"Unfortunately, some people watching the footage of Israeli women dragged out of their homes and children lying slaughtered on the floors, are engaging in a spot of moral relativism, trying to see this terror from “both sides.” Others are arguing we should view this attack “in context,” as though there can be any context for what happened in places like Sderot yesterday. Still, those are the nobler reactions. Iran rejoiced over the massacre with fireworks. In London, some have been seen celebrating the attacks, waving Palestinian flags and blasting car horns.
Because, of course, Israel is the only country in the world that gets criticized when its citizens are butchered."
Thank you for calling out the depravity of these minds.
"We brought this on ourselves". --- "we" as in we Americans reflecting and criticizing ourselves?
Douglas Murray is talking about the rest of the world, including morons in London and US criticizing Israel. Not Israelis reflecting and criticizing themselves. You're comparing apples and oranges here.
What I remember post 9/11 is the world coming around behind USA. I remember Facebook profiles of people from numerous countries around the world putting aside all their complaints about America and the global outpour of sympathy. Even Putin and his Russia, if you want to remember, and China, gave us their express sympathy and condemnations against the 9/11 attack. The only ones celebrating were Osama bin Laden and the Talibans, and fractions of political agitators in the Middle East.
In contrast, what were we seeing yesterday? Lots of Western liberals, even on here in TFP comments, hell bent on criticizing Israel even as innocent Israelis are being slaughtered and kidnapped. I'm ashamed of the behavior and lack of compassion at this moment on the part of these woefully misguided and callous left wing Americans.
Apples/oranges, all fruit! I did a bit of international travel shortly after 9/11, and I met people who literally cried to me empathizing over what NYC/US went through w/ the 9/11 attacks. I also met people who sneered and basically said "now you see what it's like for all who have suffered at your government's hands (directly and indirectly)!" Most of this was in relation to our support of Israel, but additional critiques were of our involvements in SE Asia, Central America etc.
Oh just give it up. Your cases are pathetically weak. You're bringing up people pointing out the faults of our government as if what they said are the equivalent to people honking cars and displaying fireworks in mad joy to celebrate innocent people being slaughtered, kidnapped, and raped.
Exactly. Sure there will be some doubters, but the great manufactured consensus will be that Israel will now have a blank check to do whatever they want over there -- which will be: kill thousands of Palestinians and steal their land.
Oh yeah. My sympathy for the dispossessed Palestinians does not moderate my opinion of Hamas -- medieval barbarians to be sure. Kill them all. Alas, it's mostly the innocent who will die.
The Palestinians were displaced by the Arab states long before Israel came back to claim the Promised Land. The Palestinians have always had a choice to be part of Israel and live in peace or choose Hamas and war with Israel. They have made their chose clear in how they chose their leadership of the last decades. Even still Israel reaches out to peruse peace. This is what happens when Israel lets their gaurd down.
Yes, soothing words but now is also a time for honesty. As Victor Davis Hanson posts:
Not only did Biden release $6 billion to the Iranian financiers of this terror but "[i]n February Secretary of State Blinken had bragged that not only had the Biden administration resumed massive aid to the PLA cancelled by Trump, but cumulatively had transferred $1 billion—even as Palestinian authorities bragged that they would continue to pay bounties to the families of “martyrs” (i.e., those killed while conducting terrorists attacks against Israel).
And millions of American dollars also went into Gaza, run by Hamas—despite the Biden administration’s efforts to keep mostly quiet the resumption of such inexplicable support. In this regard, note the current shameful State-Department (“U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs”) website news release that was posted after today’s attack. It ended with this quite embarrassing, morally equivalent admonition:
“We urged all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”
We are ruled by dangerous fools, traitors and sociopaths. We all know it. Let's stop pretending otherwise and act. Before it's too late.
"Own this?" Democrat leadership is proud of themselves. As for the rank and file, seems they don't really pay attention beyond what they are spoon fed.
It is already too late, Bruce. Those crying for a "cease fire", and those who are bloviating about "equivalence" and "root causes" are already running the show. No one, and I mean NO ONE, like to see others massacred, but sometimes unspeakable violence HAS to be dealt with. There are too many Neville Chamberlains announcing "Peace in our time" when it is nothing but a pause in the violence.
With respect Bruce. The hopelessness and anomie of American political, financial and cultural reality, the depression, anxiety, uncertainty, and the escalating violence that springs from it, is in some part, our own abandonment of the American Republic and allowing it to fall into the hands of the poseurs you're describing. WE aren't ruled. As citizens "..we the people..." are the responsible agents for the survival of the Republic even, if it seems, that the Republic and the Constitution only exists in our hearts.
My experience has been that man is hardwired with lines of moral demarcation, as in the 10 Commandments and the American Constitution. Civilization depends upon these for its survival. Beyond those lines of human moral reason and demarcation there is only consequence and chaos. The line is (as Solzhenitsyn observed) drawn through the human heart. Like yourself, I see a great lie emanating from the decadence and hubris of an immoral cabal. But we are not lost.
Since this is a day for scripture: From Proverbs.
There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother./
There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness./
There is a generation-Oh how lofty are their eye's!!/
And their eyelids are lifted up./
There is a generation whose teeth are like swords,/
@Bruce Miller, and Mike R. Thank you for your comments. Mike I find your comment to be extraordinary and accurate. What might we few, blessed or cursed to recognize this moment, do to improve things given the heavy weight of our country’s circumstances?
I first read through Ecclesiastes at 19, possibly the lowest point in my life, and it awakened a spiritual hunger that I continue to feed regularly. Since then (I'm nearly 65) I've returned to the words of The Preacher many times. The wisdom is profound and timeless. Just a few verses beyond what is quoted above, these words are written (Amplified Bible):
11He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]--yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.
I believe we are living in a world we weren't designed to endure. But a better world awaits on the other side of eternity. I pray for the people of Israel, and for God's wisdom to guide us all in the days to come.
From Eccl 5, three of my favorite verses in the Bible in terms of helping me understand why we’re here:
1. This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.
2. Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God.
3. They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.
Following the wisdom here could solve so much of the manufactured strife distracting and dividing us today.
- life has always boiled down to eating, drinking and working; we’ve all but solved those needs in this country - the government and many on the left are making up “needs” and “problems” that don’t need solving
- work is required of all, and in many/most instances, is “toilsome”
- the ability to enjoy wealth, possessions (ie, earthly success) and even life itself is not a given; I experienced years of clinical depression and anxiety in spite of a blessings-filled life and try to be grateful daily, as the dark times may well return
- a key to contentment is to “ accept our lot and be happy in our toil” - this is not to denigrate trying to better your situation and those around you, but you CAN try and find peace along the journey
- if we follow this wisdom and submit to this reality, we can live more in the moment, “occupied with gladness”, rather than being distracted by desiring what others around us have and blaming the endless number of bogeymen being peddled today
Thanks for sharing that expanded section. As a child of Christian missionaries, I loved the title of a book my parents had, “Eternity in Their Hearts” by Don Richardson, about all the cultures of the world that inexplicably sensed the existence of The One True God.
I just found it on YouTube, it's 26 minutes. Perhaps you are remembering a different movie. This was about a missionary and his wife who moved to New Guinea and worked with one particular tribe. Have you read "After The Flood" by Bill Cooper? It's fascinating.
He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
The post-WWII world is the most peaceful time in world history. We think this peace is the norm. We take it for granted and have gotten lazy and entitled.
We forget that in the vast majority of world history, what we saw yesterday in Israel is the norm.
*We take it for granted and have gotten lazy and entitled.
Particularly in the Western world (US, Europe, Canada, Australia)...many are lazy and entitled, engaging in hedonism & only living for "themselves"....the governments seek to appease terrorists and dictators to "keep the peace", not understanding that terrorists and dictators cannot be appeased. They take in hordes of Muslim extremist "immigrants", bringing in the violence and terrorism into their cities. They give money to dictators like Xi Jinping , Iran, Hamas, thinking that the bribery money will bring them peace. But giving money to terrorists only increases war. When Xi Jinping says he Will start war within the next 1-2 years, we should take it seriously. Biden's Cabinet and Democrats going to China to grovel & beg at his feet will not stop him from war. Wall St's investment money will only increase the amount of nuclear weapons Xi acquires. Biden's $6 Billion to Iran & Billions to Hamas funds wars and terrorism.
Biden looked particularly crazed and daft when making his saccharine statement of "support" of Israel, when he had just funneled cash to the financiers of butchery. He needs to be removed immediately.
"He is simply the ventriloquists' dummy." EXACTLY! I have been saying as much for two years now. Biden has not entertained an original thought in his 50 year political career. He has been a lamprey attached to the underside of Government, sucking the blood of the people for his own vainglorious "legacy".
Exactly. He's the only puppet willing to allow his name and legacy to be tarnished in pursuit of the destruction of America. To be honest, he didn't have much of a legacy. He's the only idiot who was willing to be the face of totalitarian takeover of America. He's not running anything, not making any decisions.
Peace has always been just a pause between wars, and the only proven prevention for any society is to be always prepared and always vigilant. The "War to End All Wars" was merely the prelude to another World War. There is no "peace dividend" if we let our guard down.
fun fact: A town near where I was born was called "Ecclesiastes," but the postal service thought it was too long and changed it to "Eccles." I'll bet there's not one citizen living there today who knows that.
************
less fun fact: I shall never understand man's scope - the heights he can attain and the depths to which he can sink. This Israeli slaughter requires a devastating response - and I mean a response of biblical proportion - "leave not one stone standing upon another." Golda Meir was right: there will never be peace until they love their children more than they hate us." Let us do what we must do to have that peace - whatever it takes. And may God have mercy on their black souls.
Israel has already warned that a response is coming and that Palestinian families should evacuate. That's a lot more than Hamas did for Israeli families.
Thanks Jim. Well said. Another quote from Golda Meir that fits the bill: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children," she said. "But we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children."
There is so much wisdom in the second sentence of Mr. Murray’s essay, “[t]errible events occur, but if we have the wisdom of the ages in our heads, we can put them into some form of context.” I grieve for the generations who have been raised and educated without access to or appreciation for this wisdom, and pray for our collective enlightenment.
“One of the most perfect and poetic translations of any work”. Psalm 23 is also incredible in the KJV. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for thou art with me”.
Yes. Some of the most beautiful wording ever composed.
My agnostic father memorized Psalm 23 in Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, languages in which his family and friends read it in succession at his memorial.
The Italian line for " my cup overflows" is "mia coppa trabocca." It was our favorite.
"Turn! Turn! Turn!", also known as or subtitled "To Everything There Is a Season", is a song written by Pete Seeger in 1959... The song became an international hit in late 1965 when it was adapted by the American folk rock group the Byrds. The single entered the U.S. chart at number 80 on October 23, 1965, before reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on December 4, 1965. The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version (1611) of the Bible, (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) (Wikipedia)
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain that which is to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time of love, and a time of hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
America is replete with both political and practical wisdom. Why are we not more grounded in it? Because we're hammered constantly with a poisonous manufactured and distorted hyperreality that screams over the top of the human moral reason that the American Republic is founded upon. We're soaked to the bone in the madness. I'm not sure how but we need to get well.
Thank you Douglas for reminding us of these profound scriptures. I wake up this morning with a heavy heart for Israel and for my Jewish friends here in the US and will be praying for safety and peace in church this morning.
Growing up in England, at a young age I had a class teaching the Bible. And that was in a government school. It was not about proselytizing, but about an essential part of the foundation of Western civilization. Christopher Hitchens, an avowed atheist, was also knowledgeable of the Bible and knew the words of hymns because he was exposed to them in English schools at roughly the same time.
No, the ignorance about history terrifies me; people know basically nothing about historical facts yet have no inhibitions about giving their opinions, because feelings trump facts. I can highly recommend the British tv series "The West"" written and narrated by Marc Sidwell of the New Culture Forum. It is in six-parts and addresses important aspects of Western civilization and culture from the fall of Rome to the present. I live in Germany and have watched it on YouTube.
"There are few words used more loosely than the word, civilisation. What does it mean? It means a society based upon the opinion of civilians. It means that violence, the rule of warriors and despotic chiefs, the conditions of camps, and warfare of riot and tyranny give place to parliaments, where laws are made and independent courts of Justice, in which over long periods, those laws are maintained. That is civilisation and in its soil grow continually, Freedom, Comfort and Culture. When civilisation reigns in any country a wider and less harassed life is afforded to the masses of the people. The traditions of the past are cherished and the inheritance bequeathed to us by former wise or valiant men becomes a rich estate to be enjoyed and used by all." Winston Churchill, 1938.
It stands for the American Constitutional Republic, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights it contains.---"If everything means everything nothing means anything." Hold the line.
This is also a time FOR CHOOSING. Which side one is on. We saw yesterday that many in our media and even elected leaders chose the side that glories in killing children.
Yes. And Biden chose to give Iran $6 billion and resume payments to the PLO. The blood of the innocents is on his and Blinken's hands. So I ask all Americans - do you stand with Israel or the barbarian butchers???
And to slaughter a child, while with his mother, and in her anguish rape her, and kill her (again, because she has already died a thousand unspeakable deaths now), in the name of their God.....this tells me all I need to ever know. That any “sane” human male could do this, tells me all I need to know about how he feels about womankind, about his own mother/daughter/sister/father/son. About their desolate worthless society.
Tragically yes- what’s the difference, you ask (presumably)? The difference is that the marching orders in Vietnam were not to sacrifice and torture and murder civilians. That it happened made those war crimes. This ….is not that. This is yet another glimpse into the barbaric norm of a non-civilized culture.
Fair point, but the definition of "civilized" can depend upon one's perspective. Christian missionaries might consider a peaceful Indian tribe worshipping in their own way as "uncivilized" and try to 'convert' them by bashing the skulls of their infants against the rocks.
I dont think you and I are going to be on the same page- it feels to me like you have a strange agenda and you are making me sad. The world has a dark and troubled history- of course! But hey, wanna evolve? Or do you think two wrongs make a right? Know better, do better. At least that’s what I teach my preschooler. I’ll just stop here. Please be civilized and go away now. Thanks
Really? And why should you and I "be on the same page" and I should "go away" if we are not? My "strange" agenda is called "thinking" and I welcome discourse and diverse opinions. Doing better involves being open to criticizing irrationality and cruelty wherever it is found. The Book of Leviticus is one place...how many Jews follow its insane cruelty? Yet "God" supposedly wrote it. (of course, the Code of Hammurabi may have had a SLIGHT influence).
First, God did not WRITE the Bible. Second, LCK is politely saying he would like to stop conversing with you. You claim you are open to diverse opinion, but you respond sarcastically with grievances of the past. This is not the time for dissecting ancient history. Real live people were brutally attacked by a barbaric organization who has claimed responsibility. It needs no analysis, modern technology brought it right to our televisions and cell phones. Are you shocked and horrified as most are? After all this is 2023
Thank you Douglas, for this:
"Unfortunately, some people watching the footage of Israeli women dragged out of their homes and children lying slaughtered on the floors, are engaging in a spot of moral relativism, trying to see this terror from “both sides.” Others are arguing we should view this attack “in context,” as though there can be any context for what happened in places like Sderot yesterday. Still, those are the nobler reactions. Iran rejoiced over the massacre with fireworks. In London, some have been seen celebrating the attacks, waving Palestinian flags and blasting car horns.
Because, of course, Israel is the only country in the world that gets criticized when its citizens are butchered."
Thank you for calling out the depravity of these minds.
The USA was also criticized after 9/11. Remember "we brought this on ourselves"??
Oh I remember 9/11 like yesterday.
"We brought this on ourselves". --- "we" as in we Americans reflecting and criticizing ourselves?
Douglas Murray is talking about the rest of the world, including morons in London and US criticizing Israel. Not Israelis reflecting and criticizing themselves. You're comparing apples and oranges here.
What I remember post 9/11 is the world coming around behind USA. I remember Facebook profiles of people from numerous countries around the world putting aside all their complaints about America and the global outpour of sympathy. Even Putin and his Russia, if you want to remember, and China, gave us their express sympathy and condemnations against the 9/11 attack. The only ones celebrating were Osama bin Laden and the Talibans, and fractions of political agitators in the Middle East.
In contrast, what were we seeing yesterday? Lots of Western liberals, even on here in TFP comments, hell bent on criticizing Israel even as innocent Israelis are being slaughtered and kidnapped. I'm ashamed of the behavior and lack of compassion at this moment on the part of these woefully misguided and callous left wing Americans.
Apples/oranges, all fruit! I did a bit of international travel shortly after 9/11, and I met people who literally cried to me empathizing over what NYC/US went through w/ the 9/11 attacks. I also met people who sneered and basically said "now you see what it's like for all who have suffered at your government's hands (directly and indirectly)!" Most of this was in relation to our support of Israel, but additional critiques were of our involvements in SE Asia, Central America etc.
Oh just give it up. Your cases are pathetically weak. You're bringing up people pointing out the faults of our government as if what they said are the equivalent to people honking cars and displaying fireworks in mad joy to celebrate innocent people being slaughtered, kidnapped, and raped.
No, he is saying the opposite -- that they are not equivalent. Read more carefully.
Exactly. Sure there will be some doubters, but the great manufactured consensus will be that Israel will now have a blank check to do whatever they want over there -- which will be: kill thousands of Palestinians and steal their land.
If you take women and children hostages as your war plan, you cannot expect restraint for which you have no respect.
Oh yeah. My sympathy for the dispossessed Palestinians does not moderate my opinion of Hamas -- medieval barbarians to be sure. Kill them all. Alas, it's mostly the innocent who will die.
The Palestinians were displaced by the Arab states long before Israel came back to claim the Promised Land. The Palestinians have always had a choice to be part of Israel and live in peace or choose Hamas and war with Israel. They have made their chose clear in how they chose their leadership of the last decades. Even still Israel reaches out to peruse peace. This is what happens when Israel lets their gaurd down.
If only the poor people of Gaza yearned for peace with Israel. They do not. They yearn for dead Jews.
I was in grad school on 9/11, so I was surrounded by people saying that. In many ways, that forms the white-hot core of how I feel about Leftists.
The Demonic Scumbags of Amerika are rallying at 1 pm in Times Square today to celebrate butchery and barbarity.
Just saw this on the news. Sick but not surprising at all.
Keep in mind that DSA was the group that brought Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib to the fore......and instrumental in electing them.
Dear Douglas -
Thank you for “the words of Kohelet, son of David, king in Jerusalem” this morning.
Israel is in my prayers.
Yes, soothing words but now is also a time for honesty. As Victor Davis Hanson posts:
Not only did Biden release $6 billion to the Iranian financiers of this terror but "[i]n February Secretary of State Blinken had bragged that not only had the Biden administration resumed massive aid to the PLA cancelled by Trump, but cumulatively had transferred $1 billion—even as Palestinian authorities bragged that they would continue to pay bounties to the families of “martyrs” (i.e., those killed while conducting terrorists attacks against Israel).
And millions of American dollars also went into Gaza, run by Hamas—despite the Biden administration’s efforts to keep mostly quiet the resumption of such inexplicable support. In this regard, note the current shameful State-Department (“U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs”) website news release that was posted after today’s attack. It ended with this quite embarrassing, morally equivalent admonition:
“We urged all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”
We are ruled by dangerous fools, traitors and sociopaths. We all know it. Let's stop pretending otherwise and act. Before it's too late.
A spokesman for Hamas confirmed to the BBC that the terrorist group received aid from Iran.
Biden gave Iran $6 billion.
Biden has the blood of slaughtered Israeli women and children on this palsied, shaking hands.
Own this, Democrats.
"Own this?" Democrat leadership is proud of themselves. As for the rank and file, seems they don't really pay attention beyond what they are spoon fed.
And the lunatic Jamaal Bowman wants us to take in the Gazans.
How bout we send Jamaal to Gaza, instead?
It is already too late, Bruce. Those crying for a "cease fire", and those who are bloviating about "equivalence" and "root causes" are already running the show. No one, and I mean NO ONE, like to see others massacred, but sometimes unspeakable violence HAS to be dealt with. There are too many Neville Chamberlains announcing "Peace in our time" when it is nothing but a pause in the violence.
It's never too late.
With respect Bruce. The hopelessness and anomie of American political, financial and cultural reality, the depression, anxiety, uncertainty, and the escalating violence that springs from it, is in some part, our own abandonment of the American Republic and allowing it to fall into the hands of the poseurs you're describing. WE aren't ruled. As citizens "..we the people..." are the responsible agents for the survival of the Republic even, if it seems, that the Republic and the Constitution only exists in our hearts.
My experience has been that man is hardwired with lines of moral demarcation, as in the 10 Commandments and the American Constitution. Civilization depends upon these for its survival. Beyond those lines of human moral reason and demarcation there is only consequence and chaos. The line is (as Solzhenitsyn observed) drawn through the human heart. Like yourself, I see a great lie emanating from the decadence and hubris of an immoral cabal. But we are not lost.
Since this is a day for scripture: From Proverbs.
There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother./
There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness./
There is a generation-Oh how lofty are their eye's!!/
And their eyelids are lifted up./
There is a generation whose teeth are like swords,/
And whose fangs are like knives,/
To devour the poor from among men./
The horse leech has two daughters-/
They cry give, give!!
Well stated
We are on the same page. You are only way more eloquent.
How relevant today!
@mike r please see my comment to you and Bruce
@Bruce Miller, and Mike R. Thank you for your comments. Mike I find your comment to be extraordinary and accurate. What might we few, blessed or cursed to recognize this moment, do to improve things given the heavy weight of our country’s circumstances?
I first read through Ecclesiastes at 19, possibly the lowest point in my life, and it awakened a spiritual hunger that I continue to feed regularly. Since then (I'm nearly 65) I've returned to the words of The Preacher many times. The wisdom is profound and timeless. Just a few verses beyond what is quoted above, these words are written (Amplified Bible):
11He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]--yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.
I believe we are living in a world we weren't designed to endure. But a better world awaits on the other side of eternity. I pray for the people of Israel, and for God's wisdom to guide us all in the days to come.
From Eccl 5, three of my favorite verses in the Bible in terms of helping me understand why we’re here:
1. This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.
2. Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God.
3. They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.
Following the wisdom here could solve so much of the manufactured strife distracting and dividing us today.
- life has always boiled down to eating, drinking and working; we’ve all but solved those needs in this country - the government and many on the left are making up “needs” and “problems” that don’t need solving
- work is required of all, and in many/most instances, is “toilsome”
- the ability to enjoy wealth, possessions (ie, earthly success) and even life itself is not a given; I experienced years of clinical depression and anxiety in spite of a blessings-filled life and try to be grateful daily, as the dark times may well return
- a key to contentment is to “ accept our lot and be happy in our toil” - this is not to denigrate trying to better your situation and those around you, but you CAN try and find peace along the journey
- if we follow this wisdom and submit to this reality, we can live more in the moment, “occupied with gladness”, rather than being distracted by desiring what others around us have and blaming the endless number of bogeymen being peddled today
Thanks for sharing that expanded section. As a child of Christian missionaries, I loved the title of a book my parents had, “Eternity in Their Hearts” by Don Richardson, about all the cultures of the world that inexplicably sensed the existence of The One True God.
I've read Don Richardson's book and I remember "Peace Child." It was a movie about the way God's fingerprints are in cultures around the world.
Yes!!
I just found it on YouTube, it's 26 minutes. Perhaps you are remembering a different movie. This was about a missionary and his wife who moved to New Guinea and worked with one particular tribe. Have you read "After The Flood" by Bill Cooper? It's fascinating.
That is a great book.
Thank you for sharing the remaining verses. Those verses present the reason for the hope that we have in this life.
Amen
Amen. That is my one of my favorite verses, too.
He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 KJV
The post-WWII world is the most peaceful time in world history. We think this peace is the norm. We take it for granted and have gotten lazy and entitled.
We forget that in the vast majority of world history, what we saw yesterday in Israel is the norm.
*We take it for granted and have gotten lazy and entitled.
Particularly in the Western world (US, Europe, Canada, Australia)...many are lazy and entitled, engaging in hedonism & only living for "themselves"....the governments seek to appease terrorists and dictators to "keep the peace", not understanding that terrorists and dictators cannot be appeased. They take in hordes of Muslim extremist "immigrants", bringing in the violence and terrorism into their cities. They give money to dictators like Xi Jinping , Iran, Hamas, thinking that the bribery money will bring them peace. But giving money to terrorists only increases war. When Xi Jinping says he Will start war within the next 1-2 years, we should take it seriously. Biden's Cabinet and Democrats going to China to grovel & beg at his feet will not stop him from war. Wall St's investment money will only increase the amount of nuclear weapons Xi acquires. Biden's $6 Billion to Iran & Billions to Hamas funds wars and terrorism.
Biden looked particularly crazed and daft when making his saccharine statement of "support" of Israel, when he had just funneled cash to the financiers of butchery. He needs to be removed immediately.
Removing Biden will make absolutely no difference. He is simply the ventriloquists' dummy.
"He is simply the ventriloquists' dummy." EXACTLY! I have been saying as much for two years now. Biden has not entertained an original thought in his 50 year political career. He has been a lamprey attached to the underside of Government, sucking the blood of the people for his own vainglorious "legacy".
It's a start. Then remove his carnival freak show cabinet and then eliminate the entire party that installed them.
It s truly a cabinet-cy of dunces.
Exactly. He's the only puppet willing to allow his name and legacy to be tarnished in pursuit of the destruction of America. To be honest, he didn't have much of a legacy. He's the only idiot who was willing to be the face of totalitarian takeover of America. He's not running anything, not making any decisions.
Yep. Central banking globalist financiers. (The DNC/EU/CCP Davos crowd.)
Look again & see Blinkin.
And yet people are still voting for Biden and supporting him for another term. Go figure.
Useful idiots.
Peace has always been just a pause between wars, and the only proven prevention for any society is to be always prepared and always vigilant. The "War to End All Wars" was merely the prelude to another World War. There is no "peace dividend" if we let our guard down.
Thomas Hobbes stated this truth in "Leviathan". "Every man against every man..."
Or: E Pluribus Unam.
The most peaceful time in history? Are you forgetting about our 50 year Cold War?
9/11 was the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor, and many argue we are still in the midst of a war on terror.
How many years did we spend in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Ask the families of the dead and maimed soldiers if we're at peace?
fun fact: A town near where I was born was called "Ecclesiastes," but the postal service thought it was too long and changed it to "Eccles." I'll bet there's not one citizen living there today who knows that.
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less fun fact: I shall never understand man's scope - the heights he can attain and the depths to which he can sink. This Israeli slaughter requires a devastating response - and I mean a response of biblical proportion - "leave not one stone standing upon another." Golda Meir was right: there will never be peace until they love their children more than they hate us." Let us do what we must do to have that peace - whatever it takes. And may God have mercy on their black souls.
Let’s hope it’s a response where their women and children are spared.
Israel has already warned that a response is coming and that Palestinian families should evacuate. That's a lot more than Hamas did for Israeli families.
Unfortunately, they hide their offices and people behind their women and children, they may suffer as well.
Not possible. Sorry.
Thanks Jim. Well said. Another quote from Golda Meir that fits the bill: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children," she said. "But we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children."
There is so much wisdom in the second sentence of Mr. Murray’s essay, “[t]errible events occur, but if we have the wisdom of the ages in our heads, we can put them into some form of context.” I grieve for the generations who have been raised and educated without access to or appreciation for this wisdom, and pray for our collective enlightenment.
And I pray for Israel.
Sadly, children are no longer being taught "the wisdom of the ages." Now it's "the ideology of the day. "
“One of the most perfect and poetic translations of any work”. Psalm 23 is also incredible in the KJV. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for thou art with me”.
Yes. Some of the most beautiful wording ever composed.
My agnostic father memorized Psalm 23 in Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, languages in which his family and friends read it in succession at his memorial.
The Italian line for " my cup overflows" is "mia coppa trabocca." It was our favorite.
Beautiful…we just returned from Italy and we loved how each small town was centered around a church.
Churches that are mostly empty today, I’m sad to say
Thank you for sharing that.
Psalm 23 is one of the few I do know by heart. Our pastor challenged us to commit it to memory.
Though my enemies come close to feed on my flesh, it will be them who will fall.
"Turn! Turn! Turn!", also known as or subtitled "To Everything There Is a Season", is a song written by Pete Seeger in 1959... The song became an international hit in late 1965 when it was adapted by the American folk rock group the Byrds. The single entered the U.S. chart at number 80 on October 23, 1965, before reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on December 4, 1965. The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the book of Ecclesiastes, as found in the King James Version (1611) of the Bible, (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) (Wikipedia)
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain that which is to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time of love, and a time of hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
And the last line, added by Roger McGuinn:
"... I swear it's not too late."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ga_M5Zdn4
And the Byrds allowed Dylan to "sing."
His mike was turned off ;-)
America is replete with both political and practical wisdom. Why are we not more grounded in it? Because we're hammered constantly with a poisonous manufactured and distorted hyperreality that screams over the top of the human moral reason that the American Republic is founded upon. We're soaked to the bone in the madness. I'm not sure how but we need to get well.
That song moved me to pieces as a child.
I saw the Byrds perform this song at the Skateorama skating rink in Downey California.
At that time in my life all the poetry was lost for me. I was busy trying to be cool and get some phone numbers.
How well I remember that song. I preferred the version by The SEEKERS - the female vocalist added a wonderful quality to it.
The late Judith Durham AO was a beautiful vocalist and person.
Thank you Douglas for reminding us of these profound scriptures. I wake up this morning with a heavy heart for Israel and for my Jewish friends here in the US and will be praying for safety and peace in church this morning.
The Bible, as literature, should be taught in every school. You cannot understand Western Civilization or History without it.
Growing up in England, at a young age I had a class teaching the Bible. And that was in a government school. It was not about proselytizing, but about an essential part of the foundation of Western civilization. Christopher Hitchens, an avowed atheist, was also knowledgeable of the Bible and knew the words of hymns because he was exposed to them in English schools at roughly the same time.
Of course, that could never happen now.
Thank you from Jerusalem, Douglas
Thank you for writing the truth Douglas - bluntly and without apology. I stand with Israel, and the West.
Question is.....does "the West" even stand for itself and its vast accomplishments any more?
No, the ignorance about history terrifies me; people know basically nothing about historical facts yet have no inhibitions about giving their opinions, because feelings trump facts. I can highly recommend the British tv series "The West"" written and narrated by Marc Sidwell of the New Culture Forum. It is in six-parts and addresses important aspects of Western civilization and culture from the fall of Rome to the present. I live in Germany and have watched it on YouTube.
"There are few words used more loosely than the word, civilisation. What does it mean? It means a society based upon the opinion of civilians. It means that violence, the rule of warriors and despotic chiefs, the conditions of camps, and warfare of riot and tyranny give place to parliaments, where laws are made and independent courts of Justice, in which over long periods, those laws are maintained. That is civilisation and in its soil grow continually, Freedom, Comfort and Culture. When civilisation reigns in any country a wider and less harassed life is afforded to the masses of the people. The traditions of the past are cherished and the inheritance bequeathed to us by former wise or valiant men becomes a rich estate to be enjoyed and used by all." Winston Churchill, 1938.
Thanks for this recommendation, Heide. Here is the link for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YinIR-YbwZw&ab_channel=TheNewCultureForum
This is similar to a question my husband always asks when controversy over the American flag comes up. “What, actually, does it stand for anymore?”
It stands for the American Constitutional Republic, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights it contains.---"If everything means everything nothing means anything." Hold the line.
The question answers itself, methinks.
Not all the West stands with Israel, unfortunately.
This is also a time FOR CHOOSING. Which side one is on. We saw yesterday that many in our media and even elected leaders chose the side that glories in killing children.
Yes. And Biden chose to give Iran $6 billion and resume payments to the PLO. The blood of the innocents is on his and Blinken's hands. So I ask all Americans - do you stand with Israel or the barbarian butchers???
Choose wisely.
For millennia, they have outlived every one of their enemies. They have seen off the Romans, the Assyrians, the Pharaohs, and the Babylonians.
Mr. Murray speaks with a prophetic voice this morning. As others have said, thank you,
And to slaughter a child, while with his mother, and in her anguish rape her, and kill her (again, because she has already died a thousand unspeakable deaths now), in the name of their God.....this tells me all I need to ever know. That any “sane” human male could do this, tells me all I need to know about how he feels about womankind, about his own mother/daughter/sister/father/son. About their desolate worthless society.
And those who will rally in Times Square today to celebrate this depravity.......
This is the evil celebrated by the "Democratic Socialists of America." Treat them accordingly.
Wasn't that what some of our soldiers were reported to have done in Viet Nam?
Tragically yes- what’s the difference, you ask (presumably)? The difference is that the marching orders in Vietnam were not to sacrifice and torture and murder civilians. That it happened made those war crimes. This ….is not that. This is yet another glimpse into the barbaric norm of a non-civilized culture.
Fair point, but the definition of "civilized" can depend upon one's perspective. Christian missionaries might consider a peaceful Indian tribe worshipping in their own way as "uncivilized" and try to 'convert' them by bashing the skulls of their infants against the rocks.
I dont think you and I are going to be on the same page- it feels to me like you have a strange agenda and you are making me sad. The world has a dark and troubled history- of course! But hey, wanna evolve? Or do you think two wrongs make a right? Know better, do better. At least that’s what I teach my preschooler. I’ll just stop here. Please be civilized and go away now. Thanks
The "line"of human moral demarcation is drawn through every human heart. It's not a hair one can split.
Really? And why should you and I "be on the same page" and I should "go away" if we are not? My "strange" agenda is called "thinking" and I welcome discourse and diverse opinions. Doing better involves being open to criticizing irrationality and cruelty wherever it is found. The Book of Leviticus is one place...how many Jews follow its insane cruelty? Yet "God" supposedly wrote it. (of course, the Code of Hammurabi may have had a SLIGHT influence).
First, God did not WRITE the Bible. Second, LCK is politely saying he would like to stop conversing with you. You claim you are open to diverse opinion, but you respond sarcastically with grievances of the past. This is not the time for dissecting ancient history. Real live people were brutally attacked by a barbaric organization who has claimed responsibility. It needs no analysis, modern technology brought it right to our televisions and cell phones. Are you shocked and horrified as most are? After all this is 2023
Gosh thanks for bringing yet another “spot of moral relativism”, or maybe stain is a better word, to the conversation.
And yesterday was the designated day Kohetet was read in synagogues throughout the world , once a year on the Shemini Atzeret holiday.