early 1900s, look at women's bathing costumes and compare them with what women wear today. If a woman wore a bikini in 1901 she would have been arrested for moral indecency which was considered evil.
The woke tyrants consider anyone who doesn't accept what they consider is moral as evil and try to destroy them. I consider them evil. So there you have it, an impasse. Who is right?
Great points all! And I will leave it there!
Amen to this, Jim, so to speak :-)
What Religion did so perfectly was to codify human moral behavior into easy-to-remember info-bites: the Golden Rule. The Ten Commandments. Bible stories. And so on. Many people act with honor and morality without being religious. But those who need the guidance of religion to do so, more power to them.
As long as they don't insist I worship any particular God or subscribe to any particular faith, we'll get along just fine.
Sasha Stone just wrote a great Substack column on a similar topic. My favorite passage was:
What it is we’ve been searching for on the Left is simply a way to replace the religion we lost long ago. I know that now. That is something I am going to have to find a way to reconcile in my own mind and heart
https://open.substack.com/pub/sashastone/p/did-i-just-leave-a-cult?r=6x4wa&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Hey, the Left has a "religion"--climate change.
It’s interesting that you would choose one of the left’s genuinely scientific convictions as an example of lefty religiosity.
Let’s be clear: it’s your religion that drives you to reject the existence and/or significance of climate change.
"Let’s be clear: it’s your religion that drives you to reject the existence and/or significance of climate change."
Dude, you have no idea why I think "climate change" is one of the great hoaxes of our time--and maybe all time. But it's got nothing to do with my supposed "religion."
"Let's be clear"--hah!
The new science of climate change relies heavily on arguments ad hominem.
You've literally ad hominem-ed the so-called "new science of climate change" as a field that relies on ad hominem arguments, which, aside from being absurdly illogical and hypocritical, is also just false.
Again, to defeat or even marginally contest current scientific consensus on climate change—and to show you aren't just a rote ideologue with your fingers in your ears—you'll have to contend with the actual arguments supporting that consensus, including decades' worth of indescribably voluminous, carefully collected and scrutinized data.
The new science of climate change has many proponents who are hilariously self-unaware.
The new science of climate change admits no doubt or skepticism.
Yeah, it is a funny kind of "science" that tolerates no dissenting views...science as Unchallengeable Dogma. Sounds more like religion to me.
Of course it does. But you'll have to be scientific with your doubt and skepticism for it to have a chance of being persuasive.
Skeptics' arguments don't fail because they fall on deaf ears. They fail because they're poorly reasoned—or, as in this case, nonexistent. After all, neither of you have deigned to challenge decades' worth of ever more careful and ever more conclusive data.
I've encountered flat-earthers who are more intellectually honest.
Well, it certainly seems I wasn’t clear enough for you. Then again, given how obtuse you’re being, I’m not sure anything *can* be clear enough for you.
Your “religion” is your ideology—the same metaphor you attempted to use in your criticism of people worried about climate change—and it is your ideology that causes you to reject the truth about climate change.
If that isn’t clear enough for you, do something I’m guessing you rarely do: reread the words until you can make sense of them.
Reinventing the wheel.
I just learned, today, about the history of revivals, and the fact that there have been significant revival movements in the past,
After reading Sasha's article a week ago, and then seeing this current revival in Kentucky, I feel a tiny spark of optimism that all of the lunacy we've been dealing with the last few decades may be on the verge of healing itself.
Yep. What if?
I hadn’t seen that. Thanks for posting.
“many of whom were not Christians - believed that our country would work only as long as we were a "moral and religious" people.”
—————————————————
Fun Fact: there’s a whole chapter at the end of the Bible about how Democrats win. There’s no mention of decrepit, cognitively-impaired, child molesting rapists shooting down balloons, but some of it sounds familiar.
(it says the win is temporary and then it gets a bit rough for the ol’ Dems)
God works with individuals, not political parties, religions, professions, unions or any other “group.” That’s what’s different since the day of Pentecost. All who will may come.
Amen.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. John Adams
Until 22 million mostly white men, in 2022 population percentage, died to settle the legality of slavery
Amen 🙏
Blink twice if you were at the Obama rally in Denver with Greek columns where everyone was raising their arms and weeping…….
I remember the democrat version of a “revival” when its Messiah (aka Obama) promised at the 2008 DNC convention that
“generations from now we can look back and tell our children that that this was the moment we began to provide care for the sick…when the oceans rise began to slow and our planet began to heal…”
It seems the generation attending this revival has realized that Obama and his disciples are false gods.
And every American sees, or should see, what all that hope and change wrought.
Yes. Obama is the one who set the trans train running., among other things. Today's PITT is by a disaffected follower. The reader discussion is interesting.
"Dear President Obama
On this Presidents Day I hope you decide to speak up about the out of control transgender train"
https://pitt.substack.com/p/dear-president-obama
Obama is nothing more than a self aggrandizing, opportunistic self serving, egotistic, lying, mediocre, jerk.
I have watched the Nuremberg NAZI rallies and watched as tens of thousands of glassy eyed, drool on their chins NAZIs cheered and raised the right hands in a NAZI salute as Hitler rode by. I thought to myself this would never happen here in the US. We would never blindly worship one person.
Well, Obama said if he won the Presidency he would hold a rally at Soldier Field and he did. Ten of thousand showed up. All that was missing from the glassy eyed drool on their chins mob at the rally was the raise right hand. To the left he was the messiah. What a disappointing delusion.
And then there were the Trump rallies and it was Soldier Field all over again except now it was a white megalomaniac.
It appears as a country, regardless of party, we just as much sheep as the NAZIs.
@Timothy Kaluhiokalani If you click on the three dots ( . . . ) you can edit your comment, which would do more good than trying to correct it in another comment.
No RT isn’t woke as he says. Which means he’s woke and looking for someone to belittle so his/her, probably unsure themselves, feels better about their sad useless life. Some woke, sad, people with very little ability looking to deflect from their own unsatisfactory existence.
💯 🎯
Your bridge called again and still wants their Troll back. So back under your rock for you!
Touché
I see the evil Mrs. RT is posting today.......
😂
I wonder if you hold the same contempt for the secular religion of the left, which acknowledges that race and gender are not real things but then places both at the front and center of literally everything. It bases its entire moral structure on things they acknowledge don't exist, and in extreme cases bow down in worship to shrines of their martyr George Floyd, praising his "sacrifice" from the highest seats of power while declaring that race and gender (which are not real things) must overrule our constitutional rights.
You know the difference RT? Their religion acknowledges they worship things that aren't real, whereas the Christians actually do believe in a real God and a Real Jesus. Another difference is that their religion makes people angry, miserable and suicidal, and the Christians make people joyful and full of hope.
Tell me which is more delusional?
The idea that their might be an evolving living conscious force subsuming the entirety of the Universe that inform's the fact of all life and consciousness is as hard for some to accept as the fact that "..all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable right's..". and, likewise, that it is possible, in fact necessary, to have a conscious relationship with it.
"...like the Sun rising out of the sea it's how you embrace the Mystery..." Robbie Robertson WE WERE BELIEVER'S
CS Lewis had an interesting take on the mythic base of Jesus. Actually led him to believe in the "historical Jesus." Might be worth checking it out.
Peace
Nope. There is actually a TON of historical evidence that Christ lived, performed miracles, was crucified and rose from the dead. You can start here: https://www.amazon.com/Case-Christ-Student-Journalists-Investigation/dp/0310745640/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2J926M4FYI7V0&keywords=The+Case+for+Christ&qid=1677002533&sprefix=the+case+for+chri%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-5
And to look at all the elegance and order of life and the universe and NOT conclude it is the work of an intelligent creator takes far for more FAITH than believing in God, IMO.
What a telling response.
First you ignored the substance of my comment, then made a host of assumptions about what I personally believe and what "research" I've done. Which were way off the mark - literally delusional.
Best comment I've read in a while, thank you.
Your upstream and downstream analysis can be thought of as "internal vs. external" too. If a problem is medicalized, then its solution can only be "treated" with the external interventions that medicine provides: drugs, injections, and surgery. The same is true for other diseases impacted by lifestyle, like obesity - which Miss Reingold touched on last week. The rise of Ozempic and Wegovy is replacing lifestyle change as treatment. This is because prescribing lifestyle changes has not been effective in curbing obesity’s prevalence. The reason is that it’s not simply habits and lifestyles we’re trying to change; it’s establishing a new foundation from which that change can occur: https://buildingdocs.substack.com/p/is-gratitude-medicinal
In the case of Asbury and mental health, this foundation is God. Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
As a young person (I’m 30… I think I still count) and future doc, I hope that we can limit the desire to medicalize and recognize the need for objective values, including spiritual connection.
You sound like exactly the kind of doctor I would trust. Best wishes and prayers for a successful career in health and healing.
Thank you :)
They can build careers far more easily treating the downstream issues.
This comment is from 11 hrs ago and the article posted 30 minutes ago so clearly you have transcendent insight into other dimensions.
🙏🙏
Don’t feed Compote as it is a troll. As you know.
*Compost
Go find me that Planned Parenthood evidence, KevinDurant!
Debate me you coward!!!
😂😂😂
It is AI and must have a prompt to respond.
Lol. You have to actually have evidence before you can debate, KevinDurant.
You haven't even gotten that far, dude. Pathetic.
Well, there's a Magic Man in the sky, so why couldn't RT have transcendent insight into other dimensions?
Fox News based their whole election fraud stories on just such a person.
Sorry but I watch MSNBC because I crave truth.
(I actually do watch MSNBC but it’s because I crave entertainment)
Both you and Kevin should go on stage - I sense a comedy act here..
Fox News never said there was election fraud.
Enjoying your dog-eared 1619 fantasy tract? Talking about fiction.
Meanwhile on Planet Earth evidence is surfacing of government involvement in Jan 6th. It's getting interesting.
And if the "magic man" is no longer "up there "in the sky but is now alive inside the human psyche?
Always was.
Was it this connection to power and moral authority that led 90% of white evangelicals to vote for Donald Trump? that inspired the institutionalized rape of children in the catholic church? That led the Mormon church to hide 30 billion behind shell corporations?
This is not about anything outside of ourselves other than other people and the connection we have with them.
Religiosity, in every country in the world right now, is inversely correlated with almost every measure of human well being.
No.
"Was it this connection to power and moral authority that led 90% of white evangelicals to vote for Donald Trump?"
Unrelated. False premise. Was the position of Jupiter last Thursday what led to my diarrhea on Saturday? Doubt it.
"...that inspired the institutionalized rape of children in the catholic church?"
Gotta tighten up your arguments a little bit. Now what is that connection again?
That led the Mormon church to hide 30 billion behind shell corporations?
I'm sure you are going to tie this all together at the end, right?
"This is not about anything outside of ourselves other than other people and the connection we have with them."
True 'dat. Like everything else. You REALLY ARE going to tie this together, right?
"Religiosity, in every country in the world right now, is inversely correlated with almost every measure of human well being."
I'm no friend of (most) organized religion, but that seems a little over the top. Can you show how that is so?
OK - make it all work!
********************
hmmmmmm........Anybody here remember Snoopy's novel?
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night
by Snoopy
Part I
It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed.
Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up.
Part II
A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day.
At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital was making an important discovery. The mysterious patient in Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly. Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?
And so the ranch was saved.
THE END
*********************************
Now THAT'S how you tie it all together!
Study and learn.
Your downstream comment is a very good one. In addition many of our progressive political leaders are actively contributing to the harm. The Covid school lockdowns were not necessary for children - but they did it anyway and caused great harm. The global warming catastrophizing they push on children scares and depresses them - but they do it anyway. The trans affirming program in schools is confusing and seriously harming many children - but they do it anyway.
On the occasions I fly cross-country (rare now), approximately mid-continent I look down and have the same recurring thought: they say that if you know where to look, you can still see wagon tracks across the prairie, and I think: If you told those people that their children, the ones in the wagon Right Now - would be able to make that same three-month trip in three hours and would do it seven miles straight up at 550 miles per hour, with the outside temperatures near -100° - and do it in perfect comfort while a pretty girl pampered them with food and drink - they would tie you to the wagon for the rest of the trip because you were obviously a lunatic.
That waking dream always finishes the same: just how magnificent the species can be - and how depraved - both seemingly without limit.
I see that Putin has withdrawn from START 2 and has put his nuclear arsenal on alert. I hope we make it. If we don't, I hope I survive to make it even - at least one time. Then I'm ready to go.
Thought provoking, Rick.
But I just can't help but think (I guess I'm too cynical, by and large) that the fervor unleashed by revivals such as this one not only mitigate the pain of the many attendees but would it not raise their expectations too high for God's help in the future? How do people captured in the spirit and intensity of the revival survive life's inescapable trials and travails, often occurring the next day? Are they fortified by renewed strength? Or are they disappointed that what they experienced did not in fact change anything at all? I think it's more the latter. (But that's just me).
Perhaps that's why religious revivals dissipate over time..
Agreed. Just look at the Gospel of John where Jesus does miracles which are intended to be "signs" of who he really is but people want more of the miracles. When there are no more miracles, they not only leave but decided to kill him.
I think of it like this:
Miracle faith <> enduring faith.
Miracle faith < faith in a historical event (with apologies to RT on this thread).
I recently heard Dennis Prager say that he has only asked God for something twice in his life. He said that he is far more concerned with what God wants from him than what he wants from God. While I wouldn't go that far personally, I think he has a great read on what a lot of "religion" is about these days.
I think we'd be a lot better off if we all thought about what God (or outside moral authority, higher power, etc) has created us for instead of the other way around.
That’s right. We tend to be consumers with religion as we are for anything else, and look out for what’s there for us. If we expect God to fix everything in our life, then faith will die as soon as hardship is hitting us. Believing in God will not make our lives easy, but it will give us the strength to go through bad times. Those revivals are a sign of people looking for meaning in their lives, which is great, but then the seed must grow and go beyond the emotional feeling of the moment…
This is just another symptom "[...] when you consider the crushing weight and size of the mental health crisis among our young people."
Is it indifference or does it serve an "elite" to create and manipulate the depression, anxiety and confusion American youth is experiencing. Certainly the destruction of the centering power, stewardship and agency provided by family structure in cooking a young male or female seems intentional. Likewise the replacement of education with indoctrination.
I've often though that our moral collapse and the recent embrace of many illogical movements couldn't really be organic. It's got to be part of a larger plan to weaken what the US has created and developed over the past several hundred years.
My take: International criminal finance is funding poseur Marxist's ("woke") who are using Maoist/Stalinist tactic's to disassemble the American Republic. But it's not about Communism. The goal is a world totalitarian financial feudal monarchy. The mass arrest's underway in Great Britain for thought and speech crime's, and the expansion of euthanasia law's in Canada to include depressed teens (10,000 Canadian's last year) and the Fed launch of "experimental" electronic currency say's it all. The Constitution must stand.
"My take: International criminal finance is funding poseur Marxist's ("woke") who are using Maoist/Stalinist tactic's to disassemble the American Republic. But it's not about Communism. The goal is a world totalitarian financial feudal monarchy."
Mike R--if I may quote Biden, "bingo!" Yes, the sudden rise of the woke Left is being funded/pushed by capitalist oligarchs as a means of clearing the way for their total control. After the US is brought down, they will deal with the woke Left acordingly--so they think.
We need to amplify this point, it explains a lot.
This is exactly right. It's all on purpose and follows the same template as other totalitarian/communist revolutions. Divide the populace. Chase away faith in any power higher than the state. Weaken the (nuclear) family and turn kids against their parents. Sew chaos and demoralize the populace. We are living through a highly orchestrated effort to overthrow the western democratic system of representative governments - especially the USA - and replace it with a digital totalitarian globalist "one world' ruling power.
Agreed. I'm an atheist but I really do think that religion can be for the better for many people and society as a whole. Sense of community, oneness, and choosing love above all are some great messages I see being spread by local churches. It's an overall good message and we all know there are people out there that can greatly benefit from such a calling.
Good comment. Where many secular people feel threatened and resent faith - you are open minded and see the benefit for people, society, community. It is an overall good message, and kudos to you for recognizing that good.
Cheeers to you, Sean, for being truly open-minded. So rare these days.
Really wish Free Press would skip the magical stuff.
Wish you would take a deep breath and lighten up.
Skip it? Why? Hundreds of millions of people believe in some version of God and religion. Many governments rise and fall on religious authority. Why should TFP not examine these issues from time to time? They're relevant to all of us.
Thank you for this.
Seriously, thank you for not ignoring it and for reporting on it sincerely.
Thank you for sharing good news.
Amen and amen. The Free Press continues to impress.
God is good! "Come to me all who are weary" resonates with all those feeling the brunt of that weariness.
AMEN. This brings me such hope, not just the story, but the respectful, uncynical reporting on it.
I'm a devout Catholic so this concept is new to me. However I don't care if it's fake or not. The message is still one that is needed. I don't care if it's not my religion. We need God, we need faith again to keep us grounded. I hope this event truly begins a transformation of our country to welcome God again, whatever form of religion or expression it may take.
I’m a Catholic too and I grew up in the town next to the Franciscan University in Ohio. We would go to mass there often. Those students were DEVOUT. It might not have been numbers in the thousands but I recall attending masses there where the energy was I like any other church I had been to (even still today). Stories of Asbury has me remembering it fondly.
I wish more Catholics lost themselves in worship more often. It was a beautiful thing and it cemented to me that God was real.
God bless these kids. This is beautiful.
2 of my children attended Franciscan U. and we experienced the same thing- attended mass with the students who were so joyful and reverent. They have 4 masses a day and all are well attended. My husband and I still go back occasionally for a sit in the arm of HOPE - such a holy ( not perfect, but trying) place
I had the benefit of being there for several Easter vigils and many Christmas midnight masses. Even at 7 and 8 years old, I knew it was special.
As a former catholic who grew up in an old school house and attended catholic grammar school, I understand where you’re coming from. Personally, I’m all for faith. But we’re a secular nation and praying itself doesn’t change the world. Action does, and for me, praying isn’t action.
Appreciate the article but find it hypocritical for these people praying for? For what? Peace on earth? Ain’t happening. The will of their god? I see prayer as a placebo. Put prayer into action if you want things done. Just my opinion
Prayer is acknowledging God as the prime mover. Maybe you’re looking for a political solution to a spiritual problem. “It ain’t happening.”
I’m just trying to be. I’ve seen the evils of religion firsthand. Nothing against faith, just organized religion
Don’t let the sins of men come between you and the Lord. And check out the Hallow app if you really want some incredible content to reconnect with your faith.
What if one no longer believes in a god?
Big difference between religion and godliness. Religion is man made. Who among us had not been disappointed by people? The scriptures tell us there is God the creator and the god of this world who tried to usurp God’s authority. That god has his hands on EVERYTHING. The battle is spiritual and what you see, hear, taste, touch or smell is worldly knowledge and it will let you down. Sorry you gave up on God, but your curiosity makes me think you really didn’t. You gave up on religion. Good for you. Talk directly to God. Ask God what to do.
Well said. And when you are talking to God and asking what to do you will be praying, because that's what prayer is: speech with God. It's about the most profound action anyone can take.
What do you think cloistered nuns are doing? Twiddling their thumbs? Their prayers are literally the glue for our broken systems, not just the church. i mean all respect but knocking prayer is truly bonkers buddy, regardless of what you believe. Just because you don’t believe it doesn’t make it not real. Radical, appropriate action bursts forth from seismic shifts like this. Action without prayer is completely useless. This is wonderful news.
Kevin, for many people, prayer is a means of preparing for action, for knowing what to do, and how. It's not an either/or.
I do get that. If people want to pray, more power to them. It’s just my personal feelings from prior experience.
Some of us believe that we can make better/more successful actions if aligned with Spirit. Just think if politicians stopped engaging in name-calling, for example. How much time would they have to discuss and produce bills?
Faith is important. Faith can be the spirit. Again, just my perspective/observations
Richard Rohr, a Fransican friar and priest and the guy who started the Center for Action and Contemplation, was part of a revival in Cincinatti Ohio in the early 80s that led to the establishment of the New Jerusalem community there. Similarly, the young people there gathered for weeks before dispersing, and doing some extraordinary work! Rohr has written and spoke a lot on this — easy enough to find online! I’m a Catholic too. And absolutely ready for a shake up by the Holy Spirit.
We live in a secular nation without belief that any god. Read what the founding fathers wrote and believed. Nothings against faith, but in the history of christianity, more have died than have been saved. Former catholic who’s seen sectarian strife up close.
But my friend: in the Christian faith, death is not anything to be feared. Your metric doesn’t work, regardless of whether it could be believed or not. (By the way, How could you possibly know more have died than have been saved????) At any rate, we’re not trying to avoid death. Someone who is saved (or who has come to this wisdom by other means) will leap into their death joyously, ready. “Faith is the *assurance* of things hoped for.”
You’ve said in many different comments that you’re a former Catholic. That identity doesn’t make you an expert on anything other than your own personal experience, and even on that, we are mostly misguided… very few people can actually say they’re experts on their own personal experience, and they can only say that after a lifetime of deep, sincere, reverential, humbled self-reflection. I think if we’re being honest, there’s probably no one here in this thread who can really claim that. (You *are* claiming that, by the way, with your insistence on letting everyone know you used to be a Catholic, inferring that you wised up and chose the better path — good for you, by the way! Hope it works out!)
Wow! A plain and simple telling of these events without a trace of the common journalistic cynicism one usually finds about them. Thank you, Olivia! Bless you!
Stories about corruption, useless government programs and hopelessness rule in today's media. I pray for revival for this nation - without God we are nothing.
Revival usually and definitionally comes after a generation dies, ie Exodus.
This means it always comes to the children of a generation that let it die. Godlessness is inherited. Revival comes out of the blue. That’s why it always comes in colleges and schools, and rarely in office buildings. Praying a generation of parents sees and doesn’t eye roll or squash it.
I agree that this revival seems to be focused on early 20-somethings, the Gen-Z-ers. This after article after article declared that the Gen Z-ers were a lost generation. That said, in clips around the grass commons outside of Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University, and from inside the chapel, there are a lot of mom and dad and grandparents there. The revival is blessing them, but this is a revival of the upcoming generation. I agree with that.
It is not that simple. While some of this generation were not introduced to faith by their parents many were but rejected it. Some of the negative commentary illustrates the thinking - magic, man in the sky, ...
You’re right. I think maybe a clarification is that the generation above my own age as the most irreligious until mine came of age. And I think even a lot of, not all, faithful parents passed down a faith that was shallow, maybe not for the parents themselves but for their kids, so when it came up against the world, it folded.
But! A more important point may be that parents, especially the ones who are faithful and raising their children o be faithful, have been systematically removed from their role as chief culture makers. This is the revolt happening in VA and Florida.
I agree with your analysis. I am Baptist royalty, meaning everywhere part of my family set down roots they formed a Baptist church, but the modern southern Baptist conference left me cold. And school is so secular so I thought I did not believe because there is no proof. Fortunately I am reasonably intelligent so one day I had an epiphany - specifically that is why it is called faith. You cannot see it, touch it, taste it, smell it or feel it. You just have to believe. And once you do the hope, and thus the possibilities, is/are infinite. And at heart I am fundamentally Baptist because Baptists believe one does good because they ARE saved, not TO BE saved.
Covid messed up so much for young people. There is so much negativity. So much pessimism. So much fear of the future. What will happen next? Will VR and AI make them irrelevant? Will nuclear war wipe them out? Will Marxism/socialism/communism allow the government to seize all property, make them impoverished and subservient with no need to strive for anything? They are confused and hurting. They need hope. No wonder they are turning to God. Hope for the future certainly won’t come from Joe Biden or Donald Trump or the Democratic or Republican parties.
And they are turning to each other, which is also beautiful. The Covid response tore at the bonds of community, forced us - especially children - into solitude, and encouraged us to view one another principally as threats. It was a bleak and dystopian approach and now we need to find our way out. That's why this story is so heartening to me.
We also messed them up. As an old Gen Xer with a child in college, I see how we have fostered this destructive focus on self. We were raised to believe that we could do anything and that our accomplishments were our own, but many of us were also raised with a foundation of faith. As adults, we put that faith on the shelf. We patterned that focus on self for our children and they took it to the next level. Many of this upcoming generation seem to only care about what they want. In spite of the focus on self, they want to belong to a group. The groups that they find tend to be around ideologies of self identities. Whereas most God-centered religious groups focus on putting others before self, these new ideologies focus on self before others. They focus a person's identity, e.g. race, gender, etc. As a Christian, we are called to look at everyone as a child of God, not their personal characteristics. I am grateful for my faith, as it has helped me through some very difficult times in recent years. Faith tells me that no matter what lies ahead of me, God is already there. There is a comfort in knowing that I can trust God's plan for my life regardless of the circumstances, and I can find joy in the most difficult situations. I think these kids are searching for that comfort and being able to release their worries. Thank you, The Free Press, for publishing this essay.
Great points. Be careful though--God loves all because God IS love, but the children of God are those he fathered, not all mankind. There are many who are
“fatherless” or whose father is the god of this world.
Not COVID. Lockdowns. Government policies. They were unnecessary, unscientific, destructive and totally ineffective.
It was not the disease, it was the lies and stupidity of our government that screwed up those kids, for no benefit to anybody but the rich.
Stop blaming the virus for corrupt leadership.
But we agree that the solution will not come from government, which is why I've been a small-government conservative my whole life, and one of the reasons I despise the government-worshipping secular Marxist Democrats.
Covid messed up nothing. The response to it by our Democrat leaders and their media allies created the havoc.
This reporting brought me to tears this morning. Tears of hope. Thank you.
I’ve been tearing up over it all week. My heart squeezes every time I see an article about it. It’s just so wonderful.
Same! So grateful for the outlets reporting this story!
Same here!
Thank you for reporting on this and not overlooking it. Our country needs more faith.
“When I notice he’s holding back tears, I ask him why. “Seeing this next generation come to life does my heart good.””
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What we really need is a revival where people awaken to the fact that life is supposed to contain suffering and that deputizing the government to end suffering results in much worse suffering.
Thank you for coming to my sermon.
There is a difference between suffering and numbness. Tears are an end to numbness.
Speaking of numbness, I just read we are now skimping on ANESTHESIA to save the environment. Democrats are psychopaths.
I agree fully. Most of them, in any event. Saying all of them without qualification is the sort of thing the worst of them do, and I don't want to be like them in any way.
Suggesting that I need to include 3,000 words of qualifiers in a comments section every time I generically mention ‘Democrats’ otherwise I’m
**internet cliche alert**
just as bad as them, actually IS the exact sort of unsophisticated manipulative bad-faith horseshit that they do.
And yes I just said “they”. FOH.
I disagree. Not reflexively, but because I have thought it through.
As one obvious example, this website is run by Democrats. I don't think Bari is a psychopath, and in my view we need to be encouraging all the reflexive "liberals" to wake up and smell the coffee. That becomes less likely if we insult all of them.
My two cents. This is a small ant hill, so I won't fight over it.
Plus in a nation so evenly decided we must be able to convert some of them to ever have a successful course correction.
Yeah smearing the other party doesn’t work……….
I guarantee Bari does not consider herself a Democrat and I don’t consider myself a Republican.
At no point am I going to abandon using shorthand on the internet because you allegedly have “thought it through”.
It is indeed pathology.
I like the C.G. Jung observation that those who gaze outward at the world dream. Those who gaze inward "awaken". Or, in regard to the baggage attached to the word God the old Terrance McKenna line that the force informing the fact of the universe would prefer not to be named at all.
To your point, as an old "men's movement" partisan, the lesson of Christ on the cross and the two thieves. The duty of man to hold the two opposing realities of heaven and hell "well enough" that a third reality is born inside him (-Jung's tension of the opposite's-). In modern Jordan Peterson term's "order and chaos".
But if doing good by others is the goal, and I think it is, it does no good to "awaken" unless one can then turn it outward. And by the way I mean doing good, not being a do-gooder. They are vastly different.
As they say on an airplane, put your own oxygen mask on first before you help others. Getting your own mind right is an essential part of helping others.
Absolutely. And how long it takes one to do that is necessarily varied. There have always been spiritual.hermits.
You might like N.S. Lyon's latest contribution on The Upheaval substack.
Kevin, I actually remember something called 'compassionate conservatism' from a few Presidents ago. I often wondered what happened to that..
You called him a racist, Nazi, murderer like you do every time. That is what happened.
I called George W. Bush a racist? When did I do that?
What is the point of this response? You know exactly what I meant. I’m not talking specifically about ‘you’, I’m referring to leftist scumbags generally. You knew that and your response is a lie where you pretend to be confused when you are not.
Nonetheless I’m sure you called him a Nazi, murderer, racist, and other things. You can lie about it if you want. We both know I’m correct and you’re lying.
'What we really need is a revival where people awaken to the fact that life is supposed to contain suffering and that deputizing the government to end suffering results in much worse suffering.'
See what you wrote above? Remember it?
Thus my compassionate conservative remark. It was not meant to goad you, Kevin. Relax a bit.
I thought your statement was a good one. Which was why I thought a GOP President trying to mitigate the 'suffering' would have interested you. But I guess not. You end up calling me a liar instead..
Oh good the internet cliche where you tell someone who is showing no signs of agitation to “calm down” because this makes your wife angry and you are on the internet trolling trying to make people angry but you don’t have a very sophisticated approach.
This is so uplifting to read, and Faith is exactly the hope modern society needs.
God bless us all.
Thank you TheFP for covering this story. If this does end up being reported in the MSM, it will be ridiculed and scorned. I appreciate the neutral, informational tone of the reporting. So many people are trying to find meaning in their lives these days and are turning to false idols (DEI, transgenderism, climate change). It is too early to tell what will come of this, but the fact that it is happening gives me hope.
Actually it has been reported in CNN and MSNBC, and not in negative ways. Surprising.
When people feel compelled to come together in desperate search of connection to their higher self and to the Divine in prayer, song and gratitude, miraculous things always happen. It is our natural state of being. Religion is not required.
Beautiful to see and experience people remembering and connecting to love. Feeling this and amplifying it out to all <3
Where does this happen without religion?
Have a look here. The Estonian Singing Revolution.
https://singingrevolution.com/
This seems to be a documentary about an ethno-nationalist political movement from three decades ago.
Today, finding meaning and moral purpose in ethnic identity is called "white nationalism" and considered the height of moral evil. The secular alternative is DEI, the worship of all ethnic and sexual identity, and it's producing the hopelessness and spiritual bankruptcy of youth.
I can offer one suggestion in my own pursuit of Brazilian Zouk, which some regard as a ritual practice of love, connection and empathy expressed through song and dance. But those things come dangerously close to indulgence and debauchery, and more often than not the spiritual side is overshadowed by competition over status, power and sex.
You’re quick to respond instead of taking the time to hear and reflect. The issue with all recent discourse. And, you also may not have listened to the singing. It would have moved you and inspired you to reflect. There are countless examples of this type of coming together without religion in recent history. This is our current problem. Most everyone senses the Divine with our heart brain. I would say most, without ulterior motives, are drawn to the chapel as a calling to the Divine within their own hearts. But, you don’t necessarily need a chapel or a church to achieve this outcome.
That's a fair observation, honestly I saw the NYT and the LA Times praise the film and almost immediately wanted nothing to do with it.
But as it happens, I have a Master's in Choral Conducting and spent years in elite choirs. The clip of the documentary reminded me of one particular convention of churches, thousands of people across dozens of choirs singing together as flags waved and banners marched. It was spectacular.
I'll have to watch the documentary later, seems worth the time. I view these "movements" as the substance of gods, and it strikes me that music is often their voice. "People don't have ideas, ideas have people" hence when thousands speak in unison, it's valuable to ask who is the speaker?
I myself am what you describe, I prefer the quiet of a humble chapel to the majesty of human masses filled with emotion.
Beautiful reply, Anthony, and I agree. You will enjoy the documentary. Their voices replicate the silent awe and humility of a chapel.
One doesn't need to belong to a specific religion to walk the spiritual path.
I agree and fall in that category myself. But I also think (self reflectively) that "spiritual but not religious" often means "I don't try that hard or follow any discipline, I just think of myself as a good person." Too often it feels like an excuse rather than a conviction.
Another way to look at it (as is the case with those in my spiritual circles) is that by not tying oneself to one specific religion, you're free to choose which beliefs, principles, doctrines, practices that most resonate with your soul. This 'buy-in' actually strengthens one's commitment and dedication to the spiritual world; whereas being required to believe or do certain things in the name of "faith" often has the opposite effect of pushing people away.
Praise the Lord. God is here, and He is not silent. May this catch fire all over the nation!!!
I think religion and spirituality are extremely important and undervalued in this day an age. But this has all the trappings of a social contagion. God only started speaking to one of the people in the story once the church was packed and it was cool? Hmmmm... Sounds like a fad, God can come to you alone praying on a mountain top. You can meet Buddha walking alone.
I respect your reasons for caution but "alone" is exactly the problem with so many of us these days, especially kids. Also, the greatest historical dispensations of the Spirit have been public and massive (see Acts 2).
Peace to you and yours!
Sorry but, no. The revival kicked off when a couple of students at chapel on Wednesday the 8th refused to leave, lingered at the railing in front of the chapel, continued to pray, and a few others joined them. Their prayers turned to repentance and honest expressions of spiritual need. Then word went out to the student body that chapel was still going, and many were led back to the auditorium, and it exploded from there and hasn't stopped for almost two weeks now. Whether revival comes because God falls on one or two people (which it can -- I experienced a spiritual renewal when I went on a personal retreat by myself, when I was contemplating chucking the whole Christianity thing), or it can fall on a thousand in an auditorium, that's up to God. Historical revivals have always had their detractors, who say that the revival is a "fad," or "emotionalism," or a demonic, or whatever. In true revivals, the detractors are forgotten by history, while the fruits continue. The First Great Awakening in America in the 1740s was shepherded by Jonathan Edwards. The revival's most notable detractor was Congregational minister (the greatest opposition to revivals are always professional religionists) named Charles Chauncy. Here he is: https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/9_7_chauncy-227x300.jpg History has largely forgotten Charles Chauncy. Don't be Charles Chauncy.
Yes, but it’s not up to God. It’s up to people. When people come together with genuine seeking and gratitude, God will be among them; not the other way around. God, whatever you believe that to be, is always there; the All; we merely become blind to it, and consequently, suffer.
Haha! Faith as social contagion. I guess that’s one way of looking at it.
Social contagion usually implies some harm is or will be done. Where is the harm here?
It doesn't imply harm - laughter is contagious. This is laughter on spiritual steroids.
I'm one of several atheists on this site, and I think that this revival is great.
You are a rare human AL. Kudos to you.
Thank you.
Some of us are careful to stay away from all religions - and that includes wokism, climate alarmism, gender ideology, CRT, communism, scientism (Fauci style) indigenous history revisionism. Have I missed anything?
Better than ticks, transgenderism, cutting etc are some not so good social contagions. I will take God as a social contagion, thanks.
As Jesus said ‘the kingdom of God is inside you’ I believe the energy of the group here is amped up. It’s a good energy. Positive. Who’s to say it’s not God inside each person collectively.
We have entered a NEW AGE. In Jung's ANSWER TO JOB (written at the end of his life) he present's the idea that the force we call God intend's to be consciously manifest in human kind. To your point: That the transcendent is no longer above but within us.
I was raised Catholic and did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. I now belong to a Christian church and found that I do not need a priest to be in the middle of my relationship with God. However, going to church and to be in community only strengthens my faith. God wants us to be with people to support and love us. And the way the secular world calls you crazy if you believe in God, you need other believers to keep your faith.
Yes I hear you. This story is awe-ful, by that I mean inspiring awe and fear. Awe that people are hungry to share a spiritual experience. Fear that that makes them vulnerable. Responsible religious leaders have a valuable role to play in this.
Uh, with all due respect, no. This is fabulous as is.
This is exactly what I was thinking while reading the column. A positive social contagion.
Absolutely. But I think this story says more about the need for people to come together and find community after the last couple years of isolation.
He can, but you are still alone. I take your point but even if you are correct that just means that not all contagion is bad.
Amazing! The faux-MSM would never cover a story like this! The Free Press rocks!