Trump administration releases 60,000 more files on RFK assassination. Here's what they say.

By Joe Walsh, Sara Cook, Graham Kates

Updated on: May 8, 2025 / 4:35 PM EDT / CBS News

Politics

By Sara Cook,

Updated on: May 8, 2025 / 4:35 PM EDT / CBS News

The federal government published more than 60,000 pages of records on Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's assassination late Wednesday — the second tranche of documents to be released on the 1968 slaying.

The releases were ordered by President Trump in January, with backing from the senator's son, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has claimed for years that his father's convicted killer Sirhan Sirhan might be innocent.

According to a CBS News review, some of the newly published documents include witness interviews, FBI memos, Sirhan's mugshots, an interview with a gun store owner's wife who claimed to see Sirhan and transcripts of Los Angeles Police Department interviews with Sirhan. Many of the details shared in the files were already known.

The documents also include a 2012 letter by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging the Obama administration to reopen a probe into his father's death.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the documents "have been sitting in various storage facilities across the federal government for decades and had never been digitized or accessible to the public before." They were digitized by ODNI — which is led by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — and posted on the National Archives website.

"Today's release is an important step toward maximum transparency, finding the truth, and sharing the truth," Gabbard said in a post on Truth Social.

Mr. Trump has also ordered the release of documents on President John F. Kennedy's 1963 assassination and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 killing. Some John F. Kennedy files were released in March, but the King documents have not been released.

What's in the RFK files — and will we learn anything new?

ODNI said the documents posted Wednesday include "never-before-seen details about the FBI's investigation into the assassination of RFK — including the discussion of potential leads by various FBI offices, internal FBI memos detailing the progress of the case, and more."

The records also include recordings of Los Angeles police interviews with Sirhan and eyewitnesses to the 1968 assassination, according to ODNI.

But it's unclear whether the files will reveal new information about Robert F. Kennedy's killing.

The senator's 1968 assassination was primarily investigated and prosecuted by authorities in Los Angeles. Documents from the local investigation — along with many records from a separate FBI probe — have been publicly available in California's state archives since the late 1980s. ODNI said some of the records that were published Wednesday had previously been handed over to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Letter from RFK Jr. to former Attorney General Eric Holder

Among the newly published documents is a letter Kennedy Jr. wrote in 2012 to then-Attorney General Eric Holder, asking for Holder to reopen the investigation into the assassination.

Kennedy Jr. wrote in his letter that he was writing in support of a request to investigate made by Paul Schrade, "a close friend and advisor to my father. He was standing beside my father when Daddy was killed and Paul was himself wounded by a bullet."

Kennedy Jr.'s request focused on an audio analysis of the shooting that purported to suggest 13 shots fired, more than the eight rounds in Sirhan's handgun. this would offer proof there was a second gunman. The request includes an analysis that concluded, "due to the poor quality of the recording (high background noise, distance of the microphone from the shooting source, initial recording made on a low grade recorder), an absolutely exact number of shot-sounds could not be determined."

FBI probed leads ultimately deemed not credible

FBI memos released Wednesday include some that described investigations into at least four people accused of having prior knowledge of the assassination: A person who claimed to have predicted the assassination, somebody who claimed to know about a co-conspirator, a person who claimed Sirhan had offered him $1 million to kill Kennedy, and somebody who burst into a congressional office and claimed that he'd given the orders to kill Kennedy.

Many of these and other allegations were not treated as credible, and some of the people making the claims were described in the documents as unreliable.

Sirhan went to a gun range two days before the assassination

One FBI memo reveals Sirhan was surveilled in January 1968. It is unclear why, but there's no indication from the memo that the FBI developed concerning intelligence from the surveillance.

The records lay out some details of the days and hours leading up to the assassination. The wife of a gun store owner identified Sirhan as among a group of people who on June 1, 1968 request information about "armor-piercing ammunition," before Sirhan purchased ammo from the store.

A staffer at a gun range told FBI agents that on June 4, 1968, the day before the shooting, he encountered a man he later identified from a photo as Sirhan. The man fired at targets with high accuracy and purchased ammunition, the staffer said. A woman with him also practiced shooting and was described as blonde and muscular.

Statements from eyewitnesses

Many of the documents detailed authorities' interviews with eyewitnesses, people who said they knew Sirhan and employees and guests at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, where Kennedy was shot.

One witness said that on the night of the killing, Sirhan expressed anger toward rich people and said he thought that other people at the event were disdainful of him.

Hours before the shooting, the witness said he met a man he later believed to be Sirhan outside the Ambassador Hotel, and chatted with him about Kennedy's presidential campaign.

Sirhan ostensibly said, of Kennedy: "Don't worry about him if he doesn't win, that son of a bitch, he's a millionaire and he doesn't need to win. Hе just wants to go to the White House, but even if he wins he's not going to do anything for you or for me or for any of the poor people."

Sirhan was "disgusted" with Kennedy and believed he was trying to "buy the presidency," according to the witness.

What did last month's RFK files say?

The government released a trove of 10,000 records on Robert F. Kennedy last month. A CBS News review found the documents included handwritten notes from Sirhan — including ones in which Sirhan wrote "RFK must be disposed of like his brother was" — as well as FBI memos on Sirhan, crime scene and autopsy photos, witness interviews and other materials.

A few of those records make reference to common conspiracy theories about the assassination, including mentions of witnesses seeing a woman in a polka-dot dress or somebody shouting "we shot him." Other witnesses said they didn't see anybody matching that description.

Many of the details in those files were already publicly known.

Who killed RFK — and what has RFK Jr. said?

Sirhan was convicted of killing Robert F. Kennedy — then a Democratic presidential primary candidate — at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He was 24 years old when he was arrested shortly after the shooting. Sirhan has admitted to killing the senator at various points, sometimes claiming it was due to the senator's support for Israel, though at other times, Sirhan has said he is innocent or said he couldn't remember the incident.

Sirhan has been incarcerated in California for decades, and multiple requests for parole have been unsuccessful. The state's parole board endorsed his 2021 bid for parole, but California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected the request.

The case has drawn public fascination for decades, with some observers claiming Sirhan didn't fire the fatal shots or acted as part of a wider conspiracy. They often cite conflicting eyewitness testimonies or the alleged presence of extra bullets — though many others have backed the view that Sirhan acted alone.

One of the skeptics is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was 14 years old when his father was assassinated. He has argued Sirhan wasn't responsible for the killing, and met with him in prison before backing his 2021 request for parole.

However, other members of the Kennedy family have staunchly opposed Sirhan's release from prison.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/more-rfk-files-released-trump/

AI Overview

Kennedy Name Meaning, Family History, Family Crest & Coats of ...

The surname Kennedy is an Anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic surname Cinnéidigh. It means "helmeted chief" or "leader," derived from the Gaelic words "ceann" (head) and "éidigh" (armour, or sometimes translated as ugly). The name has been used as both a surname and a given name.

Here's a more detailed look at the etymology:

Gaelic Origin:

The surname Kennedy is a direct anglicization of the Gaelic surname Cinnéidigh.

Meaning:

The name is often translated as "helmeted chief" or "leader". The "ceann" part means "head" or "chief," and "éidigh" originally referred to armor, but has also been interpreted as "ugly".

Possible Origins:

Some scholars suggest the name could also be derived from "O Ceannéidigh," meaning "grandson of Ceannéidigh". Others propose a Scottish Gaelic connection, with "Mac Cinnèidigh" meaning "son of Cinnéidigh".

Famous Families:

The name is associated with a prominent Irish-American family, including former President John F. Kennedy. The name has also been used as a given name, becoming increasingly popular for girls in the US.

AI responses may include mistakes.

In the second prelude, for Chief- Gene ral read highest Leader, and for captain read leader. For the first Leader the Spanish Autograph has Captain General, and for the second (leader), caudillo ; the former title expressing, as Father Rothaan remarks, a Commander-in-Chief of lawful warfare, the latter designating rather the leader of a faction, and being often used in a bad sense, as of a captain of robbers or malefactors. In order to express in some measure this distinction, he has made use of the terms Dux Generalis (LeaderGeneral) and CAPUT (HEAD) in his literal Version. The Common Version makes no distinction ; and hence, in order to render this Version with strict faithfulness, must read, both here and in the next two paragraphs, leader instead of captain, although (as the reader will already have perceived) this latter is the term which erceived) this latter is the term which corresponds the more nearly with the Spanish original. In all three places Father Rothaan has caput : in the third prelude he has again Dux instead of Imperator : see above. In the first point, in order to be strictly with the Common Version, readier?/ and smoky chair in stead of chair offire and smoke ; although this latter is what the Autograph has, a certain great chair of fire and smoke, " in which", observes Father Rothaan, there is no solidity, no true glory, but mere agitation and perpetual disturbance joined with thick darkness"; And this image", he adds, " exhibits the evil spirit such as he is, but not such as he offers himself to men's minds."

The Spiritual Exercises of Loyola

https://ia801306.us.archive.org/8/items/a588350800loyouoft/a588350800loyouoft.pdf

Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt is a best-selling NES cartridge combining the games Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.[1] The player would select which game to play on the first menu. It was a best selling game, largely due to the fact that it was packaged with the NES Action Set. That package also included the Zapper Light Gun for Duck Hunt. This game cartridge was developed and published by Nintendo and was released in November 1988.

In December 1988, another combination pak was packaged with the NES Power Set. This compilation was titled 3-in-1 Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt / World Class Track Meet and included the Power Pad for World Class Track Meet.

Contents

1 Super Mario Bros.

2 Duck Hunt

3 Game Model No.

4 References

5 External links

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. is the best-selling Mario game and it was the selling video game of all time due to it being bundled with every NES bundle ever made (except the Deluxe Set and Basic Set). You play as Mario and Luigi on their adventure to save Princess Toadstool from the evil King Bowser.

Duck Hunt

Duck Hunt is one of 16 licensed NES games that use the NES Zapper . You and your trusty dog go hunting for ducks and try to shoot them after the dog chases them out using as few bullets as possible (you are allowed 3 tries per duck). An alternate game setting is Clay Pigeon, where you shoot at clay pigeons, but it is different from real life because you don't yell "pull" (as it's a video game), they just fire and you shoot them while the discs fly out of a launcher off-screen.

Game Model No.

NES-MH-xxx (depends on which region)

References

Craig Majaski. "Nintendo Announces New NES Configurations" (in English). Nintendo Times. https://www.nintendotimes.com/1988/01/08/ces-nintendo-announces-new-nes-configurations/. Retrieved on 13 December 2022.

https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/2-in-1_Super_Mario_Bros._/_Duck_Hunt

Pope Francis[b] (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[c] 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until his death on 21 April 2025. He was the first Jesuit pope, the first Latin American, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century Syrian pope Gregory III.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a family of Italian origin, Bergoglio was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958 after recovering from a severe illness. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 he was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March 2013. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis was known for having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors by, for instance, choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes. In addition, due to both his Jesuit and Ignatian aesthetic, he was known for favoring simpler vestments devoid of ornamentation, including refusing the traditional papal mozzetta cape upon his election, choosing silver instead of gold for his piscatory ring, and keeping the same pectoral cross he had as cardinal.

Throughout his papacy, Francis was noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility, commitment to interreligious dialogue, and concern for the poor, migrants, and refugees. Francis believed the Catholic Church should demonstrate more inclusivity to LGBTQ people, and stated that although blessings of same-sex unions are not permitted, individuals in same-sex relationships can be blessed as long as the blessing is not given in a liturgical context.[2] Francis made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia.[3][4] Francis convened the Synod on Synodality, which was described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.[4][5][6]

Concerning global governance, Francis was a critic of trickle-down economics, consumerism, and overdevelopment;[7] he made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy.[8] He viewed capital punishment as inadmissible in all cases,[9] and committed the Catholic Church to its worldwide abolition.[10] Francis criticized the rise of right-wing populism and anti-immigration politics, calling the protection of migrants a "duty of civilization".[11] Francis supported the decriminalization of homosexuality.[12] In international diplomacy, Francis helped to restore full diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, negotiated a deal with the People's Republic of China to define Communist Party influence in appointing Chinese bishops, and encouraged peace between Israel and Palestinians, signing the Vatican's first treaty with the State of Palestine. In 2022 he apologized for the Church's role in the cultural genocide of Canadian Indigenous peoples in residential schools. From 2023 he condemned Israel's military operations in Gaza, calling for investigations of war crimes. Francis made his last public appearance on Easter Sunday before dying on 21 April 2025, Easter Monday.[13][14] The 2025 papal conclave elected Leo XIV as Francis's successor on 8 May 2025. Leo XIV became the second Pope from the Americas, after Francis.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

Robert Prevost was ‘the pride and joy of every priest and nun’ at St. Mary’s on Chicago’s South Side

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of...

Chicago Tribune reporter Caroline Kubzansky on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)

1 of 18

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)

UPDATED: May 9, 2025 at 2:11 PM CDT

Catholics across the region celebrated the historic announcement Thursday that the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the church was born and raised in the Chicago area and marveled that the faithful will now be led by a relatable local boy who grew up in the south suburbs, cheers for the White Sox and hits up Aurelio’s pizza when he comes back home.

In his first words as Pope Leo XIV, 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost proclaimed “Peace be with you,” invoking a message of dialogue, unity and care for those in need from Vatican City.

“When I heard the news of the new Holy Father at that moment, at least here in Chicago, the sun came out,” said the Rev. Greg Sakowicz, rector of Holy Name Cathedral.

Some would say the sunny weather was just a coincidence, Sakowicz acknowledged.

But “a coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous,” he added.

Prevost, a longtime missionary and member of the Augustinian religious order, made his first appearance on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday wearing the traditional red cape of the papacy.

“God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail,” he told the world in his first message as pope. “We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward.”

While growing up in the Chicago area, Robert Prevost often played “pretend priest,” his older brother John Prevost recalled after the announcement.

The younger brother would set up a table draped in a white cloth and recite prayers.

“He did that all the time. He took it totally serious, it was not a game,” John Prevost said Thursday outside his home in New Lenox.

John Prevost, brother of new Pope Leo XIV, holds a portrait of the three Prevost brothers from 1958 while answering reporters' questions outside his home on May 8, 2025, in New Lenox. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

John Prevost, brother of new Pope Leo XIV, holds a portrait of the three Prevost brothers from 1958 while answering reporters’ questions outside his home on May 8, 2025, in New Lenox. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

John Prevost described his brother as someone with a natural calmness and deep patience, a person who was always drawn to others. He believes these qualities have shaped his path to becoming pope.

His younger brother embodies the spirit of a “second Pope Francis,” particularly in his compassion for immigrants and the poor.

John Prevost acknowledged that the role will have its challenges but said his brother is ready.

“It’s awesome, it’s a great responsibility, but he will be scrutinized left and right,” he said. “I think it will be a lot. But he has the patience of a saint.”

And most importantly, at least in terms of the new pope’s South Side credentials, John Prevost confirmed that his brother has “always” been a White Sox fan.

Local roots

Prevost was born on Sept. 14, 1955, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, and his Catholic roots were planted in the south suburbs, where he lived in Dolton with his parents and two brothers. He grew up in St. Mary of the Assumption parish on the Far South Side, attending school, singing in the choir and serving as an altar boy.

Marianne Angarola, 69, who was in the same class as Prevost, remembers him as a good singer who “cared about people” and “looked for the good in things.”

Undated childhood photographs of new Pope Leo XIV are laid out on a kitchen table at the home of his brother, John Prevost, on May 8, 2025, in New Lenox. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

St. Mary’s closed years ago and went into a state of disrepair, but Angarola and others have kept up with his career, following along on the Internet for updates as he rose through the ranks of the church.

“He was the pride and joy of every priest and nun in that school,” Angarola said. “Everybody knew he was special.”

Another St. Mary’s classmate, Peggy Wurtz, remembered Prevost singing at midnight Mass with his mother, who was also a talented vocalist. Wurtz said she was intimidated by his intelligence, even in grade school. During their fifth-grade science fair, Wurtz recalled being embarrassed to answer a question about her tooth decay project in front of Prevost, who was more deft in explaining his work.

“He won first prize,” Wurtz said.

The class of 1969 has an annual reunion, and she hopes they can see him at one down the line.

“I figure we should have a class reunion in Rome so he gets us all at once,” Wurtz said.

Family, childhood home, legacy

Prevost’s father, Louis, was an educator who led Glenwood School District 167 and served as principal of now-defunct Mount Carmel Elementary School in Chicago Heights. He died in 1997, according to his obituary.

The elementary school closed in 1990 around the same time as its parish’s church, St. Rocco, during fiscal restructuring within the Archdiocese of Chicago. After a push from some of the parish’s fiercely loyal members, St. Rocco Oratory — housed in a new yet smaller building in Chicago Heights — reopened, holding its first Mass on Christmas Day in 1998. It’s now called San Rocco.

Pope Leo XIV: What to know about Chicago-born Robert Prevost

While the Rev. Michael Gilligan, the church’s priest since 2000, didn’t personally know Prevost or his late father, he was “flabbergasted” that a “local boy” is the new pope.

He said he believes Prevost was elected because he’s a “kind, good, pastoral man.”

“All the experts said an American will never be elected,” Gilligan said. “And to have an American who comes from the town where I live, the parish that I serve in Chicago Heights — it’s really amazing.”

A post on the Mendel Catholic Prep Alumni Association website recounts that as a child Prevost’s “family’s life centered around St. Mary of the Assumption Church, located on 137th Street at the Chicago-Dolton border, where young Robert served as an altar boy and attended the parish school.”

Sisters Vivian, left, Lucia, and Isabel Fitzgerald stand in St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Chicago's Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The Fitzgeralds are members of St. Cajetan Parish in Beverly, another church located near St. Mary. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Sisters Vivian, left, Lucia, and Isabel Fitzgerald stand in St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Chicago’s Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The Fitzgeralds are members of St. Cajetan Parish in Beverly, another church located near St. Mary. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Chicago's Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The newly selected Pope Leo XIV went to church at St. Mary's. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Chicago’s Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The newly selected Pope Leo XIV went to church at St. Mary’s. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Prevost’s mother, Mildred, was a librarian who worked at Holy Name Cathedral, Von Steuben High School on the North Side and Mendel Catholic Prep. She died in 1990 after decades of service to St. Mary’s Church.

The street where Prevost grew up, just off Indiana Avenue in Dolton, is lined with small brick cottages similar to the one in which he was raised.

On Thursday afternoon, Courtni Porter stood with a pair of real estate agents in the home’s backyard. Porter, 44, of Chicago said the home was “beautiful inside, though I’m sure it’s not like how it was when he grew up in it.”

The house was recently renovated and is listed for $199,900, according to agent Sebastian Regium.

On the front sidewalk of the house, Regium, 24, pulled up a picture of the new pope on his phone. Porter and a neighbor, Donna Sagna, peered over his shoulder to see what he looked like. Porter cocked her head and mused that the house had been a strong candidate for sale, but news that the pope had grown up there might be a sign to move ahead with buying it.

The childhood home of the newly selected Pope Leo XIV in Dolton on May 8, 2025. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

“That value (is) about to go up when they find out,” Regium said, laughing.

Education, formation and priorities

After graduating from St. Mary’s in 1969, Prevost attended St. Augustine Seminary High School in Michigan. Then he briefly lived at the now-shuttered Tolentine seminary in south suburban Olympia Fields before attending Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

John Merkelis, president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox, recalled befriending Prevost at St. Augustine Seminary in 1970. The two connected because they both came from south suburban communities, and Merkelis said Prevost, who was a year ahead, served as almost a religious mentor to him.

“He’s the one who kind of told me what an Augustinian is,” Merkelis said. “I thought ahead of time that he would have been a great pope. He is remarkably intelligent. He always has been humble. He’s very, very faith-filled.”

Merkelis said he and other school staff members were in Providence’s faculty lounge watching the news intently when they heard Prevost would succeed Francis as pope. He said those in the lounge “screamed and hugged each other” and that he immediately hopped on the schoolwide PA system to say a prayer for his longtime friend.

“He’s not a guy who just lives in an office,” Merkelis said. “He’s personally relatable. So I see him as falling right in line with the example of (former Pope) Francis.”

St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic grammar school in Chicago's Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The newly selected Pope Leo XIV went to grammar school at St. Mary's. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic grammar school in Chicago’s Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The newly selected Pope Leo XIV went to grammar school at St. Mary’s. (Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Robert Prevost in 8th grade at St. Mary School in Riverdale, class of 1969. (Marianne Angarola)

Jim Priestley attended high school and Villanova with Prevost. The two saw each other last summer, Priestley recalled, after Prevost came to the area to speak with parishioners at St. Jude Catholic Church in south suburban New Lenox. During his visit home, Prevost met with some old friends at the Aurelio’s pizza place in Homewood, where they ate and caught up.

Afterward, Priestley recounted talking with Prevost for half an hour in the parking lot, commending him on his career.

“I just kind of said, ‘Bob, congratulations, but I just can’t imagine having that much stress at our age. It seems more like a young man’s thing.’ But he’s one of these guys who can deal with it,” Priestley recalled. “Maybe it’s not stressful for him. He must’ve said ‘OK, I’m willing to be pope.’ I’m sure there were people who said no way, because it’s a tremendously responsible position.”

But, Priestley said, Prevost is “the type of guy who likes a challenge.”

Mike Greco, who also attended St. Augustine with Prevost, called him “a devout priest” and perhaps “the most intelligent, talented and sincere guy I’ve ever known.”

“We’ve been lifelong friends,” Greco added. “I was at his ordination in Rome. He baptized my son.”

Prevost went on to earn a degree in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He was ordained a priest in Rome and studied there until 1984, shuttling between church leadership positions in Chicago and Peru until 2023.

A picture of new Pope Leo XIV when he was ordained as a priest is laid out on a kitchen table at the home of his brother, John Prevost, on May 8, 2025, in New Lenox. (Photo courtesy John Prevost)

He returned to Chicago in 1998 to lead the order’s Midwest province and later as its worldwide leader. During that time, he came under fire for his handling of two sex abuse cases involving Augustinian priests in the area. Survivors organizations have accused him of allowing the Rev. James Ray, a priest accused of abusing minors and whose ministry had been restricted since 1991, to live at the Augustinian’s St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park in 2000 despite its proximity to a Catholic elementary school. The Vatican previously has denied Prevost approved the accommodation.

Prevost also has been criticized for the order’s handling of allegations against the Rev. Richard McGrath, the former president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox. McGrath served for 32 years as principal and then president of the school before retiring amid complaints that he had abused a student and had pornography on his phone. The order settled one accuser’s lawsuit for $2 million in 2023. McGrath was never criminally charged. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests filed a complaint against Prevost with the Vatican in March.

James Egan, a spokesperson for SNAP from Chicago, said the nonprofit was “disappointed” that Prevost was selected as pope.

“It certainly does not give us a lot of hope right now. It hurts,” Egan said. “We have serious questions about his commitment to actually protecting children and giving victims of child abuse by Catholic clergy the justice that they deserve.”

Despite these worries, Egan said he hopes SNAP can collaborate with Prevost to end abuse.

“We can get to a post-abuse church, and we really hope we can work with Robert Prevost on that,” Egan said.

Prevost was head of the Augustinians from 2001 to 2013, based in Rome. In 2014, he was named apostolic administrator and then bishop of Chiclayo, in northern Peru in a region where the Chicago Augustinians have long had a presence.

Then newly elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, right, receives his biretta from Pope Francis as he is elevated in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Sept. 30, 2023. (Riccardo De Luca/AP)

Then newly elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, right, receives his biretta from Pope Francis as he is elevated in St. Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Sept. 30, 2023. (Riccardo De Luca/AP)

In 2023, his predecessor, Pope Francis, named Prevost to take over the Vatican’s powerful bishops’ office that vets nominations around the globe from a retiring Canadian who had recently been accused of sexual misconduct. The crucial Holy See office also investigates allegations of abuse or negligence against bishops.

“This is a historic day,” said Robert Orsi, professor of religion at Northwestern University. “Robert Francis Prevost was a favorite of Pope Francis, who made him cardinal only two years ago.”

The new pope’s namesake, Leo XIII, was known for his outspoken defense of the rights of working people to a living wage, Orsi added.

“By taking this name, Pope Leo XIV clearly signals his priorities. Pope Leo XIII was also profoundly wary of nationalists, especially those who would divide the church over political disputes. The Pope Leo of the early 21st century, who spent most of his 69 years outside the United States, appears already to be calling Catholics back to a truly global, truly open-hearted faith.”

Politics and faith

As word trickled in about the new pope with local ties at the Illinois State Capitol on Thursday afternoon, state Rep. Norine Hammond took a moment in the House chamber to beam with pride that the new pontiff was originally from the state.

“We have a pope from Chicago, Illinois,” Hammond, a Republican from Macomb, said to a big applause in the chamber that lasted about 15 seconds. “We are so excited and praying for (Pope Leo XIV) that he is able to guide the entire world in a peaceful manner.”

That pride was more localized for state Rep. Will Davis, a Democrat from south suburban Homewood whose district includes Dolton, where the new pope was raised.

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“There’s a desire that he will continue to acknowledge the poor people in the world, the people who need help, who need guidance, and will work to try to bring people together as popes often do,” Davis said.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also acknowledged the momentous occasion.

“This is one of the biggest moments in the modern history of our city,” Johnson said in a statement. “Pope Leo XIV will be a champion for workers all over the world. It’s only right that he was born and educated in the most pro-worker city in America. The Catholic Church has a strong tradition of standing up for the poor and the vulnerable, and I know that Pope Leo XIV will continue that tradition. This is a tremendous moment for our Catholic community and for all Chicagoans.”

An account on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, seemingly belonging to Prevost has posted many times about political issues for more than a decade, and as recently as this year.

“JD Vance is wrong,” one of the most recent posts from the account said, quoting an opinion piece from National Catholic Reporter that criticized the vice president’s comments about how to prioritize loving others.

The account also retweeted posts criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration policies and one tweet from Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut calling for action over “thoughts and prayers” in the wake of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Prevost also seemingly reposted an article from Catholic News Agency in 2017 about calls for a veto of a state abortion funding bill, which then-Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, later signed into law.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the firebrand pastor of St. Sabina church in Chicago, said he was encouraged by Prevost’s selection, believing he will continue the late Pope Francis’ legacy of tending to the poor and caring for social justice.

Pfleger said Prevost’s politics are a counterpoint to other trends in American life where some people are “refining what Jesus was and what the scriptures are to beat up people.”

“He’s going to be conservative on doctrine, like Francis was. Francis wasn’t for women priests,” Pfleger said. “But I think Prevost’s heart for people and heart for justice and his experiences in Peru are going to be very, very important to the future of the Catholic Church.”

Local Catholics rejoice

Close to 100 people were at noon Mass at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on Thursday. Near the end of the service, the rector announced who the pope was — an American-born from Chicago.

The crowd erupted in applause.

Rev. Greg Sakowicz, of Holy Name Cathedral, right, claps along with the mass attendees about the news of new pope's election at Holy Name Cathedral on May 8, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Rev. Greg Sakowicz, of Holy Name Cathedral, right, claps along with the mass attendees about the news of new pope’s election at Holy Name Cathedral on May 8, 2025. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Julie Bartholomae from Lincoln Park stepped outside to take a call from her sister, who was telling her the name of the pope.

Her eyes lit up when she found out the new leader of more than a billion Catholics worldwide was from Chicago.

“I think this is so exciting — a U.S. pope and he’s from Chicago,” she said.

The announcement of a new pope brought Katherine Gehl, a parishioner at Holy Name, tears of happiness. She was walking home from the gym when she heard the news and ran to Holy Name.

“It was extraordinary to be here, you know, in the presence of other Catholics,” she said. “All I can say is, I’m just praying that this pope brings a call for unity. That’s what we need, because we have so many challenges worldwide and in division, we shall not solve them. They will only be solved in unity.”

During a news conference at the cathedral Thursday, Bishop Lawrence Sullivan, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago, said, “The most important thing is that a successor of St. Peter has been elected.”

“So while there’s a sense that we’re proud he’s from Chicago …. But Pope Leo XIV is first and foremost, a child of God,” Sullivan said. “And that means he is here to serve all of God’s people.”

Cardinal Robert Prevost stands and prays with students from St. Rita High School, an Augustinian-run school on the South Side, in the St. Rita Shrine Chapel in 2014. Prevost was a substitute teacher at the school about 50 years ago. (St. Rita High School)

When administrators at St. Rita of Cascia High School, an Augustinian-run school on the South Side, announced the news of the appointment over the intercom, the school erupted in cheers, students recalled.

Classes turned on the livestream from Rome.

“We just stopped class,” said St. Rita student Nick Herman, 18. “It felt like he blessed us.”

Prevost was a substitute physics teacher at the school about 50 years ago, said the Rev. Tom McCarthy, St. Rita’s director of community outreach.

McCarthy said the next pope was 10 years ahead of him in the Augustinian order. He had been sending Prevost emails over the past week and praying for him. He had told his students to do the same.

“I could imagine St. Augustine smiling down from heaven,” McCarthy said. “I could only imagine how proud he is that one of his sons is now the pope.”

McCarthy said Prevost took a risk by naming him principal of St. Rita High School in 1999 when he was just 35.

“I think he’ll be a guiding light to the church and to the world. I really do,” McCarthy said.

The Associated Press contributed. Reporters Olivia Olander, Kori Rumore, Jonathan Bullington and Rebecca Johnson contributed.

Originally Published: May 8, 2025 at 1:45 PM CDT

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/08/robert-prevost-chicago-pope-xiv/

Saying God picked Trump, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan portrays him as both truth-talking hero and racist villain

Michelle Boorstein

November 16, 2017 at 6:45 p.m. EST

Controversial firebrand Minister Louis Farrakhan Thursday invited journalists to a televised, 135-minute sermon to Donald Trump to clean up America’s injustices, seeming to side with Trump as a fellow tell-it-straight ally who calls out everyone from Pope Francis to the media.

“God has him here!” the Nation of Islam leader said, referring to Trump during the morning event at the Watergate Hotel ballroom, which was filled to capacity with more than 500 people, mostly Nation members and other Farrakhan supporters. “What did you say, Farrakhan? Do you think God is not interested in who is president of the United States of America?! Especially when it’s the time of evil?”

The talk was billed as a news conference because reporters were invited, but no public questions were taken after the address. And it was called a message to Trump. It was laid out as a detailed history of American wrongs, from slavery to war to hypocrisy, delivered to an unexpected and unlikely president whom Farrakhan painted as perhaps best able to address such problems.

The fiery talk focused on injustices against African Americans and Muslims and seemed to single out a longtime favorite target of the religious leader: Jews. Running through his story of America, he said Jews were the ones who stopped African Americans’ initial progress. About 40 minutes into the talk, an assistant brought out a large poster of a Jewish star and an advertisement for a decades-old Nation of Islam-published book subtitled “How Jews Gained Control of the Black American Economy.” The poster stood beside Farrakhan for the rest of the talk.

Farrakhan’s comments about Jews, gays and lesbians and white people prompted the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate and extremist groups, to label the Nation of Islam a hate group. The Nation was formed in Detroit in the 1930s. Its theology entailed, in part, black superiority over whites. But the 84-year-old Farrakhan has also been held up as a civil rights leader by his followers and supporters.

“For black youth, this puts their struggle in perspective — for them to see they are the victims of circumstances,” said Ishmael Muhammad, national assistant minister to Farrakhan. “They can redirect their anger and turn it into something more constructive.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/11/16/saying-god-picked-trump-nation-of-islam-leader-louis-farrakhan-portrays-him-as-both-truth-talking-hero-and-racist-villain/

The Nation of Domination (NOD) was an American-Canadian professional wrestling heel faction that competed in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from November 17, 1996 to November 28, 1998.

The group was formed by newcomer Faarooq in 1996 and remained an influencing faction in the company during the Attitude Era. While in the group The Rock was a one-time Intercontinental Champion[2] and D'Lo Brown was a two-time European Champion.[3] Towards the end of its existence, the team was joined by Canadian Owen Hart.

Concept

The group was based loosely on the Nation of Islam and a Librate street gang lifestyle, (with group members adopting Islamic names and wearing Muslim headgear) and the Black Panther Party and being billed from the Streets of the Hood. The extremism of the group's pro-black theme at times including the "Nation Salute" and Faarooq's angry tirades on the microphone garnered them an excessive amount of heat from fans in arenas and Faarooq was calling himself the "Dictator of the Nation"[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_of_Domination

Mirror writing is formed by writing in the direction that is the reverse of the natural way for a given language, such that the result is the mirror image of normal writing: it appears normal when reflected in a mirror. It is sometimes used as an extremely primitive form of cipher. A common modern usage of mirror writing can be found on the front of ambulances, where the word "AMBULANCE" is often written in very large mirrored text, so that drivers see the word the right way around in their rear-view mirror. It is also on fire engines and police cars too.

Some people are able to produce handwritten mirrored text. Notably, Leonardo da Vinci wrote most of his personal notes in this way.[1] Mirror writing calligraphy was popular in the Ottoman Empire, where it often carried mystical associations.

Ability to write mirrored text

An informal Australian newspaper experiment identified 10 true mirror-writers in a readership of 65,000.[2] A higher proportion of left-handed people are better mirror writers than right-handed people, perhaps because it is more natural for a left-hander to write from right to left.[3] 15% of left-handed people have the language centres in both halves of their brain.[citation needed] The cerebral cortex and motor homunculus are affected by this, causing the person to be able to read and write backwards quite naturally.

In an experiment conducted by the Department of Neurosurgery at Hokkaido University School of Medicine in Sapporo, Japan, scientists proposed that the origin of mirror writing comes from damage caused through brain trauma or neurological diseases, such as an essential tremor, Parkinson's disease,[4] or spino-cerebellar degeneration. This hypothesis was proposed because these conditions affect a "neural mechanism that controls the higher cerebral function of writing via the thalamus."[5] Another study by the same university discovered that damage was not the only cause. The scientists observed that normal children exhibited signs of mirror writing while learning to write, thus concluding that currently there is no exact method for finding the true origin of mirror writing.

Notable examples

The notes on Leonardo da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man image are in mirror writing.

Leonardo da Vinci wrote most of his personal notes in mirror writing, only using standard writing if he intended his texts to be read by others. The purpose of this practice by Leonardo remains unknown, though several possible reasons have been suggested. For example, writing left handed from left to right would have been messy because the ink just put down would smudge as his hand moved across it. Writing in reverse would prevent such smudging. An alternative theory is that the process of rotating the linguistic object in memory before setting it to paper, and rotating it before reading it back, was a method of reinforcement learning. From this theory, it follows the use of boustrophedonic writing, especially in public codes, may be to render better recall of the text in the reader.[citation needed]

Matteo Zaccolini may have written his original four volume treatise on optics, color, and perspective in the early 17th century in mirror script.[citation needed][further explanation needed]

Eighteenth-century mirror writing in Ottoman calligraphy. Depicts the phrase Ali is the vicegerent of God in both directions.

Pictorial texts also known as calligrams arranged in mirror symmetry were popular in the Ottoman Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries among the Bektashi order, where it often carried mystical associations.[6] The origins of this mirror writing tradition may date to the pre-Islamic period in rock inscriptions of the western Arabian peninsula.[6] A recent study that has revealed the oldest examples of mirror writing in Greek [clarification needed] traces the early appearance of mirror inscriptions to Late Antiquity, specifically to Syria-Palestine, Egypt, and Constantinople.[citation needed] In Islamic art, mirror calligraphy is known as muthanna or musanna.[7]

Peep show images shown in a zograscope have headers in mirror writing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_writing

Take home a classic! Our iconic Make America Great Again Hat makes a bold wardrobe statement like no other. Featuring our beautiful American Flag and our signature Trump logo, each cap has been crafted with care to become the perfect addition to your collection!

https://www.trumpstore.com/product/classic-maga-hat/

"We Are Fighting For Islam, and We Will Surely Win!"

Saviors' Day

Nation of Islam

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=719605316960229&id=100067323023979&set=a.577479317839497

14We ought to act on the principle that everyone who lives under obedience should let himself be carried and directed by Divine Providence through the agency of the superior 15as if he were a lifeless body, which allows itself to be carried to any place and treated in any way; or an old man s staff, which serves at any place and for any purpose in which the one holding it in his hand wishes to employ it. 16For in this way the obedient man ought joyfully to employ himself in any task in which the superior desires to employ him in aid of the whole body of the religious order; 17and he ought to hold it certain that by so doing he conforms himself with the divine will more than by anything else he could do while following his own will and different judgment.[3]"

The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

14 And deceived them that dwell on the earth by the signs which were permitted to him to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make the [t]image of the [u]beast, which had the wound of a sword, and did live.

Revelation 13:14

Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple; April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat, who was Hollywood's number-one box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938. Later, she was named United States Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, and also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States.

Temple began her film career in 1931 when she was three years old and was well-known for her performance in Bright Eyes, which was released in 1934. She won a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935 for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer in motion pictures during 1934 and continued to appear in popular films through the remainder of the 1930s, although her subsequent films became less popular as she grew older.[1] She appeared in her last film, A Kiss for Corliss, in 1949.[2][3]

She began her diplomatic career in 1969, when she was appointed to represent the U.S. at a session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she worked at the U.S. Mission under Ambassador Charles Yost. Later, she was named U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, and also served as the first female U.S. Chief of Protocol. In 1988, she published her autobiography, Child Star.[4] After her biography was published, she served as the U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1989–1992).

Temple was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. She is 18th on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female American screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Temple

"The Day Called 'X' is a dramatized CBS documentary film set in Portland, Oregon, in which the entire city is evacuated in anticipation of a nuclear air raid, after Soviet bombers had been detected by radar stations to the north; it details the activation of the city's civil defense protocols and leads up to the moment before the attack (the ending is left intentionally unknown). The operations were run from the Kelly Butte Bunker, which was the emergency operations center at that time. It was filmed in September 1957[1] and aired December 8 of that year.[2][3] Apart from presenter/narrator Glenn Ford, none of the people shown are actors. They are locals of Portland shown in their real jobs, including Mayor Terry Schrunk.

Its local re-broadcast in 2004[4] and appearance in the on-line Prelinger Archives attracted interest among local history buffs due to its extensive outside shots of the city, and the use of non-actor participants (local officials and broadcasters). Whenever one of these individuals is heard uttering warnings or statements regarding attack, the words "AN ATTACK IS NOT TAKING PLACE" are superimposed over the picture.[2]

On September 27, 1955, Portland actually conducted an exercise evacuation of downtown called "Operation Greenlight",[5][6] and the film is often misattributed to that year. Ford's narration, however, does make direct reference to the 1955 exercise."

The Day Called 'X' - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_Called_%27X%27

"Regimini militantis Ecclesiae (Latin for To the Government of the Church Militant) was the papal bull promulgated by Pope Paul III on September 27, 1540, which gave a first approval to the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, but limited the number of its members to sixty."

Regimini militantis Ecclesiae - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regimini_militantis_Ecclesiae

416 Finally, those means that are proposed by our holy father Saint Ignatius in Part X of the Constitutions for the preservation and development not only of the body or exterior of the Society but also of its spirit, and for the attainment of the objective it seeks, which is to aid souls to reach their ultimate and supernatural end, [10] are to be observed eagerly and diligently by all, with a truly personal sense of responsibility for its increase and development, for the praise and service of our God and Lord Jesus Christ, and the help of souls.[11]

L. D. S. "

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

https://web.archive.org/web/20200211182223/https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Malcolm Little, alias “Malcolm X,” 1925 – 1965

Unknowingly controlled by the Order through the mulatto and “the honorable” Elijah Muhammad—the absolute Masonic dictator of the Nation of Islam (NOI) who was the obedient servant of the White Archbishop of Chicago, Albert Cardinal Meyer and later John Cardinal Cody—Malcolm bore all the marks of a Jesuit agitator including his detestation of Jews, White Anglo Saxon Protestants, the U.S. Constitution and the King James Bible. Surnamed “Big Red” due to his reddish-brown hair inherited from a White forefather, Malcolm’s racial views had been born out of deplorable crimes of White Catholic and White Masonic violence, including intolerable, hate-filled racism experienced in the Northern, Mafia-dominated, Jesuit-controlled, White Roman Catholic cities of Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., as well as the Second Ku Klux Klan’s gruesome murder of his father, Earl Little—an influential Baptist preacher and an outspoken advocate of Marcus Garvey’s Back-to-Africa Movement. In opposition to the Jesuit Order’s intended plan for a totally integrated North America thereby destroying the “heretic and liberal” White races, both Garvey and Malcolm seriously pursued the same policy of final separation and repatriation, as did Presidents Jefferson, Monroe and Lincoln. Malcolm advocated that Blacks should break away from Whites either by returning to Africa or by establishing a separate Black North American nation, which indeed is the correct and Biblical solution to the Black Pope’s international anti-White, Negro Agitation! Upon publicizing Elijah Muhammad’s fathering of nine illegitimate children to six teenage girls, and for exposing the collusion between the NOI and KKK leaders (whose cooperative extremism created “collective guilt” among all Whites—cunningly calculated to unite Catholics and Protestants pursuant to the ecumenical doctrines of the Second Vatican Council while destroying the God-given preference to one’s own race thus ensuring the success of the Civil Rights Movement), Malcolm became a threat to the Black Pope’s NOI and was silenced for ninety days. This resulted in his trip to Mecca during which: he was carefully watched by Cardinal Spellman’s CIA; he was converted to Orthodox Islam in spite of the brutal enslavement of African Blacks by Arab Muslims for centuries; he ceased to advocate Black separatism; and he finally broke with the NOI’s Masonic leadership which included FBI informers Wallace Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan. The eloquent and independent Malcolm X who was now preaching against the NOI could not be allowed to live, as the genocidal race-mixing plot of the Order’s Socialist-Communist Second Reconstruction, led by the wicked Black Martin Luther (Lucifer) King, Jr., championing the Order’s doctrine of “universal equality” as perfected on the Reductions of Paraguay, could not be allowed to fail again. Therefore, Malcolm became another victim of the Order’s Jesuit Oath and “leaden bullet,” savagely shot down on stage at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom by three NOI assassins, all of whom were aided by Cardinal Spellman’s CIA, FBI and New York City police.

Vatican Assassins Wounded In The House of My Friends by Eric Jon Phelps

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uQl1CmWeLL87RWVtzKttGFKm0frSNR8D/view?usp=sharing

The philosophy at the core of all the Mystery Schools is secular humanism, the foundation and the font of socialism/communism. Most socialists/communists don't have the slightest idea that they are puppets of an arcane philosophy bent upon world domination. They actually believe they will ultimately realize a world where everything is free courtesy of Big Brother and where all risk and worry has disappeared... any such world would only be a world of slaves dependent upon an elite class of "Masters".

The Knights Templar were an communist organization symbolized by the two knights riding one horse. Each initiate had to give up all wealth, property, and worldly goods to the Order. Each performed according to his ability and received according to the need of his position within the order. They were pledged to absolute and unquestioning obedience to their superior Knight or knights, the Grand Master, and the Order. In that respect every knight and every piece of property, all wealth, was totally owned and controlled by the Order.

According to MAJESTYTWELVE the Knights Templar have become the driving influence at the highest levels of all the secret societies among the adepts known as the Illuminati. The most accessible font of their influence will be found in the (Cecil Rhodes) Roundtable Group (The Group), The Royal Institute Of International Affairs, the Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City, the Council On Foreign Relations, the Jason Society, the Skull and Bones Society (Russell Trust), the Scroll and Key Fraternity, the highest Degrees of the York and Scottish Rites of Freemasonry, the Ancient Order of Rosae Crucae, and many other secret societies which collectively make up the modern equivalent of the "Brotherhood of the Snake" also known as (a.k.a.) the "Guardians," the "Builders," the "Philosophers of Fire," or the "Illuminati".

The Philosophy of the Mystery Schools is the Luciferian Philosophy as espoused by General (Christopher) Albert Pike, one of the founders of the KKK. But it is not his original thought... he just expounded upon it in forms that eventually became accessible to those who seek it out. Christopher means Christ-like. To the adept, Albert Pike achieved a mystical apotheosis in the Lodge of Perfection and brought forth the Christ within. He thus became Christed taking on the name Christopher.

Watch "StarTrek" from the beginning episodes up to the present, and you will begin to realize that it was an indoctrination into the concepts of socialism through subliminal initiation of the youth of the nation. The Captains James T. Kirk (JTK = K(nights) (of the) T(emple) (of) J(erusalem) and Christopher Pike are symbolic salutes to the Order of the Templars, and to the Brotherhoods greatest philosopher and probably its most prolific writer the Christed General Albert Pike. The Enterprise represents their great work or plan which if navigated properly will lead them to the realization of their dream of a united socialist utopian world.

"As nearly as I can concentrate on the question today, I believe I am God; certainly you are, I think we intelligent beings on this planet are all a piece of God, are becoming God." Interview with Gene Roddenberry in "Star Trek Creator" by David Alexander, Roc, an imprint of Dutton Signet a division of Penguin Books New York, page 568, par 1

Those who understand the symbolic language will have noticed that the most recent Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award Ceremony recognized the coming of the New Dawn. The rising Sun on the backdrop and the two triple crowns of the Mysteries representing the Trinity of Osiris, Isis, and the child Horus were revealing. Trooping before it were the Stars, some of the thousand points of light, who make the movies that mold the minds of the sheople, creating the future world.

Very simply the Luciferian philosophy is, "Adam and Eve were held prisoner in the bonds of ignorance by an unjust and vindictive God in the Garden of Eden. They were set free from their chains (Evolution through "Primordial Knowing") by Lucifer (Prometheus) through his agent Satan in the guise of a serpent (ancient symbol of Wisdom) with the gift of Intellect (Fire). Through the use of his intellect man will perfect the race (Anglo/Aryan) and will himself become God (promise of Satan to Adam and Eve)." Any religion, church, organization, or People who believe they are God, will become God, or are becoming God is practicing the Luciferian philosophy of the Mystery Schools, and are acting in furtherance of the conspiracy.

The Luciferian philosophy is a metaphor for the development of the perfected man (Marxist/Leninist) through the process of evolution by learning how to dominate and control nature (called science). The result (they say) will be the apotheosis of the race of mankind and the elimination of all who cannot make this paradigm shift in the coming New Age. The Soviet Union was the most perfect expression of illuminist secular humanist philosophy that has ever been presented before the eyes of an ignorant but gullible public. Now they strive for enslavement of the human race in the new utopia. This will be brought about through deception, manipulation, and psychological operations which make up the art of illusion called magic.

The Alchemists had the same religion but disguised it under the profane interpretation of the exoteric or outward expression of mutating lead into gold. The search for the philosophers stone was the attempt to perfect the race (Anglo/Aryan) and lead the evolution of what the Illuminati believe to be the inferior races of mankind, what they believe to be useless eaters.

Those who are attracted to the Mysteries who are unable to grasp the esoteric meaning of their education often take the exoteric interpretation to be truth. They often turn to Satan or Lucifer (Light) as their object of worship never understanding the metaphor for a much deeper philosophy. These Satan worshipers are useful. They furnish a diversion and are often a source of large sums of money. The Brotherhood has seldom found itself lacking in fools or funds. Ex-FBI operative Ted Gunderson is the hegelian tool in this instance pointing you off after Satanists, a cull-d-sac where you will chase your own tail round, and round, and round. I do not believe that Ted knows that he is being used in this regard. I may be wrong.

Shirley McClain understands the philosophy, though probably not in its correct interpretation. She is a member in good standing. "I am GOD," is her message.

Fire (Intellect, Light, Illumination) is the God of the Mysteries and its Priests are the Philosophers of Fire (Illumined Ones or Illuminati). They believe that any concept of creation must contain the idea that all things are manifestations of a supreme force (Pantheism). Since man is the only creation with intelligence and original thought, they believe that the combined, or collective consciousness of mankind, is the mind of the Great Architect of the Universe, ergo Man IS GOD. And that should "enlighten" you to the source of some of the more difficult to understand concepts of the New Age movement.

Please do not get the fool (profane = you) mixed up with the adepts, or Fraternitis Rex Mundi, or Brotherhood (Illuminati) of the king of the World (Lucifer or Satan). Those who cannot understand this philosophy through the occult language of symbology and make the shift in thinking for the coming millenium may be doomed to extinction. The spokespersons for the New Age make no secret of their intent in that regard.

This is the age of deception. The world is on the razor. One half is scheduled to be exterminated if these people have their way, and the other half is scheduled to be enslaved when the mystical union between the moon IS (Isis or Church) and the sun RA (Osiris or Doctrine) greets the Son of the morning EL (Horus or full body of Adepts) on the horizon (Horus risen) in the New Dawn (ISRAEL or realization of the New World Order). When the process is complete a new worldwide Soviet Union will emerge to thin the herd, shear the sheople, and march them off to enslavement or slaughter depending upon their individual ability to accept and adhere to their reeducation.

A prime illustration of the symbology of the Mystery Schools is the following Art Bell logo.

Notice the hidden messages, A.L. and R.T. Bel? Can you decipher them? Notice that a capstone is in place? Did you notice Bel is placed above the capstone by the flying arrow? Do you know what that means? Did you spot the all seeing eye?

Here is a clue... A.L. is the abbreviation for the Latin which translates Year of Light referring to the year 6,000 when the Illuminati believe Prometheus, Lucifer, Baal, Bel, Satan, the angel of light who was cast out of heaven, will triumph over God and mount the throne in the north (A metaphor for the triumph of socialism over religion, nation states, and the common herd). A.L. can be found by adding 4,000 to the current year, 1998 + 4000 = 5998. All who say they are Light Workers are engaged in the battle against God on Lucifer's behalf.

I have long recognized that Art Bell is a shill for the New World Odor. It is confirmed in his book . World government is, in fact, the theme of the book.

Did you know that the sea (mare or Mary) is a symbol of vast numbers of People, the masses in Marxist symbology? Did you notice that the pyramid rises from the sea (People) and dominates the scene as a promise, or savior? Did you know the pyramid missing the capstone represents the Great (unfinished) Work of the Mystery School? Did you know that the Great Work represents social engineering (socialism) working toward the apotheosis of the race (perfected man, sixth root race) as promised to Adam and Eve by Satan, and a New World Order? Did you notice that the name Art Bell straddles the capstone signifying that he is the Light Worker, or Illumined Man, or Master Mason, or Horus, or perfected god-Man, or Savior, who completes the Great Work? Did you notice the Bright Star fallen from heaven just above the capstone? Do you know who or what it represents? Do you see the Thousand Points of Light working in silence behind the veil (clouds) in the heavens. Illuminism is Marxism. It is a false promise that the human race will be perfected bringing a perfect utopian society through social engineering. This is a brainwashing mechanism whereby an ignorant slave race may be created to be ruled by a totalitarian socialist world government.

Art Bell is a Freemason. He is a member of the Illuminati. Art Bell's book The Quickening is one of the most blatant, in your face, pieces of new world order propaganda that I have ever seen. In it Art Bell, claiming to be a patriotic American, shamelessly advocates the formation of a world totalitarian socialist government.

"Will there be a global government with a benevolent dictator, overseeing global law, global police and a global judiciary in an attempt to make the world cleaner, peaceful and prosperous? If that's what it takes to achieve these ends, so be it." -- from The Quickening by Art Bell, page 309

The Art Bell Overnight and Dreamland radio shows dish up nightly servings of ridiculous, outrageous, and fantastic conspiracy fantasies. Occasionally Bell stirs in legitimate, real and dangerous conspiracies. Although Art Bell pretends to be serious, the mix of incredulous fantasy with fact serves to debunk all conspiracies. Bell effectively implants the idea that anyone who believes in any conspiracy is a whacked out nutcase that should be locked up in a mental institution. He is a most effective change agent operating on behalf of our enemies.

The conspiracy is racist, considering Blacks, Hispanics, and Aboriginal Peoples to be inferior races of useless eaters. They believe or at least profess that the Anglo/Aryan race is the true Israel (British Israel and Christian Identity for the dupes and an Anglophile Secular Humanism for the leaders) and thus the Master race. They have convinced the so-called useless eaters that they are friends, benefactors, and protectors. In the meantime they plan to enslave these poor People under socialism or eliminate them altogether. The Illuminati has convinced them that Karl Marx is their savior, and the sheople follow this Judas goat eagerly.

There will be no individual Rights only privileges. These will be granted or denied at will by the world supra government. All property is to be owned by the State. There will be a redistribution of wealth. They plan to eliminate class differences and reduce the standard of living to a lower level in the advanced nations, such as the united States, and to a higher standard of living in the so-called third world nations. This leveling of the standard of living will be accomplished through a global economic collapse which is in its beginning stages. The economic collapse will fulfill the goal of Marx and Engles' Communist Manifesto mandating the elimination of the middle class. The graduated income tax was the first implementation of this process and is one of the planks of the Communist Manifesto. NAFTA and GATT are a part of this process encouraging industry to move into third-world nations in order to exploit cheap labor.

All existing religions will disappear. The only religion will be the state religion (humanism or illuminism).

All County and State governments will be eliminated and replaced with regional government. These regional governments (Home Rule) are already in place. Regionalism is gradually taking control throughout America.

There will be no more cash. Trade will be accomplished by a system of computer credits with accounts accessed through debit cards or computer chip implants. The cards or implants will also serve as personal identification, drivers license, and etc. When this is completed the human race will be shackled to a computer in a never ending cycle of debt. No action or movement will ever again be private.

The plan for the creation of a socialist world government is protected by an artificial extraterrestrial threat from space. The entire UFO phenomenon and the uFOOLogy movement has been created to further the protection and activation of the plan.

Within MAJESTYTWELVE is Operation Majority justifying the plan by presenting an extraterrestrial threat as the reason for the necessity for world government ala "Who speaks for planet Earth... Argentina?" Exactly the manner in which Stanton T. Friedman ends his UFOs Are Real lectures.

Operation Majority is named after the original Bolshevik party which sparked the Russian Revolution. Bolshevik means the majority. The plan claims that if the American people are ever told of this extraterrestrial presence aliens will destroy the United States. All who have access to the plan or who inadvertently discover the plan are silenced by that warning. They believe in the government and thus believe the extraterrestrial lie. These dupes do not know that the Illuminati are the aliens who plan to destroy the United States of America in any event.

The natural skepticism of reporters insures that anyone who believes in extraterrestrial visitation or who links the so-called alien threat with the coming world government will be ridiculed and discredited.

When I saw Operation Majority while serving in the Navy I believed the alien threat was real just like everyone else. It was not until I had performed many years of research that I was able to fully understand exactly what it was that I had seen. It was extremely difficult for me to believe that my government and the United States Navy had used me, especially since I had dedicated my life to government and military service. Most government and military personnel cannot and will not believe such and idea.

The plan is real. The extraterrestrial threat is artificial. The threat is presented through the use of secret technology originally developed by the Germans in their secret weapons programs during WW-II, by geniuses like Nikola Tesla, and many others.

Military and government personnel who have access to this material believe it is real. None of them, however, has ever seen any evidence of the existence of any extraterrestrial creature nor any advanced technology other that that of human origin. It is not what they see that convinces them it is extraterrestrial in origin but the manner in which it is presented. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to believe that Top Secret government or military documentation could be lies. It is trust in government by men and women who have given their lives in its service that keeps this monumental lie a alive.

All so-called leaks are intentional misinformation projects designed to promote the alien threat scenario while allowing for complete deniability on the part of government. The antics of Vicki (Cooper) Ecker (CIA), Donald Francis Ecker III (Dupe), William Moore, Jaime Shandera, Stanton T. Friedman, Bruce Maccabee (CIA, ONI), Barry Taff PhD.(Pneuropsychiatric Institute of UCLA worked with recently deceased Dr. Louis Jollyn "Jolly" West), Whitley Strieber, Bud Hopkins (CIA), John Lear (CIA), Linda Moulton Howe Order of the Eastern Star and American Federation of Human Rights (American co-masonry), Art Bell (Freemason), Glen Campbell, George Knapp (Freemason), Colonel Philip Corso (CIA, a monumental liar now Deceased), Richard Hoagland and his Face on Mars, the so-called alien autopsy film, NASA and the Apollo Moon Missions, the so-called Mars Meteorite which was fraudulently promoted as containing fossil evidence of life on Mars, the War Of The Worlds, and many other people and events are projects of this type. Some (very few) of these People are unwitting accomplices in the charade and truly believe in the extraterrestrial threat.

Most of those named, and others not named, are active, and with full knowledge, agents of illuminism/socialism. The most well known are active Fellow Travelers, communist agents of the KGB, the Central Intelligence Agency, or one of the many psychological warfare agencies founded by the Rhodes Round Table Group (The Group), the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the Council On Foreign Relations.

HOTT - MAJESTYTWELVE (hourofthetime.com)

https://www.hourofthetime.com/majestyt.htm

Philalethes, who in his Entrke ouverte au Palais ferd du Roi has dealt at greatest length on the practice of the Work, mentions the hermetic star and infers the cosmic magic of its appearance.

'It is the miracle of the world, the assembly of superior virtues in the inferior ones. That is why the Almighty has marked it with an extraordinary sign. The Wise Men saw it in the east, were struck with amazement and knew at once that a King most pure had been born into the the world.

'As for you, as soon as you see his star, follow it to the Cradle, where you will see the lovely Child." Then the Adept reveals the manner of operating :

'Let four parts be taken of our fiery dragon, which hides our Preface to the Second Edition 15 magic steel in its belly, and nine parts of our lodestone; mix them together, by burning Vulcan, in the form of mineral water, on which a scum will float which must be removed. Throw away th crust, take the inner part, purge three times, by fire and by salt, which will be done easily if Saturn has seen his image in the mirror of Mars.'

Finally Philalethes adds :

'And the Almighty sets his royal seal on the Work and adorns it specially therewith.'

Fulcanelli

Mystery of the Cathedrals

http://www.mtanthony13.org/library/Fulcanelli%20-%20The%20Mystery%20of%20the%20Cathedrals.pdf

By his own admission Sirhan practiced self-hypnotism using literature supplied at a meeting of a group called the Rosicrucians, an organization that dabbled in the occult.

Sirhan got the “chills” following his arrest and exhibited similar symptoms at the end of hypnosis sessions with a defense psychiatrist. The prosecution psychiatrist also attempted to hypnotize Sirhan but was unable to elicit the assassin’s cooperation. The prosecution psychiatrist said Sirhan had been feigning.

Additionally, Sirhan was known to enter trance-like states. For the conspiracy-minded this was proof indeed he had been a hypnotic subject.

However, there is compelling evidence that Sirhan had used his knowledge of a real-life character in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1965) to promote the idea that he had been in a hypnotic state when he shot RFK. Sirhan identified and felt great empathy with murderer Perry Smith, according to author Robert Blair Kaiser. Smith had bouts of “shivering,” “amnesia” and “trance-like states.” Like Smith, Sirhan engaged in “mirror-gazing” and fell into “trances.”

Sirhan, therefore had prior knowledge of hypnotism, trance-like states and amnesia. In fact, he may also have gained some of that knowledge from psychology books he acquired from the local library. Ignoring Sirhan’s numerous lies that he told his lawyers and writer Robert Blair Kaiser, conspiracists preferred instead to take Sirhan at his word." Who Killed RFK? Sirhan Sirhan Did It.

Yet, to those who knew Sirhan, this was not at all unusual. Sirhan frequently became fascinated by things around him which prompted him to stare at people or objects. Sirhan told his police interrogators, “Everything . . . life itself is a challenge. . . . When you watch a barber, sir, I just stand and watch that barber for hours. . . . from the time I’m watching him I want to be nothing but a barber. You know, if I’m watching a dentist, boy, he fascinates me, and I want to be him. I was talking to [LAPD officer] Frank here a while ago. The way he talked, you know . . . I was very fascinated and, you know, I was sort of superimposing myself in his position for . . . temporarily.”

Additionally, those who promote the conspiracy line never question the ludicrous nature of this purported plot. If plotters had successfully hypnotized Sirhan then they would have been equally successful in making sure he didn’t do anything to bring attention to himself before the shooting. But that’s not what happened.

Sirhan uttered contempt for RFK to Enrique Rabago and Humphrey Cordero with whom he engaged in conversation at the hotel. Had these men reported Sirhan to the hotel’s security the alleged plot would have collapsed.

It is also preposterous for plotters to have used an illegal pistol during the commission of their crime. Had police officers and security guards on duty that night stopped and searched Sirhan he would have been arrested. Additionally, the notion of a hypnotic assassin is, by its very nature, an erratic tool. Not even true believers in the robotic assassin notion could possibly be sure Sirhan would not suddenly remember who hypnotized him then secure an immunity deal with the DA to avoid the death penalty."

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/169208

A TRULY MYSTIC SEAL

THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES AND ITS MYSTIC SIGNIFICANCE

Most Americans have a dim idea that the Great Seal of their country shows an eagle, a constellation of stars, an olive branch signifying peace, and a set of thirteen arrows which probably means war in case of necessity, but few have ever seen the reverse side of the seal or even suspected its existence. Nor has the reverse side ever been cut, a strangely restraining hand having seemingly been laid upon every attempt to bring it before the public. When the large painting of the reverse side which was ordered made together with the familiar obverse, for the government display at the Chicago World's Fair, was to be hung, those in charge exclaimed: "What a peculiar design: Why were we given this inartistic symbol?" and once more the white stone was rejected, the painting was turned face to the wall and only the obverse side displayed. But the time has now come when the full knowledge of her seal shall be made known to her people, for America must henceforth stand before the world as its teacher, leader and the promulgator of a new and perfect system of ethics, religious leadership, a citizenship that is efficient and free, a just industrial democracy, and a justice and generosity to other nations that shall emphasize the brotherhood of man and the Fatherland of God. Late in the afternoon of July 4th, 1776, the new Continental Congress "Resolved, that Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams and Mr. Jefferson be a committee to prepare a device for the Seal of the United States of America." That committee was identical save for the omission of Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman with that which had drawn up the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration had been signed about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and Congress desired to at once complete the evidences of the independence of the United States by formally adopting an official sign of sovereignty and a national coat of arms.

The arms of England, the mother country, expressed the union of Judah's lion, with the unicorn of "Lost Israel" in accordance with the Science of Heraldry, but the young republic had finished with thrones and crowns and must blaze a new path through the forest of liberty, which should express her descent from all christian nations and hold open a door for all other races which should seek help and shelter upon her shores. A knowledge of heraldy was considered a part of an education in the early colonial days, and it was through William Barton son of the rector of St. James Episcopal church of Philadelphia, learned in heraldry, and through Baron Prestwich, of England, that the designs expressive of American destiny were given and drawn. Yet other dabblers in heraldry failed utterly to understand the mystic meaning of the seals. Professor Charles Elliott Norton, of Harvard, regretted its lack of art, and complained it could never be other than a dull masonic emblem, while a Mr. Wilson, considered a great historical scholar, declared the reverse side "in very bad taste, unintelligent and commonplace, and if it can be laid away and kept in the dark why not keep it so!" Even the constellation of thirteen stars came in for criticism, as "very bad heraldically." Again and again the pyramid with the white cope stone and the glory, were rejected, until in 1916 members of the Rose Cross Order, Illuminati, and others of the six pointed star of the seal, hung it officially in their class rooms and declared it as expressive of their philosophy-religion; the Bible wisdom of the common people rather than of the collegian. In the two sides of our seal are expressed in heraldry countless ages of the evolution of man, from the time of his socalled fall, through his progress in Egypt (eagleland), where for a time a wondrous race incarnated to build astounding monuments, receding, but returning again as the Hebraic Confederation to receive the knowledge of ancient Atlantis in the shade of its ancient altar, the Great Pyramid, uniting in a blaze of glory in the building of Solomon's Temple, parting, the northern tribes to leaven, though lost to history, all Europe, Judah and part of Benjamen and Levi, returning to hold Jerusalem until the Master Jesus should be born, journey down into 'Egypt to the ancient altar and receive light yet left in that land of darkness. "In that day shalt there be an altar to the Lord a pillar in the midst of Egypt, upon the borders thereof, and it shall be for a sign and a witness unto the Lord," said Isaiah. It is needless for learned historians to tell us, who hold the records, that the Great Pyramid is but six thousand years old, for we know it to have been built when the morning stars sang together and the "Sons of God" shouted for joy, in that far Edenic period, when Atlantis the mighty stood in her purity, where in part America now stands. Built at the center of the earth, as a temple of the highest initiation, symbolic of a perfect man, foursquare in body, mind, soul and spirit, with its white copestone, symbol of complete immortality, it represents the measure of the earth, as well as that of the universe, and the evolution of man through those countless ages of reincarnation now drawing to a close. Thither the Atlantians went for instruction in its galleries and rooms at the hands of mighty priests of the Priests of Melchisidek'''' and Osirian Brotherhoods, and throughout the succeeding ages those who would attain self mastery have turned their footsteps toward the ancient centers. "The last Cumaen Song now comes," wrote Virgil, who prophesied that a race should arise which would be offspring of all races and bring to an end the ages of iron (war) and usher in the Golden Age. Hence it was fitting that the mottos upon the reverse side of our seal above and below the pyramid should be taken from Virgil, "Annuit Coeptis," "Prosper us in our daring," and "Novus ordo seclorum," "a new and select order," which many of us have now the honor to have entered, and whose door we hold open to all who will accomplish the spiritual work necessary. "The day of freedom dawned upon the earth."

*As this book is being printed, we received information of two Associations using the title "Order of Melchizadek," or like it. One is a Spiritualistic body and the other a pure fraud. Neither body has the right to the title as this belongs to the Magi, who has used it for unknown years. Any body of men claiming, or using, this title does so without any authority and they are not members of any Order of Melchizadek. "Given by order of the Royal Fraternity Association, Incorporated."

And the infinite cycle of Atlantis was begun anew," wrote a poet, of the American Republic. In Central America there yet stands a companion pyramid, key to the connection of Atlantis, Egypt, and now American Atlantis rising again upon the great cycle. Hence Arcane and Magian learning which is the source of the Bible, could give no other symbolism to the young republic, than that of the ancient pyramid, its copestone and glory, significant of the descent of the New Jerusalem, for the one side, and the eagle, and the ever repeating thirteen of Mansasseh, thirteenth tribe of Israel and the son of Joseph (the Britons) who was separated from his brethren in Egypt, in the parting asunder of northern Israel from southern Judah, and first to cross Europe in search of the "isles afar off," to re-establish the ancient throne of Israel at Tava in Ireland, Turning the hitherto rejected reverse side of our seal to face the people of these United States, we remind them that they are called to a Great Work as offspring of all races, a mighty Mannasseh, whose history began in Genesis and culminates in America, and by whose stripes the whole world must be healed. Joseph, our father, married a daughter of a priest of the Temple of On, in Egypt, we are told, and today one pillar of that ancient Temple stands in London, while its mate stands in New York. These are reminders of our connection with Egypt, with all Europe, and with our father, Joseph, as an Anglo Saxon culmination of all Israel, and that through our union, between those pillars must all the world pass into Ephraim, or Shiloh, the Millenium to which Israel alone of all nations looked forward and by the measure of whose twelve tribes the whole earth was apportioned. "The whole Bible is written in the stars, both the law and the gospel, while estorically the entire story of man is set forth upon the sea of Manasseh. The obverse side is Israel in the Old Testament, the Reverse is the offspring of all Israel under the New Covenant, as the hope and outcome of Christianity. The two sides reflect each other and cannot be separated being the Bible in its most condensed form, summing up all old world history in twelve tribed Israel," says Professor Totten. Long ages before the discovery of America, Merlin of King Arthur's court wrote of our constellation of thirteen stars:

*'When the cock (France) shall woo the Dove (America) Mother and child shall cease to love (Rebellion of colonies) When the cock (France) shall guard the eagle's nest (France's aid) The stars (our constellation of 13) shall rise all in the west Then seven and six shall make but one (E Fluribus Unum) The Lion's might shall be undone."

The stars upon our seal are set in the form of a six pointed star or a double triangle. This was anciently called Solomon's Seal and was embroidered upon the curtain of the Temple, which hung before the Holy of Holies. At each point of the star was placed the symbol of an Order which set forth Arcane wisdom, and no man might pass into the Holy of Holies save he had mastered the learning of these Orders with safety to himself, because of the Presence upon the altar within. Today in America we have the restoration of this knowledge in these six Orders, the Order of Illuminati, Order of Rose Cross, Ancient Order of Alchemists, Fraternity of Osiris, The Magi and AEth Priesthood. The especial symbol of America, aside from the pyramid and eagle, is the white rose, identical in meaning with the white stone. The constellation of thirteen stars was in early drawings set in a wreath of White roses, showing that the early designers knew the future of American individual spiritual development. It is now drawn set in white clouds, but the white rose is ever the symbol of the American Rose Cross Order, and stands for spiritual attainment. Solomon's Temple was the Temple of a perfect man, and the Bible tells us of a three cornered cope stone which was rejected, but later became the headstone of the corner. We hear too in Genesis of Joseph, the keeper of the "stone of Israel," and it was with the Magian or Holy Grail teachings that the Britons crossed Europe to Arsareth, Land of Betrothal (Esdras 11-13 Chap. ) in search of a land where they might keep God's worship pure and undefiled. Hence through Joseph, who was separated from his brethren, we inherit the white stone of all Israel, cope stone of the pyramid, and of Solomon's Temple, that rock upon which Jesus reminded Peter, he should build His church, the rock of spiritual unfoldment within each individual, that the gates of hell (death) should not prevail against it. My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.—Gal. IV-19. Thus it was in keeping that an Englishman, Master of Heraldry, should give to the young republic, in the midst of its struggles to separate from the mother country, the design for the Great Seal, which should express the whole future of its work as a world teacher and exponent of the Christic teachings of the Holy Grail. The All Seeing Eye, looks down upon the ancient pyramid, which too symbolizes America and all she must mean to the world, out of a glory, sign of the descent of the New Jerusalem. This emblem, the eye, is as old as man's appearance upon earth, being found upon ancient Chaldean monuments, Egyptian and Greek, while the Arabians looking upon it named the Highest and Holiest name of God with hushed voices and whispered, "I am that I am." The triangle about the eye, stood from the most arcane times as the emblem of the Trinity, of Osiris, Isis and Horus, Father, Holy Ghost and Son, as they stand today with us, and in which is sealed the law of the eternal three of the universe and of men as its highest product. "I will guide thee with mine eye.—Psa. 32-8. Although writing is as old as Atlantis, and Adam, the only legend set in the Great Pyramid is esoteric, in numbers, measures, and weights, and in them may be read the ages just completed, and the prophesy of those yet to come. Of these great ages each with its leader as set forth in the application of the legend to the "Stone Kingdom cut out without hands," the greatest of all was the Master Initiate Jesus, who became the Christ, who descended into the grave and rising ascended Master over death, into heaven before the eyes of His disciples. Him especially and the return of the Christ Age, does the white cope stone represent, and after Him America as exponent of His teaching and life. America now prepares to become the headstone of all the world's ages when God in the Christ shall descend to crown the edifice of human liberty and immortality completed, and once more the morning stars shall sing together and the "Sons of God" shout for joy." Architecture, mystic numbers, heraldry and the heavens themselves are telling the great race in America of their destiny and responsibility. As the head, body and limbs of the great image, made of different metals represented each Messianic age, a new truth, and an empire directly relating to some manifestation of that truth, so must America represent the white stone, a nation fashioning itself until it shall have obtained the Messiahship over all nations, overshadowing all that has preceded it. This cannot be accomplished until each citizen shall throw aside the veil which lieth over his face, shall no longer see through the glass darkly, but face to face, when Judah shall no longer vex Israel nor Israel envy Judah, but prepare to come together into that land which the Lord has given them for an inheritance forever. The time has come spoken of by Isaiah, the prophet, when though the learned cannot read the book because it is sealed, nor the unlearned because he is unlettered, yet shall the book be unsealed, for the ancient wisdom applies to the individual and his following of the Christ in his quest of the Holy Grail, in the drinking of the cup of unselfishness, of his love for his neighbor and the stranger within the gates of our own Ellis Island, that the stranger may grow to the light of this republic, or carry its torch to other lands. Each fortunate heir of this glorious inheritance must seek the white stone which crowns the pyramid, within himself, in body, mind and soul, the Holy Trinity of each Son of God. Then may America realize her destiny as a city set upon a hill, a star that shall never go down, and the world ruler that shall call down the light of the New Jerusalem upon the battle scarred earth, the Christ to rule for a thousand years. Go ye therefore and teach all nations.—Matt. 28-19."

FUNDAMENTAL LAWS

A Report of the 68th Convocation of the Rosa Cross Order

https://ia600308.us.archive.org/24/items/fundamentallawsr00rose/fundamentallawsr00rose.pdf

Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[b] 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian pope Gregory III.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked for a time as a bouncer and a janitor before training to become a chemist and working as a technician in a food science laboratory. After recovering from a severe case of pneumonia and cysts, he was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969; from 1973 to 1979, he was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina; the administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him to be a political rival.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal SJ (born 12 November 1948) is a Venezuelan Catholic priest who serves as the 31st and present superior general of the Society of Jesus. He was elected by the Society's 36th General Congregation on 14 October 2016, succeeding Adolfo Nicolás. He is the first person born in Latin America to lead the Jesuits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Sosa

[William Cooper]: And, now, you know the final truth, ladies and gentlemen. Now you know the purpose of the free trade agreements. Now you know the purpose of GATT and NAFTA. Now you know where we're headed. Now you know the middle class in this country is doomed. Now you know that the New World Order is being brought about by the intelligence community and the secret societies, whose headquarters are in the United States of America, just thirteen blocks from the White House. Now you know, in the incredible admissions, in their own writing, in this book, published by the Ancient Order of the Rose and Cross. Now you know that the Illuminati is real; that Freemasonry is a part of the Illuminati; that the Rose and Cross is a part of the Illuminati; that they are also called the Order, the Brotherhood; that they also consist of the Knights Templars; they also consist of the Knights of Malta and all of the other secret societies whose organizational structure is in the shape of the pyramid, with a few at the top who really know what the Great Work and the Great Plan is. And a whole bunch of slathering idiots thirsting after the secrets on the bottom, who will never, ever, know anything.

[William Cooper]: Are the cockroaches scattering? If this broadcast doesn't do it nothing will. If this doesn't wake you up, nothing will. If you don't understand now, the eighteen hours of the series that I've aired on the Mystery Schools, you will never understand it, now or in the future. If you don't know where we are headed now, then you never will.

[William Cooper]: If you are not concerned now, then you have already placed the chains upon your ankles and you have already watched freedom fly. If this broadcast does not do it, nothing will. This is the last voice of freedom. This is the only revelatory media source in the world today. The Hour of the Time is the only outlet for truth left upon this earth.

[William Cooper]: Ladies and gentlemen, what you have heard tonight is the final parting of the curtain. It is the opening of the last door that was to be opened. It is the final understanding of where we have been, where we are at and where we are going. It is the light. It is the Illumination in the darkest corners. You are looking at the forbidden fruit. You have heard tonight what you were never to hear, what has been forbidden for thousands of years. You now know what the Great Work is. You know who is bringing it about.

[William Cooper]: You, too, can find this book if you search hard enough. And the incredible admissions that are contained within it will give you the ammunition and the armor to march out here on the battlefield with me, and many others, who are trying to stop what is coming.

[William Cooper]: Remember what Mr Swinburne said at the end of his article and I'll read that too you again: "May it not be long until the Holy Pyramid shall be completed and may it be completed without the shedding of blood. Lovingly given, R. Swinburne Clymer. 'Beverly Hall,' Quakertown, Pennsylvania, July 6th, 1916." And I am telling you now, their goal is to destroy all other religions save theirs, destroy all existing nation states save theirs, and shackle the mob, and that is you.

Good night, dear listeners, and God bless you all.

68th Convocation of the Rose Cross Order (aired May 11th, 1993)

https://viefag.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/transcripts-of-william-cooper-s-mystery-babylon-series.pdf

Vatican City,[f] officially the Vatican City State (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano;[g] Latin: Status Civitatis Vaticanae),[h][i] is a landlocked sovereign country,[16][17] city-state, microstate, and enclave surrounded by, and historically a part of, Rome, Italy.[18][19] It became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, and is a distinct territory under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See, which is itself a sovereign entity under international law, maintaining the city-state's temporal power, governance, diplomatic, and spiritual independence. The Vatican is also a metonym for the pope, the Holy See, and the Roman Curia.[j][20]

With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres)[c] and a population of about 764[13] (as of 2023), it is the smallest sovereign state in the world both by area and by population.[21] It is also the second-least populated capital in the world. As governed by the Holy See, Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Pope, who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church.[6][22] The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere.

The Holy See dates back to early Christianity and is the principal episcopal see of the Catholic Church, which has approximately 1.329 billion baptised Catholics in the world as of 2018 in the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches.[23] The independent state of Vatican City, on the other hand, came into existence on 11 February 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation,[24] not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much of Central Italy.

Vatican City contains religious and cultural sites such as St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Apostolic Library, and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the world's most famous paintings and sculptures. The unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by donations from Catholic believers, by the sale of postage stamps and souvenirs, fees for admission to museums, and sales of publications. Vatican City has no taxes, and items are duty-free.

Name

The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, which established the modern city-state named after Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state within the city of Rome. "Vatican" itself is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum, located in the general area the Romans called Ager Vaticanus, "Vatican territory".[25]

The Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, meaning 'Vatican City State'. Its Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanae;[26][27] this is used in official documents by the Holy See, the Church and the Pope.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City

George was a monthly magazine centered on the theme of politics-as-lifestyle founded by John F. Kennedy Jr. and Michael J. Berman with publisher Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in New York City in September 1995. Its tagline was "Not Just Politics As Usual." It was published from 1995 to 2001.

Overview

For the debut issue, creative director Matt Berman (no relation to co-founder Michael Berman) conceived a cover which received a great deal of attention[citation needed] for its image of Cindy Crawford dressed as George Washington photographed by Herb Ritts.

George departed from the format of traditional political publications, whose audience primarily comprised people in or around the political world. The general template for George was similar to magazines such as Rolling Stone, Esquire or Vanity Fair. The consistent underlying theme was to marry the themes of celebrity and media with the subject of politics in such a way that the general public would find political news and discourse about politics more interesting to read.

Notable contributors

Paul Begala

Roger Black

George Clooney

Kellyanne Conway[1]

Ann Coulter

Al D'Amato

Lisa DePaulo

Al Franken

Stephen Glass

Rush Limbaugh

Norman Mailer

Chris Matthews

Steve Miller

Cathy Scott

W. Thomas Smith Jr.

Jackie Stallone

Naomi Wolf

Reception

External videos

video icon Washington Journal interview with George executive editor Elizabeth Mitchell, August 18, 1997, C-SPAN

video icon Washington Journal discussion of the George media issue with George editor Gary Ginsberg, Matt Drudge, and Hanna Rosin, April 25, 1998, C-SPAN

When it first appeared, George attracted great interest, and for a brief period had the largest circulation of any political magazine in the nation, partly due to the celebrity status of Kennedy, but it soon began losing money. Kennedy and George occasionally courted controversy to boost sales, one notable example being the 1997 issue wherein Kennedy in his editorial lambasted his cousins Michael Kennedy and Joe Kennedy II, whose marital scandals had recently made news, as "poster boys for bad behavior".[2]

Kennedy later complained that the magazine was not taken seriously in the publishing world.

Critics called George "the political magazine for people who don't understand politics," assailing it for "stripping any and all discussion of political issues from its coverage of politics".[citation needed] In a feature in its final issue, Spy magazine asserted that the magazine's premise was flawed because, "Politics overlapped with Pop Culture in such a limited number of ways".[3] That fairly critical profile in Spy described George as "scrambling for celebrities 'with tits' as often as possible to put on the cover and then trying to figure out what that person had to do with politics".

Decline

After Kennedy died in a plane crash in 1999, Hachette Filipacchi Magazines purchased Kennedy's portion of the magazine from his estate and continued for over a year, with Frank Lalli as editor-in-chief.[4] With falling advertising sales,[4] the magazine ceased publication in 2001, two years after Kennedy's death.[5]

External videos

video icon Tenth anniversary discussion at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, C-SPAN

In 2005, Harvard Kennedy School held a panel discussion titled "Not Just Politics as Usual", which commemorated the 10th anniversary of the magazine's launch. The panel was moderated by Tom Brokaw and featured appearances by other journalists.[6]

Back-issue popularity

A February 1997 edition of George with the tagline "Survival Guide to the Future", wherein Kennedy interviews Bill Gates, has become well sought-after by adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, with one copy online being listed at $3,499.99.[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_(magazine)

Jorge is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name George. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish [ˈxoɾxe]; Portuguese [ˈʒɔɾʒɨ].

It is derived from the Greek name Γεώργιος (Georgios) via Latin Georgius; the former is derived from γεωργός (georgos), meaning "farmer" or "earth-worker".[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge

Pope Francis (Latin: Franciscus; Italian: Francesco; Spanish: Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio;[b] 17 December 1936) is head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit Order), the first from the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere, and the first born or raised outside Europe since the 8th-century papacy of the Syrian pope Gregory III.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked for a time as a bouncer and a janitor as a young man before training to be a chemist and working as a technician in a food science laboratory. After recovering from a severe illness of pneumonia and cysts, he was inspired to join the Jesuits in 1958. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was the Jesuit provincial superior in Argentina. He became the archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II. He led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina. The administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him to be a political rival.

Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, a papal conclave elected Bergoglio as his successor on 13 March. He chose Francis as his papal name in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi. Throughout his public life, Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on God's mercy, international visibility as pope, concern for the poor, and commitment to interreligious dialogue. He is known for having a less formal approach to the papacy than his predecessors, for instance choosing to reside in the Domus Sanctae Marthae guesthouse rather than in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace used by previous popes.[2]

Francis has made women full members of dicasteries in the Roman Curia.[3][4] He maintains that the Catholic Church should be more sympathetic toward members of the LGBT community, and has stated that while blessings of same-sex unions are not permitted, the individuals can be blessed, as long as the blessings are not given in a liturgical context.[5] Francis is a critic of unbridled capitalism, consumerism, and overdevelopment;[6] he has made action on climate change a leading focus of his papacy.[7] Widely interpreted as denouncing the death penalty as intrinsically evil,[8] he has termed it "an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person", "inadmissible", and committed the Church to its abolition,[9] saying that there can be "no going back from this position".[10]

In international diplomacy, Francis has criticized the rise of right-wing populism, called for the decriminalization of homosexuality (though still considering same-sex acts as sinful),[11] called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, negotiated a deal with China to define how much influence the Communist Party has in appointing Chinese bishops, and has supported the cause of refugees during the European and Central American migrant crises, calling on the Western World to significantly increase immigration levels.[12][13] In 2022, he apologized for the Church's role in the "cultural genocide" of the Canadian indigenous peoples.[14] On 4 October 2023, Francis convened the beginnings of the Synod on Synodality, described as the culmination of his papacy and the most important event in the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.[4][15][16] In October 2024, it was revealed that Pope Francis would be the first sitting pope to publish a memoir, Hope, which is set to be published in January 2025.[17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

Tragedy and HOPE: A History of the World in Our Time is a work of history written by former Georgetown University professor and historian Carroll Quigley. The book covers the period of roughly 1880 to 1963 and is multidisciplinary in nature though perhaps focusing on the economic problems brought about by the First World War and the impact these had on subsequent events. While global in scope, the book focuses on Western civilization."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_and_Hope

In his first year (1965) in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, Bill Clinton took Quigley's course, receiving a 'B' as his final grade in both semesters (an excellent grade in a course where nearly half the students received D or lower).[1]: 94, 96 In 1991, Clinton named Quigley as an important influence on his aspirations and political philosophy, when Clinton launched his presidential campaign in a speech at Georgetown.[1]: 96 He said he learned from Quigley that “The future can be better than the past, and that each of us has a personal, moral responsibility to make it so.” Bill Clinton told his audiences, “that is what the new choice is all about....We are not here to save the Democratic party. We are here to save the United States of America.” It was Clinton's most effective speech, and he repeated variations time and time again as the blueprint for his campaign message in winning the Democratic nomination and the general election for President of the United States in 1992.[21][22]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley

Theorists also cite the inclusion of Bill Clinton at the meetings in 1991 before he was president and Tony Blair’s presence in 1993 before he became the British prime minister as examples of the group’s power. Past attendees have included former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (who will also be attending this year), former Chase Manhattan chief executive David Rockefeller, and British Prime Minister David Cameron."

Bilderberg Group: What To Know About the Secretive Meetings

https://time.com/4362872/bilderberg-group-meetings-2016-conspiracy-theories/

Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner October 20, 2016 Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Henry Kissinger Gayle King Cardinal Dolan Katie Couric Chuck Schumer Mayor Bill de Blasio"

https://www.facebook.com/MariaBartiromo/posts/alfred-e-smith-memorial-foundation-dinner-october-20-2016-donald-trump-hillary-c/1353937201283479/

HOPE: all hope is to be placed in God, and with what degree of perfection [67]; eternal life alone is to be hoped for as a reward [82]; the extent to which this hope should be of assistance [288]; how hope should be shown by the dying | 595]; hope in the preservation and growth of the Society [812]. See also Faithfulness" The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms pg. 464

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Hopefully, the Jesuit Order, in control of the Archbishop with his Network of

Vatican Assassins, will be brought to justice for the cold-blooded murder of

President Kennedy and for continuing the Great Jesuit Cover-up of his death. This

includes the most recent murder of John F. Kennedy, Jr. along with his beautiful

wife, Carolyn Bessette and her sister, Lauren. Justice will only be done when the

Jesuit presence has been purged from the Justice Department in control of the FBI

—Rome’s political Holy Office of the Inquisition within the American Empire.

And why was John F. Kennedy, Jr., along with his innocent passengers,

murdered? According to the late Tom Kuncl in the August 31, 1999 issue of the

National Examiner, JFK, Jr. (having promised in his George magazine (October,

1998, Volume 3, Issue 10, page 136) that if elected President he would abolish the

Federal Reserve System and warned that America’s most pressing foreign issue was

a “dangerous, nuclear armed Russia that is economically unstable”) had

“. . . recently launched an all-out investigation, to find his father’s real

killer . . .

[For John had said in his own words:]

‘I want to know who killed my father. I want there to be absolutely no

doubt.’ ” {59}

G. B. Nicolini, in his History of the Jesuits published in 1889, gives us further light,

declaring on page 269:

“We insist upon that point [that the Jesuits vindictively persecuted the

Roman Catholic Jansenists for exposing the Society in using Jacques

Clement to murder King Henry III of France] one of the most

prominent characteristics of Jesuitism, [is] never to forgive an injury,

and to persecute the remotest descendants for the offences they may

have received from their ancestors.” {60}

Therefore, the following chart contained in Vatican Assassins: “Wounded In

The House Of My Friends” is humbly given on behalf of the Kennedy and Bessette

families. They must know the same savage Jesuit power that killed President

Kennedy, mercilessly murdered their three darlings in the prime of their young lives.

The same has been done to Princess Diana; for the Jesuits would never

permit the Moslem offspring of her union with an Arab prince to be an heir to the

British throne. That throne may only be occupied by a monarch loyal to the Jesuits’

“infallible” Pope of Rome—a loyalty that has been unbroken from the wicked and

tyrannical King George III, whose Prime Minister was the Jesuit Lord Shelburne,

to the present Queen Elizabeth II. For uniting with Dodi Fayed, the “Moslem dog”

or “Moslem wog” as the English nobles would call him, Princess Diana was buried

Web Page 59

out of public view at Althrop Park in Northamptonshire, on a small island in the

middle of a pond, where only pet dogs had previously been buried!

As you examine the chart dear reader, picture in your mind’s eye the faces of

President Kennedy, Princess Diana, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Carolyn and Lauren

Bessette. Then may your heart be strengthened to do your duty in exposing the

criminal Papal Knights manning that great Sword of the Jesuit General—the

Vatican’s International Intelligence Community,

“. . . whose points are everywhere and whose hilt is in Rome.” {61}

Dear fellow soldier in the Lord Jesus Christ, having been born-again by the

will of God, remember the Words of God spoken by the Spirit of God through the

great Hebrew Kings of Israel, David and Solomon:

“The LORD is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

The LORD is the strength of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid?”

– Psalm 27:1

“The wicked flee when no man pursueth:

but the righteous are bold as a lion.”

– Proverbs 28:1

“The fear of man bringeth a snare:

but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.”

– Proverbs 29:25

Vatican Assassins:

“Wounded In The House Of My Friends”

Third Edition

by Eric Jon Phelps

https://ia802505.us.archive.org/28/items/EricJonPhelpsVaticanAssassins3rdEdition/Eric%20Jon%20Phelps%20-%20Vatican%20Assassins%203rd%20Edition.pdf

Trump posts AI-generated photo of himself as pope, drawing internet outrage

By Andrea Shalal

May 3, 20252:21 PM PDTUpdated 12 hours ago

Summary

Trump and his wife Melania attended funeral of Pope Francis

Image shows Trump in white paper vestments

Former Italian PM blasts 'shameful' post

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, May 2 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated photo showing himself as the pope ahead of this week's gathering of cardinals to choose a new leader of the 1.4-billion-strong Catholic Church, and just days after he joked he would "like to be pope".

Trump, who is not a Catholic and does not attend church regularly, posted the image on his Truth Social platform late on Friday, less than a week after attending the funeral of Pope Francis, who died at 88 last month. The White House then reposted it on its official X account.

The image shows an unsmiling Trump seated in an ornate chair, dressed in white papal vestments and headdress, with right forefinger raised.

The irreverent posting drew instant outrage on X, including from Republicans against Trump, a group that describes itself as "pro-democracy conservative Republicans fighting Trump & Trumpism." The group reposted the image, calling it "a blatant insult to Catholics and a mockery of their faith".

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni declined to comment on the image during a briefing with journalists about the process of electing a new pope, which begins on May 7.

Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi wrote on X: “This is an image that offends believers, insults institutions and shows that the leader of the global right enjoys being a clown. In the meantime, the American economy risks recession and the dollar loses value."

Closer to home, the Catholic bishops of New York state also expressed their displeasure on X.

"There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President," they wrote. "We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us."

Trump on Tuesday had jokingly said he would be his own first choice to become pope, before adding that there was a "very good" candidate in New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

Dolan, the archbishop of New York, is not on the short list of possible contenders for the top spot, but it does include another American, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, New Jersey. There has never been a pope from the United States.

In mid-February, both Trump and the official White House social media accounts posted a different AI-generated image of the president wearing a crown and captioned "CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!"

In West Palm Beach, Debbie Macchia, 60, stood waiting with a dozen other supporters as Trump's motorcade arrived at his golf club on Saturday morning.

"He was clearly joking. Clearly joking," said Macchia, who is Jewish. "But I wouldn't want to see them do anything sacrilegious with the pope, or anything."

Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Joshua McElwee in Vatican City, Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/trump-posts-ai-generated-photo-himself-pope-2025-05-03/

I began by attending Fordham University in the Bronx, mostly because I wanted to be close to home. I got along very well with the Jesuits who ran the school, but after two years, I decided that as long as I had to be in college, I might as well test myself against the best. I applied to the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and I got in. At the time, if you were going to make a career in business, Wharton was the place to go. Harvard Business School may produce a lot of CEOs—guys who manage public companies— but the real entrepreneurs all seemed to go to Wharton: Saul Steinberg, Leonard Lauder, Ron Perelman—the list goes on and on."

Donald Trump The Art of the Deal

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DLcbnLrl6moQT7nGj1JitG6AiQ6qgK0y/view?usp=sharing

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden

The university has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in red and blue lights.

Author: WNEP Web Staff

Published: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

Updated: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

SCRANTON, Pa. — In preparation for President Joe Biden's visit, a university lit up their lights in his honor.

The University of Scranton has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in blue and red with the number 46 prominently displayed to welcome the 46th president."

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden | wnep.com

https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/university-of-scranton-welcomes-president-biden-gateway-lights/523-cdba68b1-822b-4747-94be-4cd7e4de9d67

"His son, Hunter Biden, 38, is a longtime federal lobbyist for the Jesuit university located in his father's hometown, Scranton PA. According to federal disclosures, Hunter Biden has been earning about $80,000 a year since 2006 to lobby for this university. Senator Biden himself has lectured at the Jesuit University of Scranton, and received an honorary degree from the same university, in 1976."

Codeword Barbelon

by P.D. Stuart

Revelation 17:17-18

1599 Geneva Bible

17 [a]For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to do with one consent for to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God be fulfilled.

18 And that woman which thou sawest, is that [b]great city which reigned over the kings of the earth.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Revelation 17:17 A reason rendered from the chief efficient cause, which is the providence of God, by which alone S. John by inversion of order affirmeth to have come to pass, both that the Kings should execute upon the harlot, that which pleased God, and which he declared in the verse next beforegoing: and also that by one consent and counsel, they should give their kingdom unto the beast, etc., verses 13, 14. For as these being blinded have before depended upon the beck of the beast that lifteth up the harlot, so it is said that afterward it shall come to pass, that they shall turn back, and shall fall away from her when their hearts shall be turned into better state by the grace and mercy of God.

Revelation 17:18 That is, Rome that great City, or only City (as Justinian calleth it) the King and head whereof was then the Emperor, but now the Pope, since that the condition of the beast was changed.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2017%3A17-18&version=GNV

EL SABOR DE HEREJIA: THE EDICT OF 1525, THE ALUMBRADOS

AND THE INQUISITORS’ USAGE OF LOCURA

Javier A. Montoya

May 2010

Chair: Nina Caputo

Major: History

The alumbrados of Spain were a mystical Christian movement that arose in the 1510s. Initially enjoying noble patronage and an environment of spiritual exploration fostered by the reforms of Cardinal Cisneros, the alumbrados spread their ideas throughout Castile. Led by charismatic female spiritual leaders or beatas, the alumbrados’ brief era of success ended when two of its leaders came before the Tribunal of Toledo in 1524. With a membership consisting mostly of second-generation conversos, the alumbrados advocated an interiorized approach to Christianity under the aegis of dejamiento. The meditational practice of dejamiento called upon its practitioners to “abandon” themselves to God and His will effectively releasing themselves from their ties (ataduras) to the material world that included the Church and the priesthood.

By 1525, convinced of the heretical nature of alumbradismo, the Inquisitors published El edicto contra los alumbrados consisting of 48 alumbrado Propositions followed by official Inquisitorial refutation and condemnation. The Edict of 1525 presented the alumbrados as a dangerous group of heretics in its attempt to delegitimize their beliefs.

This study focuses on the Inquisitors’ diction in their responses to and qualifications of the alumbrado Propositions, specifically their usage of the words loca (crazy) and locura

(madness). The usage of loca is then placed within a discourse about the attitudes prevalent in Castilian society towards conversos and beatas with the understanding that stereotyping and general dislike and fear of both groups contributed much to the Inquisitors’ reactions to the alumbrado Propositions. The Edict also reveals the Inquisitors’ interpretative difficulties in classifying alumbradismo and placing it within their continuum of heresy. The usage of loca as a negative qualifier in Inquisitorial responses was meant to highlight the danger the movement posed to Catholic orthodoxy. The alumbrados challenged the Inquisitors’ cosmological views and pre-established categories of heresy. In turn, the Inquisitors designated the alumbrados a novelty placing them in a third space of heresy, one neither crypto-Jewish nor Protestant and lying somewhere between heterodoxy and orthodoxy.

The analysis of the intertwined factors of the Inquisitorial portrayal of the alumbrados and the alumbrados’ status as conversos and women is placed within an overall discourse that addresses the historiographic problems that historians of alumbradismo have faced. As such, the alumbrados are presented as free as possible from labels of heresy or comparison to other contemporary religious movements. Inquisitorial testimonies and documents remain the primary sources of alumbrado history, however, this thesis attempts to set aside the Inquisitors’ interpretation of alumbradismo when representing their ideas. The alumbrados then function as an example of the growing spiritual and religious unrest prevalent in sixteenth century Europe and as an example of a uniquely converso understanding of Christianity.

https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/uf/e0/04/13/85/00001/montoya_j.pdf

Politics

Vance says it was "pretty crazy" that he met Pope Francis in his last 24 hours

By Kaia Hubbard

April 23, 2025 / 9:58 AM EDT / CBS News

Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that it was "pretty crazy" that he was among the last officials to meet with Pope Francis before his death earlier this week.

"When I saw him, I didn't know that he had less than 24 hours still on this earth," Vance told reporters in Agra, India. "I think it was a great blessing."

The vice president is on a four-day trip in India with his wife Usha, the first Hindu American second lady, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from India. Vance's visit with his family comes after they traveled to Italy last week to participate in Holy Week events. Vance noted that plans remain in flux about whether he will attend the pope's funeral in the coming days.

The vice president outlined his brief visit with Francis on Easter Sunday, saying he knew the pope was "very ill," but he "didn't realize how sick he was."

"The thing that I will always remember Pope Francis for is that he was a great pastor," Vance said. "People on the margins, poor people, people suffering from diseases, they saw in Pope Francis an advocate and I think, a true expression of Christian love."

Vance added that the pontiff "affected a lot of lives," saying that he tries to remember "that I was lucky that I got to shake his hand and tell him that I pray for him every day, because I did and I do."

Vance and Francis' meeting came after the two men had sharp disagreements on immigration as the pontiff had long condemned the Trump administration's approach. Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, told reporters Wednesday that he's aware of the disagreements the pope had with some of the Trump administration's policies, while noting that he would not "soil the man's legacy by talking about politics."

On the selection of the next pope, the vice president said he would "say a prayer for wisdom" for the Cardinals, saying that "I want them to pick somebody who will be good for the world's Catholics."

"But I'll let them make that decision, and obviously they're entitled to do so," he added.

The vice president's trip to India comes amid President Trump's recent actions on tariffs. Vance arrived in India on Monday and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after which the leaders touted progress on trade talks.

The vice president told reporters Wednesday that "we're making progress across the board," though he said of the trade discussions more broadly that it's "a little bit too early to prejudge, to say what any of these deals is going to look like."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-death-jd-vance-meeting/

James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman;[a] August 2, 1984) is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran who is the 50th vice president of the United States serving under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 2023 to 2025.

Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio. After high school, Vance joined the Marine Corps, where he served as a military journalist from 2003 to 2007, and was deployed to the Iraq War for six months in 2005. He graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in 2009 and Yale Law School with a law degree in 2013. He practiced briefly as a corporate lawyer before embarking on a career in the tech industry as a venture capitalist. His memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, was published in 2016[2] and adapted into a film in 2020.

Vance won the 2022 United States Senate election in Ohio, defeating Democratic nominee Tim Ryan. After initially opposing Donald Trump's candidacy in the 2016 election, Vance became a strong Trump supporter during Trump's first presidency. In July 2024, Trump selected Vance as his running mate before the Republican National Convention. He served as Ohio's senator until his resignation in preparation to assume the vice presidency in January 2025. Vance is the third-youngest vice president in U.S. history, as well as the first millennial to hold the office.

Vance has been characterized as a national conservative and right-wing populist, and he describes himself as a member of the postliberal right. His political positions include opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage and gun control. Vance is an outspoken critic of childlessness and has credited the influence of Catholic theology on his sociopolitical positions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JD_Vance

Is the Catholic church ready for its first African Pope?

As world leaders gather in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, many Catholics are wondering if the church could soon elect its first black pope. With Africa home to one in five Catholics, the idea of a pope from the continent is gaining ground.

Issued on: 26/04/2025 - 09:01

By:

RFI

Since Francis’s death over Easter, one name gaining attention in the Vatican is Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson.

In 2010, Turkson said he wasn’t ready to become pope and that the church might not be ready either. "I wouldn't want to be that first black pope. I think he'll have a rough time," he said.

But Africa’s share of the Catholic population is growing. The continent is now home to 20 percent of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, as the church struggles to hold on to followers in increasingly secular Europe.

Some now believe the time could be right for the first black pope.

A spiritual leader

Cardinal Peter Turkson, 76, grew up in a small town in what was then the Gold Coast, under British rule. He was the fourth of 10 children. His father worked in a mine and as a carpenter, while his mother sold vegetables at the market.

Turkson studied in seminaries in Ghana and New York, was ordained in 1975, then taught in Ghana. He later completed advanced Biblical studies in Rome.

Pope John Paul II made him archbishop of Cape Coast in 1992 and, in 2003, the first cardinal in Ghana’s history.

His rise continued under John Paul’s successor, Benedict XVI, who brought him to the Vatican in 2009 and made him head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

There, he became one of the pope’s closest advisors, working on issues like climate change and economic justice.

Turkson is seen as having both a strong connection to local congregations in Ghana and experience leading Vatican offices. His communication skills have also been praised.

Other African contenders

Turkson is not the only African name being mentioned as the church prepares for a conclave to choose its next leader. He would also not be the first African pontiff – Pope Victor I, from North Africa, led the church from 189 to 199.

"There has been this sense which has built up that the pope, if he is going to be a global authority, needs to come from the global church," said Miles Pattenden, a historian of Catholicism at Oxford University.

But Pattenden also said there is no reason to believe the next pope will follow Francis’s more liberal approach.

Francis often called for reform but didn’t always deliver. That middle ground might appeal to African candidates, some of whom have been called too conservative by critics, said Cristina Traina, a religious studies professor at Fordham University in New York.

One example is Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, a traditionalist who compared abortion, "Islamic fanaticism" and homosexuality to Nazi ideology. He could attract support from more conservative cardinals.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo has been mentioned. He led efforts to oppose the blessing of same-sex couples in Africa after Francis encouraged acceptance of such unions elsewhere.

A long time coming

Francis, who was from Argentina, worked to make the Vatican reflect the diversity of its members. African cardinals now make up 12 percent of those eligible to vote in the conclave, up from eight percent at the last papal election.

"It would be almost impossible to imagine the world accepting an African pope without this transition of Pope Francis having been from Argentina," said Traina.

Africa still has fewer voting cardinals than some think it should.

Some African Catholics also feel left out. A Congolese priest, who did not want to be named, told the French news agency AFP: "Even if it isn't obvious among our European brothers, discrimination is still a reality that we often don't talk about."

He said the church has made progress, but there is a reason no African has been pope in 1,500 years.

An African pope could bring new ideas to the church’s current challenges, including the ban on married priests, said Traina.

"It has always been on our lips how we wish to have an African pope," said Father Paul Maji, a priest in Abuja, Nigeria. But he added that Africans should not be "sentimental" about where the next pope comes from.

Sylvain Badibanga, dean of the theology faculty at the Catholic University of Congo, told AFP: "We shouldn't think 'it's our turn'. It's God's turn."

Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui, made a cardinal in 2016 after Francis visited the Central African Republic, will vote in a conclave for the first time.

"This is not about regional, continental, or even personal interests," he told RFI, adding that cardinals must think about the broader interests of the Catholic church.

As his name came up again before the 2013 conclave that chose Francis, Turkson said he could become pope "if it's the will of God".

(with newswires)

https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20250426-is-the-catholic-church-ready-for-an-african-pope

Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in the United States on November 7, 2028, to elect the president and vice president of the United States for a term of four years.

In the 2024 elections, the Republican Party gained a majority of seats in the House of Representatives and Senate. Incumbent president Donald Trump won a non-consecutive second term; per the limits set by the 22nd Amendment, he is constitutionally barred from being elected president again.[1]

Background

See also: 2024 United States elections

The Republican Party returned to power in the United States with a government trifecta in January 2025 following the 2024 election. Trump, who was elected president in 2016 but lost a re-election bid in 2020 to Joe Biden, and JD Vance, a then-senator from Ohio defeated vice president Kamala Harris, who began her campaign following Biden's exit from the 2024 election, and Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Trump's victory was credited to a post-pandemic surge in inflation,[a] a migrant crisis at the U.S.–Mexico border,[b] and a global anti-incumbent backlash.[8][9][10] In addition, Republicans secured control of the Senate, flipping four seats and earning a three seat majority, while also retaining a House majority, though the party's majority narrowed to three seats after losing two seats.[11]

Electoral system

Main article: United States Electoral College

See also: United States presidential primary and Primary elections in the United States

The president and vice president of the United States are elected through the Electoral College, determined by the number of senators and representatives with an additional three representatives for Washington, D.C. A majority of 270 votes is needed to win the election. Forty-eight states use a winner-take-all system, in which states award all of their electors to the winner of the popular vote. In Maine and Nebraska, two votes are allocated to the winner of the popular vote, while each of the individual congressional districts have one vote. Electoral votes are certified by state electors in December and by Congress on January 6.[12] Presidential candidates are selected in a presidential primary, conducted through primary elections run by state governments or caucuses run by state parties which bind convention delegates to candidates.[13] A brokered convention occurs when a candidate does not receive a majority of votes on the first round of voting,[14] or when a candidate withdraws.[15]

Election Day in the United States has been held on the first Tuesday that falls after the first Monday in November.[16] Previously, states could determine their own Election Day prior to the first Wednesday in December. The 2028 presidential election will occur on November 7, 2028.[17]

Eligibility

The United States Constitution limits occupancy of the presidency to individuals who are at least thirty-five, who have been a resident in the United States for at least fourteen years, and who are a natural-born citizen.[18] Section three of the Fourteenth Amendment prevents current and former federal, state, and military officials from holding office—including the presidency—if they have "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the United States;[19] in March 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Trump v. Anderson that former president Donald Trump could seek office after challenges to his ballot eligibility were raised by several state attorneys general.[20] A convicted felon may serve as president.[21] Elon Musk, who emerged as a political influencer in the 2024 presidential election, is ineligible to serve as president as he was born in South Africa and is a naturalized citizen.[22]

Trump is ineligible to be elected to a third term, as the Twenty-Second Amendment forbids any person from being elected president more than twice.[23] Nonetheless, he has repeatedly suggested running for a third term, an idea supported by several of his allies, including Steve Bannon.[24] In January 2025, Tennessee representative Andy Ogles proposed a resolution to amend the Twenty-Second Amendment, allowing for presidents who have served two non-consecutive terms to seek a third term. The verbiage of the amendment would prevent living presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, all currently ineligible under the 22nd Amendment, from running for a third term.[25] At CPAC 2025, conservative groups, such as the Third Term Project, supported the Ogles resolution and promoted the idea of Trump running for an as-yet unconstitutional third term.[26][27] In response, New York Democratic representative Dan Goldman planned to introduce a resolution affirming the Twenty-Second Amendment.[28]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2028_United_States_presidential_election

Kamala Devi Harris (English: /ˈkɑːmələ ˈdeɪvi/ ⓘ,[1] born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who has been the 49th and current vice president of the United States since 2021, serving under President Joe Biden. Harris is the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2024 United States presidential election. She is the first female vice president of the United States, making her the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history. She is also the first African American and first Asian American vice president. From 2017 to 2021, she represented California in the United States Senate. Before that, she was Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017.

Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her law career in the office of the district attorney of Alameda County. She was recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later to the office of the city attorney of San Francisco. She was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003 and attorney general of California in 2010, and reelected as attorney general in 2014. As the San Francisco district attorney and the attorney general of California, Harris was the first woman, the first African American, and the first Asian American to hold each office.

Harris was the junior U.S. senator from California from 2017 to 2021. She won the 2016 Senate election, becoming the second Black woman and first South Asian American U.S. senator. As a senator, Harris advocated for stricter gun control laws, the DREAM Act, federal legalization of cannabis, and reforms to healthcare and taxation. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh.

Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, but withdrew from the race before the primaries. Biden selected her as his running mate, and their ticket defeated the incumbent president and vice president, Donald Trump and Mike Pence, in the 2020 election. Presiding over an evenly split Senate upon entering office, Harris played a crucial role as president of the Senate. She cast more tie-breaking votes than any other vice president, which helped pass bills such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 stimulus package and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. After Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential election, Harris launched her campaign with Biden's endorsement and soon became the presumptive nominee. On August 6, 2024, she chose Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, as her running mate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris

Devī (/ˈdeɪvi/;[1] Sanskrit: देवी) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is deva. Devi and deva mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism.

The concept and reverence for goddesses appears in the Vedas, which were composed around the 2nd millennium BCE. However, they did not play a vital role in that era.[2] Goddesses such as Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Parvati, Radha, Saraswati and Sita have continued to be revered in the modern era.[2] The medieval era Puranas witness a major expansion in mythology and literature associated with Devi, with texts such as the Devi Mahatmya, wherein she manifests as the ultimate truth and supreme power. She has inspired the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism. Further, Devi is viewed as central in the Hindu traditions of Shaktism and Shaivism.[2][3]

Etymology

Devi and deva are Sanskrit terms found in Vedic literature around the 3rd millennium BCE. Deva is masculine, and the related feminine equivalent is devi.[4] Monier-Williams translates it as 'heavenly, divine, terrestrial things of high excellence, exalted, shining ones'.[5][6] Etymologically, a cognate of devi is Latin dea.[7] When capitalised, Devi maata refers to the mother goddess in Hinduism.[8] Deva is short for devatā and devi for devika.[5]

According to Douglas Harper, the etymological root dev- means "a shining one", from *div-, "to shine", it is an Indo-European cognate of the Greek dios, Gothic divine and Latin deus (Old Latin deivos); see also *Dyēus.[9]

A synonym for the word Devi in the Vedas is Bhagavati. Bhagavatī (Devanagari: भगवती, IAST: Bhagavatī), is an Indian epithet of Sanskrit origin, used as an honorific title for goddesses in Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, it is primarily used to address the goddesses Lakshmi and Durga. In Buddhism, it is used to refer to several Mahayana Buddhist female deities, like Cundā.[10]

History

The worship of Devi-like deities dates back to period of Indus Valley civilisation.[11][12]

The Devīsūkta of the Rigveda (10.125.1 to 10.125.8) is among the most studied hymns declaring that the ultimate reality is a goddess:[13][14]

I have created all worlds at my will without being urged by any higher Being, and dwell within them. I permeate the earth and heaven, and all created entities with my greatness and dwell in them as eternal and infinite consciousness.

— Devi Sukta, Rigveda 10.125.8, Translated by June McDaniel[15][16]

The Vedas name numerous cosmic goddesses such as Devi (power), Prithvi (earth), Aditi (cosmic moral order), Vāc (sound), Nirṛti (destruction), Ratri (night) and Aranyani (forest); bounty goddesses such as Dinsana, Raka, Puramdhi, Parendi, Bharati and Mahi are among others are mentioned in the Rigveda.[2]: 6–17, 55–64 However, the goddesses are not discussed as frequently as gods (devas).[2] Devi appears in late Vedic texts dated to be pre-Buddhist, but verses dedicated to her do not suggest that her characteristics were fully developed in the Vedic era.[2]: 18–19 All gods and goddesses are distinguished in Vedic times,[2]: 18 but in post-Vedic texts, particularly in the early medieval era literature, they are ultimately seen as aspects or manifestations of one Devi, the Supreme Power.[17]

Devi is the supreme being in the Shakta tradition of Hinduism; in the Smarta tradition, she is one of the five primary forms of Brahman that is revered.[18][19] In other Hindu traditions, Devi embodies the active energy and power of Deva, and they always appear together complementing each other. Examples of this are Parvati with Shiva in Shaivism, Saraswati with Brahma in Brahmanism and Lakshmi with Vishnu, Sita with Rama and Radha with Krishna in Vaishnavism.[20][21][22]

Devi-inspired philosophy is propounded in many Hindu texts such as the Devi Upanishad, which teaches that Shakti is essentially Brahman (ultimate metaphysical Reality) and that from her arises prakṛti (matter) and purusha (consciousness) and that she is bliss and non-bliss, the Vedas and what is different from it, the born and the unborn and all of the universe. Shakti is Parvati, Shiva’s wife. [23] She is also mentioned as the creative power of Shiva in Tripura Upanishad, Bahvricha Upanishad and Guhyakali Upanishad.[13]

Devi identifies herself in the Devi Upanishad as Brahman in her reply to the gods stating that she rules the world, blesses devotees with riches, that she is the supreme deity to whom all worship is to be offered and that she infuses Ātman in every soul.[23] Devi asserts that she is the creator of earth and heaven and resides there.[13] Her creation of the sky as father and the seas as the mother is reflected as the 'Inner Supreme Self'.[13] Her creations are not prompted by any higher being and she resides in all her creations. She is, states Devi, the eternal and infinite consciousness engulfing earth and heaven, and 'all forms of bliss and non-bliss, knowledge and ignorance, Brahman and Non-Brahman'. The tantric aspect in Devi Upanishad, says June McDaniel, is the usage of the terms yantra, bindu, bija, mantra, shakti and chakra.[13]

Among the major world religions, the concept of Goddess in Hinduism as the divine feminine has had the strongest presence since ancient times.[24]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi

The name Monita has its roots in India and is derived from the Sanskrit word manita, which means 'honored' or 'respected.' This ancient name reflects the cultural traditions and values of Indian society, where respect and honor hold great significance. Monita has been prominent in Indian history since ancient times, often given to those who were esteemed for their noble character and high social standing. In historical texts and scriptures, the name Monita is often associated with individuals who were recognized for their wisdom, integrity, and leadership qualities.

In modern-day usage, the name Monita continues to evoke a sense of honor and respect. It is a popular name choice among families who value tradition and wish to bestow upon their child a name that reflects these virtues. Monita is often given to female children, symbolizing the strength and dignity they possess. In some cases, the name Monita is also used as a name, further emphasizing the family's heritage and the importance they place on respect and honor.

Overall, the name Monita has a rich history rooted in Indian culture and embodies the values of honor and respect. From ancient times to the present day, this name has stood as a testament to the qualities that society holds in high regard and continues to be cherished by families who wish to pass on these values to future generations.

https://www.ancestry.com/first-name-meaning/monita

Monita

A Latin word meaning "instructions":

Monita, work by Abbot Porcarius I of Lérins (c. 500)

Monita Secreta, an alleged code of instructions of the Jesuits

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monita

The Seoket Monitor op the Jesuits, embracing a brief

history of this Society of Thugs, with their secret instruc

tions and code, with an introdnction by Charles Sauvestre,

the whole translated from the Spanish. Copy now in the

hands of the translator, Edwin A. Sherman, the compiler of

this work.

PART SECOND.

CONTENTS.

Why Abraham Lincoln, the Martyr President, was assassi

nated; the initial point of the conspiracy against him by the

Jesuits in Illinois in 1856; the Papal conspiracy against him

and the Union while he was President, and the tragic fate of

the victim of their foul plot, which was consummated on the

14th of April, 1865.

PART THIRD.

The Papal Syllabus of Errors, by Pope Pius IX.; extracts

from Den's and Kenricks' Theology; Bishop Dupanloup's

tirade against Freemasonry, and other miscellaneous matters

of interest to Freemasons and other fraternal associations.

PREFACE

BY THE TRANSLATOR.

In presenting to our readers this translation from the

Spanish of the "Monita Secreta " (Secret Monitor) of

the Jesuits, it is but due that a clear and truthful statement

of how the work came into our hands should be given.

In the month of August of 1870, the Secretariat of all the

bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freema

sonry in the City of San Francisco, California, had been

placed in our hands, and we then occupied an office, which

had been assigned to us, in the Masonic Temple of this city.

Scarcely had we then entered upon our duties, when one

morning in the month of September, 1870, a rap was heard

at our door, and, on opening it, a stranger, feeble in body,

with a pallid face bearing the evidence of great suffering and

of sickness, inquired if that was the office of the Secretary of

the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which we answered in the

affirmative and invited him in and gave him a seat.

He then took from his pocket a package of papers, covered

with leather and oil-silk, which he carefully unwrapped and

presented for our inspection. Being in Spanish and Latin,

we found upon examination that they were his patents or

certificates of the various degrees of the Scottish Rite of

Freemasonry, duly signed and attested by the officers, and

bearing the seal of the Supreme Council of the Tbirty-third

Degree of Peru .

Upon further examination, we found the

stranger to be a "Brother of the Light," and, with other let

ters and credentials which he bore, that he was a gentleman

of refinement and culture, and a member of and explorer for

various scientific societies in Europe, but more especially for

the Archaeological Society of France, with its principal seat at

Paris, and with its members and correspondents scattered

throughout Europe and America. He was a Frenchman,

and, if we mistake not, a Huguenot. He spoke English, but

rather brokenly, yet correctly in grammar and diction. He

inquired where our Scottish Rite bodies met, and desired to

see the hall where onr brethren of that Kite assembled. We

conducted him up the stairs, which he slowly ascended to the

ante-room of the Chapter Hall, where, pausing a few mo

ments, we then entered the main hall, and with uncovered

head he reverently approached the altar, knelt and embraced

it, and bowed his head in silent prayer. We were peculiarly

struck with his manner and attitude, and looked on in silence?

wondering what he would do next. He then raised his head,

and, reaching behind, took out a handkerchief from his pocket

in the skirt of his coat and spread it out upon the altar. He

then reached his hand to the back of his neck inside of his

collar and slowly pulled up and out a soiled Masonic Rose

Croix apron and spread it out upon the handkerchief upon

the altar, and then clasping his hands together and raising

his eyes towards heaven, offered a prayer in French of grati

tude and thanksgiving. These strange proceedings, at such

a time and to which Americans are not accustomed, greatly

intensified our curiosity, and the first thought that passed

through our mind was, Is he a crank? While waiting

for him to finish his devotions, we observed that the

apron was badly stained and had several holes in it, and

there was something about it which held our attention fixed

upon it. At last he arose, and we asked of him the meaning

of all this, which was strange to us, never having witnessed

anything of this sort before, we having then been a Mason

nearly seventeen years. We were aware of the difference in

the rituals of foreign jurisdictions, and the customs of our

foreign brethren, especially those of the Latin races, and

could make an allowance for their exuberance and intensity

of feehng in their affection and ardor for Freemasonry. He

replied: "If you will return to your room down-stairs, where

it is warmer than it is in this hall, I will explain to you all."

We;then returned to the office, and he, looking to see if the

door was bolted and secure, asked us to assist him in remov

ing his coat and vest, and we did so. Then pulling up his

'•

outer and under shirts, he showed us his back, and what a

sight was there presented to us! There were several bullet

wounds and those made by stabs with a knife or poinard,

but nearly healed, two or three of which were still slightly

suppurating. We said to him, "You need a surgeon."

Oh, no," he answered, "I am pretty near well now." We

then assisted him to adjust his clothing, which having done,

we then asked of him to explain to us the history and mean

ing of all this, which he dil in the following manner, which

is given as correctly as possible and as our recollection serves

us. He said: "I am a mea)ber of various scientific societies

in Europe, one of which is the Archaeological Society of

France, whose seat is in Paris, and of which country I am a

native. This society has many corresponding members in

other countries, and is engaged in making archaeological and

antiquarian researches in various parts of the globe. As one

of its scientific explorers, I was assigned to Spanish America,

especially to the countries of Chili, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador,

New Granada and Venezuela. After having laid out my plan

of exploration, I directed my principal attention to the west

ern slope of the Andean Kange in South America, and to

that portion in northeastern Chili, Bolivia and southeastern

Peru, as that presented the most interesting unexplored ter

ritory for my research and examination. Every facility had

been accorded to me by the principal government officials of

those countries; the people of Chili being the most libera^

and enlightened, while those of Peru and Bolivia were the

most superstitious and priest-ridden of any under the sun.

I was greatly indebted to my Masonic brethren at Callao and

Lima for kind and fraternal courtesies and hospitalities ex

tended to me, and after bidding them adieu, I entered upon

my tour of exploration and started for my destination to ex

amine the ruins of ancient Temples of the Sun and of towns

and cities long since perished, which were once populated by

the subjects of the Incas, and destroyed by the ravages of

war with other nations, the invasion by the Spaniards under

Pizarro, and the terrible temblors or earthquakes which bad

helped in the general destruction which had been wrought at

the hands of the invaders, both of their native continent and

from across the Atlantic from the Sierra Morena of Old

Spain —a people now remotely and sparsely settled, except

ing in the few cities and towns, but nearly the whole sunk in

ignorance, and both soul and body fettered and bound to a

licentious and merciless priesthood, where every cathedral

and church was a citadel and fortification, and every monas

tery a barracks garrisoned with lustful and armed monks,

with innumerable nunneries as harems for the gratification

of their passions and lustful desires. Morals were at a low

ebb, and a compagnon de noche was furnished with the gen

eral bill of fare to the guest of the hostelry, to be accepted or

not, according to the taste or wish of the sojourning traveller.

"Having determined the point of my destination and com

menced my explorations, the nearest habitation to the locality

of the ruins which I had selected to examine was nearly six

miles, and, at times when being excessively fatigued with my

labor, I found that it would be necessary to camp upon the

spot, and then afterwards where I was domiciled I could

write up my reports from the sketches I had made and the

notes taken down. The house which I occupied while so en

gaged was built of massive adobe walls (or unburnt brick),

nearly four feet thick, one story in height, and the windows

without glass were barred with iron grating and shutters in

side. It had originally been constructed during the Spanish

occupation of the country, and evidently been built as an

outpost fortification for military purposes, against the inroads

of the mountain tribes of Indians, with whom a constant

predatory warfare had been maintained, some of whom, no

doubt, were the descendants of the original occupants of the

country, the ruins of whose labors I had undertaken to ex

plore.

"The room which had been assigned to me by the family

who occupied this house was about thirty feet square, with

bare walls, and a seat of the same material (adobe) extending

nearly around the room, whitewashed, and with patches of

the furniture knocked off in many places. The cama or bed

consisted of an adobe bedstead laid up in masonry to about

the same height and shape as an ordinary blacksmith's forge,

but somewhat larger and covered with a very large bullock's

hide. Owing to the frequent changes of the bed linen and

to remove the many lively occupants of this downy couch,

repeated sweepings of the bedstead had made an incline

plane inwards, with a narrow gutter next the wall. In that

country, as it used to be in California, every traveller is ex

pected to Carry his blankets, take up his bed and walk when

necessary. Some cheap pictures of the Virgin and saints

and a crucifix adorned the walls, and with a chair and table

of rude manufacture, nailed and screwed together with thongs

of rawhide, my furnished apartments were complete. Dur

ing my absence at the ruins, my room was not unfrequently

occupied by other travelling gentry, passing through the

country.

" It was on my return upon one occasion that I learned

that a distinguished 'Obispo Padre de Jesus,' or Jesuit Bishop

Father, had also stopped one night and had occupied my

room and bed, and had left there only two days previous to

my return. Having thrown my poncho and cloak upon the

bed, I made my ablutions, satisfied my hunger, and went to

work transcribing from my notes and arranging my sketches

in order. While so engaged, I had occasion to rise and go

to my bed to get some things out of the pocket in my cloak,

and in doing so I disarranged the rawhide mattress, and my

attention was directed to a small package in the gutter of the

bedstead next the wail, which had been covered up. I un

rolled it, and to my great astonishment I found that I had

made a great discovery of the ' Secret Manual of Instructions,

together with the ceremonies of induction of members of the

Society of the Jesuits,' printed in Latin, and bearing the

seal and signature and attecitation of the General and Secre

tary of the Order at Rome, embracing also the co-lateral

branch of the Society of San Fedistas, or Fathers of the Holy

Faith. Accompanying the same were manuscript additions

and amendtuents made to the general work. Carefully con

cealing the fact of my discovery, I immediately set to work

and in stenographic hand copied the entire woik from the

Latin into French, and, knowing that it would be exceeding

ly dangerous to be found with the original in my possession,

if not positively fatal, I wrapped the whole up with the

' *

same care with which I had undone it, replaced it in the cor.

ner of the gutter of my bedstead and pushed the rawhide

mattress over it in the same manner as I had found it.

I started the next morning, after having completed my

copying, to renew my explorations and to peruse the copy I

had made. In a week I again returned to the house where I

had been staying, when I was informed by the family that the

Obispo with his servant had returned in great trepidation and

anxiety, asking if they or any one had found a small parcel

done up, describing its outward appearance, for he had lost

it and would be ruined if it was not to be found. He had

ridden on muleback over one hundred and fifty leagues and

had searched for it in vain. On entering my apartment,

which he had also occupied, and on approaching the bed

stead and lifting the rawhide, he had discovered the lost par

it.

cel and was greatly overjoyed on again getting possession of

He rigidly questioned them concerning the extrangero

who rented the apartments, but gaining no information that

would throw any additional light on the subject, went away

satisfied with what he had recovered.

"Having when in Paris heard of such a work that had

been printed and used by Eugene Sue in his great work of

the 'Wandering Jew,' which precipitated the Revolution of

1848 and made France a republic, I sent for a copy of that

work, if it could possibly be obtained, which I was fortunate

in being able to do through an officer of the Grand Orient of

France. On comparing the two, I found that they were

identically alike, with the exception only of late additions

and emendations, which, with some other matters, were in

manuscript form as already stated. I therefora adopted the

copy sent me with the introduction by Charles Sauvestre and

other addenda, and at my leisure translated the whole print

ed matter into Spanish, sent the manuscript to my friends in

the city of Boston, in the United States, and had it printed

in Spanish for the benefit of my Masonic brethren in Span

ish America, but the imprint, the better to conceal the source

and protect my friends, was made to appear as having been

printed at a certain number and street in Paris. I succeeded

in getting quite a large number of copies smuggled through

the custom-house at Callao, Peru, and distributed some of

them among my Masonic brethren in that country. But,

alas! unfortunately for myself and the fraternity, the Jesuits

were to be found even among them, and, being duly warned

by true brethren, it became necessary, in order to save my

life, to flee from the country, and I made my arrangements

to leave accordingly. But being detained longer than 1 ex

pected, I had to take another route to reach another seaport

than the one originally contemplated, and in doing so had to

run the gauntlet, as it were, and was shot and stabbed in the

back, as you see by the wounds nearly healed. Fortunately

none proved to be fatal. I succeeded in reaching the sea

coast, and through kind brethren was put on board of an

English steamer bound for Panama, from whose surgeon and

officers I received every courtesy and attention, and on ar

riving at Panama, I took the Pacific Mail Company's steamer,

receiving the same tender treatment, and arrived here only a

few days ago, nearly well, and here I am just as you see me.

Through it all I have carried one copy of this work safely,

and here it is. If I could get it translated into English and

have it printed, it would be a most valuable weapon in the

hands of the Masonic fraternity."

At that time we were the Associate Editor of the Masonic

Mirror, published by A. W. Bishop & Co., afterwards Bishop

& Sherman. We offered to make the translation, and did a

small portion of it at that time and sent copies of the oath of

the San Fedistas and Colloquy to our subscribers, and we

went with him to Messrs. H. H, Bancroft & Co., Roman &

Co., and other publishers of San Francisco at that time, to

see if they would print the work, but all of them declined,

either out of indifference, fear or policy, and the publication

of it at that time had to be abandoned. This gentleman then

went with me to Dr. Washington Ayer, with whom the book

was left. It had been lost, and for a period of about twelvo

years could not be found, when, as good fortune would have

it, the book was again recovered in the fall of 1882, and, as

translated, it is here given to our readers. The original owner

is supposed to now be in Mexico or Central America, pursu

ing his scientific researches there. His name is withheld for

prudential reasons and for safety. He is a gentleman of high

character, and was warmly and favorably indorsed by Senor

Don Jos^ Raymundo Morales, 33'^ Active Member of the

Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Eite

of Freemasonry of Peru at the time of his visit to the Grand

Consistory of the State of California, at its organization in

San Francisco, October 12th, 1870, at which time we were

chosen as the Grand Registrar of that Grand Body.

The difficulty in adhering to the original text, being a

translation from the Spanish into English, and the Spanish

itself being a translation from the Latin and the French at

the same time, we have endeavored to give the same true to

the spirit and literally as possible; and though there are

some paragraphs and sentences somewhat awkward in ex

pression, dubious in their meaning and hard to be understood,

yet the reader will be ready, when he comes to them, to un

derstand the full force of the language of the Jesuit Talley

rand, *' that words are only intended to conceal ideas."

Asking the indulgence of our readers for the imperfections

contained in this our first edition, which when exhausted

will be supplied by another, and thanking our Masonic and

other brethren, who have encouraged us in bringing forth

this work, that we may see the devil as he is, we remain,

Fraternally yours,

EDWIN A. SHERMAN,

Translator and Compiler.

San Feanoisco, Cal., August 24, 1883.

https://dn790003.ca.archive.org/0/items/engineercorpsofhe00sher/engineercorpsofhe00sher.pdf

The back-to-Africa movement was a political movement in the 19th and 20th centuries advocating for a return of the descendants of African American slaves to the African continent. The small number of freed slaves who did settle in Africa—some under duress—initially faced brutal conditions, due to diseases to which they no longer had biological resistance.[1] As the failure became known in the United States in the 1820s, it spawned and energized the radical abolitionist movement. In the 20th century, the Jamaican political activist and black nationalist Marcus Garvey, members of the Rastafari movement, and other African Americans supported the concept, but few actually left the United States.

In the late 18th century, thousands of Black Loyalists joined British military forces during the American Revolutionary War.[2] In 1787, the British Crown founded a settlement in Sierra Leone in what was called the "Province of Freedom", beginning a long process of settlement of formerly enslaved African Americans in Sierra Leone. During these same years, some African Americans launched their own initiatives to return to Africa, and by 1811, Paul Cuffee, a wealthy New England African-American/Native-American shipper, had transported some members of the group known as the "Free African Society" to Liberia. During these years, some free African Americans also relocated to Haiti, where a slave revolution had effected a free black state by 1800.[3] On 18 November 1803, Haiti became the first nation ever to successfully gain independence through a slave revolt. In the following years, Liberia was founded by free Africans from the United States. The emigration of African Americans both free and recently emancipated was funded and organized by the American Colonization Society (ACS), which hoped that slavery could be ended as an institution, without releasing millions of former slaves into American society.[1] The mortality rate of these settlers was high.[4][5] Of the 4,571 emigrants who arrived in Liberia between 1820 and 1843, only 1,819 survived.[6][7]

Background

The question of where free black people of American birth should reside was not much discussed by white writers, and by some black thinkers, in the 18th century: "At the time of the American Revolution, there had been few free blacks anywhere in the country."[8]: 19 In 1776, slavery was legal everywhere in the Thirteen Colonies that became the United States through the American Revolutionary War. There were a small number of free black people. Pressures for ending slavery began small but steadily increased. Various philosophical and religious condemnations of slavery, especially by Quakers, were published. Slavery became illegal in England in 1772 by court decision (see Somerset v Stewart), and in the British Empire by statute in 1833. In France, slavery was illegal at least since the 16th century. As part of the French Revolution, it was abolished in French colonies in 1794, although it was restored from 1802 to 1848. Starting in 1791, the enslaved of Saint-Domingue revolted, gaining their freedom, and establishing the free black country of Haiti. Starting with Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in 1780, slavery was gradually abolished in all the Northern states, although this did not mean that existing slaves were always freed. Vermont, which at the time was not part of the United States, abolished adult slavery in its foundational document, of 1777. In the 1840 census, there were still hundreds of slaves in the North and millions more in the South. By the 1850 census, there weren't any slaves in the free states. In the South, sometimes influenced by appeals from preachers—abolitionism in the United States had a strong religious component—some individuals freed their slaves or left instructions in their will, to free them upon the owner's death.

The number of free black people in the new United States skyrocketed and the question of "what to do with them" steadily grew in importance. Even when free, nowhere in the United States did they have the same rights as white people. They were not citizens, as the Dred Scott decision made clear. Usually seen as racially inferior, few whites believed them a desirable or even possible part of American society. [citation needed] They were prohibited from living in some areas and there was much completely legal discrimination. Black passengers on river boats were not allowed in the cabin but had to stay on deck, whatever the weather. In Florida, each free black man had to have a white man who could be sued for the Negro's misdeeds, if any, since black people could neither sue nor be sued. The Quaker Zephaniah Kingsley, who believed that the amalgamation of the races was desirable, was forced to leave Florida for Haiti. In the South, until it was forbidden, free black people learned to read and write, and often came into contact with the widely circulated abolitionist writings. The slave owners who controlled the Southern states saw these free black people as a threat to the stability of the economy and society, and made no secret of their desire to be rid of them.

The emergence of the back-to-Africa movement

Much of the African-American population was freed people seeking opportunity. Many Southern freed blacks migrated to the industrial North to seek employment, while others moved to surrounding Southern states.[9] No one anywhere wanted them; they were seen as perpetual foreigners who, by working for less, took jobs from citizens. Whites were not used to sharing space with blacks in a context outside of chattel slavery. Many did not believe that free blacks had a place in America.[10]

In the North, many whites believed that blacks could not achieve equality in the United States and therefore pushed for their emigration to Africa,[11] even though most had been born in the U.S. and had never seen Africa.

Such sentiment was not exclusive to Northerners. One proponent of the colonization movement, Solomon Parker of Hampshire County, Virginia, was quoted as having said: "I am not willing that the Man or any of my Blacks shall ever be freed to remain in the United States.... Am opposed to slavery and also opposed to freeing blacks to stay in our Country and do sincerely hope that the time is approaching when our Land shall be rid of them."[12]

Riots swept the free states in waves, usually in urban areas where there had been recent immigration of blacks from the South. The height of these riots was in 1819, with 25 riots recorded, resulting in many injuries and fatalities,[13] although riots continued up through the 1830s (see anti-abolitionism in the North). The back-to-Africa movement was seen as the solution to these problems by both groups, with more support from the white population than the black population. Blacks often viewed the project with skepticism, particularly among the middle-class, who feared that the Colonization movement was a ploy to deport freed African Americans to restrict their efforts against slavery. Shortly after the foundation of the American Colonization Society, 3,000 free blacks gathered in a church in Philadelphia and issued forth a declaration stating that they "will never separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population of the country."[14]: 261 Similarly, black leaders, such as James Forten, who had previously supported the Colonization Movement, changed their minds as a result of widespread black resistance to the idea.[15]

Religious motivations for colonization

Following the Great Awakening, in which America was swept by a wave of religious fervor, many enslaved African Americans converted to Christianity. At the same time, many religious people in America struggled to reconcile slavery with their beliefs. Quakers in particular found difficulty in continued support for the enslavement of their brothers in Christ.[15] For example, Reverend Moses Tichnell and Reverend Samuel R. Houston freed slaves and sent them to Liberia in 1855 and 1856 respectively.[12] These two men, believing that they were morally obligated to finance such voyages, played an important role in the colonization movement.

American Colonization Society

Main article: American Colonization Society

The American Colonization Society (ACS) was an early advocate of the idea of resettling American-born blacks in Africa. Founded in 1816 by Dr. Robert Finley, it was composed of two core groups: abolitionists and slave owners. Abolitionist members believed in freeing African slaves, along with their descendants, and providing them with the opportunity to return to Africa. Slave-owning members believed free blacks endangered the system of slavery and sought to expel them from America by means of migration.[16][self-published source?]

The American Colonization Society came under attack from American abolitionists, who insisted that the removal of freed slaves from the United States reinforced the institution of slavery.[17]

Since its inception, the American Colonization Society struggled to garner support from within free black communities. During the late 1840s and early 1850s, the creation of an independent Liberian state splintered the nearly uniform voice against colonization. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 provided the United States government ample power to recapture fugitive slaves. Following its passage, many black leaders promoted emigration and colonization to a nation that would provide and protect their rights.[18]

In spite of this, several black critics were outspoken against the back-to-Africa movement and the activities of the American Colonization Society. A report from a free black political conference in New York warned: "all kinds of chicanery and stratagem will be employed to allure the people [to the colony]...the independence of its inhabitants; the enjoyment and privileges of its citizens, will be pictured forth in glowing colors, to deceive you."[18]

According to the Encyclopedia of Georgia History and Culture, "as early as 1820, black Americans had begun to return to their ancestral homeland through the auspices of the American Colonization Society." By 1847, the American Colonization Society founded Liberia, a land to be settled by black people returning from the United States of America.[19] Between 1822 and the American Civil War, the American Colonization Society had migrated approximately 15,000 free blacks back to Africa.[20]

Notable members of the American Colonization Society included Thomas Buchanan, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, Daniel Webster, John Marshall, and Francis Scott Key.[21]

Other pre-Civil War attempts

In 1811, Paul Cuffe, "a black man who was a wealthy man of property, a petitioner for equal rights for blacks",[22] began to explore the idea of Black people returning to their native land; convinced that "opportunities for the advancement of black people were limited in America, and he became interested in African colonization."[23] With the help of Quakers in Philadelphia, he was able to transport 38 blacks to Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1815.[24]

Martin Delany, an African American, in 1854 led the National Emigration Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.[25] He visited Liberia and made plans, largely unrealized, to assist Blacks in relocating there.

Post-emancipation

The back-to-Africa movement eventually began to decline but would see a revival again in 1877 at the end of the Reconstruction era, as many blacks in the South faced violence from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.[26] Interest among the South's black population in African emigration peaked during the 1890s, a time when racism reached its peak and the greatest number of lynchings in American history took place.[27] The continued experience of segregation, discrimination, and the belief that they would never achieve true equality attracted many blacks to a Pan-African emancipation in their motherland.

The movement declined again following many hoaxes and fraudulent activities associated with the movement. According to Crumrin, however, the most important reason for the decline in the back-to-Africa movement was that the "vast majority of those who were meant to colonize did not wish to leave. Most free blacks simply did not want to go "home" to a place from which they were generations removed. America, not Africa, was their home, and they had little desire to migrate to a strange and forbidding land not their own."[28] They often said that they were no more African than white Americans were British.

Florida Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (1905–1909) called for blacks to be permanently moved to land the federal government would purchase, either foreign or domestic. After buying their respective properties, a territory would be established in which blacks could not leave, and whites could not enter.[citation needed]

Early 20th century attempts at resettlement were made, such as those by Chief Alfred Sam between 1913 and 1915.[29] The eventual disillusionment of those who migrated to the North and the frustrations of struggling to cope with urban life set the scene for the back-to-Africa movement of the 1920s, established by Marcus Garvey.[30] Garvey contemporaneously served as a major inspiration for a number of 1920s activists and preachers, such as James E. Lewis, whose Los Angeles congregation help to finance the construction of a passenger ship.[31] Many of those who migrated to the Northern States from the South found that, although they were financially better off, they remained at the bottom both economically and socially.[32] Garvey supported a proposal by Torrey George McCallum that passed the Mississippi State Senate in 1922, though it was widely rejected and ridiculed by the Black press.[33]

The movement picked up steam once again in the decade or so preceding the Second World War. Activists in the Peace Movement of Ethiopia organisation were committed to black emigration to West Africa in order to escape from the torrid social conditions which they were experiencing in the United States due to the Depression.[34] They harboured an almost utopian vision of Liberia, created from a simultaneous vision of Pan-Africanism and a belief that the Americanisation they would provide would heal Liberia's social and economic troubles.[35] This reflects the imperialist assumption of the PME and other back-to-Africa proponents that African-Americans had the right to return to and determine Africa's future.[36] Others were unaware or ignored that Liberia had been crippled by the Depression and instead viewed it as prosperous. Mittie Maude Lena Gordon, the founder of the PME, was essential to this campaign as she acquired the support of Earnest Sevier Cox, a white nationalist from Richmond, Virginia. She convinced him to support their cause by using her gender in order to appear submissive and thus appeal to Cox's masculinity, as well as by playing on their mutual goal of racial separatism. Cox provided influential connections that the movement had previously lacked, and he gave the issue of black emigration political exposure when he managed to convince members of the Virginia General Assembly to recommend the US Congress provide financial aid for this in 1936. Despite Cox's racial beliefs, the PME retained support amongst black communities because Gordon described him as a necessary, Moses-like figure.[35]

His support soon began to diminish so Gordon looked elsewhere, once again finding an unlikely ally on the opposite side of the moral compass in Senator Theodore G. Bilbo. An ardent white nationalist, Bilbo had been campaigning for racial separatism within the government for a while. He proposed an amendment to the House Joint Resolution 679—a work relief bill—in 1938, that would have "repatriated" African American volunteers to Liberia, providing them with financial assistance. This amendment was endorsed by Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association at the Eight International UNIA convention.[34] This amendment provided the precedent for the movement to progress; Bilbo had the political capital which he needed in order to get the issue of black repatriation into wide-scale political debate. This issue continued to exist, and in early 1939, Bilbo began to draft what came to be known as the Greater Liberia Bill. The bill suggested that the United States should purchase 400,000 square miles of African land from England and France, it should credit them as war debts, and it should provide financial assistance to black Americans in order to encourage them to relocate to Africa.[35] It is unclear who, if anyone, the PME sent to Liberia in order to facilitate the emigration which this bill would have encouraged.[37]

Outside the black nationalist movement, the bill did not garner much support, with leading civil rights groups such as the NAACP refusing to endorse it and the national press lambasting it. Other African Americans did not support emigration to Liberia due to charges of slavery and political corruption which were filed against its government by the League of Nations. Additionally, the bill received very little support from the Senate, thus, the idea of black repatriation lost much of its traction. US participation in the Second World War led to a decline in public racism, which made any passing of the bill unlikely after that.[35][38]

The back-to-Africa movement returned to national prominence in the 1960s, due to the racial unrest which occurred during the Civil Rights Movement. George Lincoln Rockwell, a white nationalist and the founder of the American Nazi Party, supported the resettlement of all African Americans in a new African state to be funded by the U.S. government.

Because they shared his racial separatist views, Rockwell forged some ties with leaders of the black nationalist movement, such as Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X — the latter of whom changed his views and opposed the N.O.I's black separatism.[39] The National Post writes that "The American Nazi Party espoused a similar segregation dream as the Nation of Islam — even if the details differed. The American Nazis planned to offer a one-way ticket to Africa for every black person in the United States in order to form a new country. Those who chose to remain would be rounded up and placed into reservations."[40] The Nation of Islam, holding that all white people were inherently evil, were inclined to trust Rockwell, as they viewed him as "honest" for being open in his espousal of hatred for Black people.[40]

In January 1962, Rockwell wrote to his followers that Elijah Muhammad "knows that [race] mixing is a Jewish fraud and leads only to aggravation of the problems that it is supposed to solve...I have talked to the Muslim leaders and am certain that a workable plan for separation of the races could be effected to the satisfaction of all concerned."[41] Of the N.O.I., Rockwell said, 'I am fully in concert with their program, and I have the highest respect for Elijah Muhammad,' and donated $20 (~$204.00 in 2023) to the Nation of Islam at their 'Freedom Rally' event on June 25, 1961, at Uline Arena in Washington, where he and 10–20 of his "stormtroopers" attended a speech given by Malcolm X.[42] Rockwell was also guest speaker at a N.O.I event in the International Amphitheater in Chicago hosted by Elijah Mohammed and Malcolm X on February 25, 1962.[43][44]

Malcolm X renounced his black separatist views after his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964.[45]

Repatriation to Africa

Ex-slave repatriation or the emigration of African-American, Caribbean, and Black British former slaves to Africa occurred mainly during the late 18th century to mid-19th century. In the cases of Sierra Leone and Liberia, both were established by former slaves who were repatriated to Africa within a 28-year period.

Sierra Leone

Main article: History of Sierra Leone

The Province of Freedom from Voyages to the River Sierra Leone by John Matthews, 1788

Many freed slaves were discontent with where they were resettled in Canada after the Revolutionary War and were eager to return to their homeland. Beginning in 1787, the British government made their first attempt to settle people in Sierra Leone. About 300 Black Britons, known as the Black Poor of London, were settled on the Sierra Leonean peninsula in West Africa. Within two years, most members of the settlement would die from disease or conflict with the local Temne people. In 1792, a second attempt at settlement was made when 1,100 freed slaves established Freetown with support from British abolitionist Thomas Clarkson. Their numbers were further bolstered when over 500 Jamaican Maroons were transported first to Nova Scotia, and then to Sierra Leone in 1800.[46]

In 1815, Paul Cuffe brought the first group of thirty-eight emigrant freed slaves from the United States to Sierra Leone. In 1820, minister Daniel Coker led a group of ninety free blacks in hopes of founding a new colony in Sierra Leone. He intended to proselytize Christianity among the Africans. Leaving New York on the ship Elizabeth, his voyage ended on an island off the coast of Sierra Leone. Arriving just before the rains of spring, the group of immigrants were soon stricken with fever. The survivors ultimately fled to Freetown, and the settlement disintegrated.[47]

The repatriation of slaves to Africa from the United Kingdom and its dependencies was initiated by the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor. This organization was later succeeded by the Sierra Leone Company. In time, African American Black Loyalists and West Indians would immigrate to the colony of Freetown, Sierra Leone, in smaller numbers in efforts led by black merchants or beneficiaries such as Paul Cuffe.[48]

The Sierra Leone Creole people are descendants of the Black Poor, freed African-American, Jamaican Maroon and Liberated African slaves who settled in the Western Area of Sierra Leone between 1787 and about 1885. The colony was established by the British, supported by abolitionists, under the Sierra Leone Company as a place for freedmen. The settlers called their new settlement Freetown.[49][50][51]

Liberia

Main article: History of Liberia

African Americans depart for Liberia, 1896

The history of Liberia (after European arrival) is, with Sierra Leone, unique in Africa; starting neither as a native state, nor as a European colony. With the departure of the first ship to Africa in 1820, the American Colonization Society established settlements for free American blacks on the coast of West Africa.[52] The first American ships were uncertain of where they were heading. Their plan was to follow the paths that the British had taken, or simply take a chance on where they would land. At first, they followed the previous routes of the British and reached the coast of Sierra Leone. After leaving Sierra Leone, the Americans slowly reached a more southern part of the African coastline.

The Americans were eventually successful at finding a suitable spot to establish their colonies, arriving at what the British had named the Pepper Coast. (The name of this region referred to the type of ginger spice used for medicine flavoring, Grains of paradise.) Along the Pepper Coast, local African groups were variably forced or convinced to give the Americans tracts of land; most probably assumed they were providing short term land leases based on ancestral patterns of landlord-stranger relationships.[53] Over the course of twenty years, a series of fragmented settlements sprung across Liberia's coast, which had been inhabited by indigenous people since at least the 16th century. Along with the difficulty of gaining enough land, life proved hard for these early settlers. Disease was widespread, along with the lack of food. Almost 50% of the new settlers died in the first twenty years after their arrival in Liberia.[54]

Liberia declared independence on 26 July 1847.[55]: 5 With an elected black government and the offer of free land to African-American settlers, Liberia became the most common destination of emigrating African Americans during the 19th century.[55]: 2 [56] Newly arriving African Americans to Liberia experienced many challenges, including broken family ties, very high mortality rates from disease, and a difficult adjustment period. A group of 43 African Americans from Christiansburg, Virginia, left for Liberia in 1830, but suffered high mortality. "Eighty percent of the emigrants were dead within ten years of landing there, most of them victims of malaria; another ten percent quit the colony, with the majority fleeing to Sierra Leone."[57] Many African Americans who survived this period of adjustment in Liberia became fond of the country.[58]

Black interest in Liberian emigration emerged when the Civil War promised the end of slavery and meaningful change to the status of Black Americans. Some 7,000 enslaved people were freed by their masters, so at that point those free African Americans left the U.S. to escape racism and have more opportunities (mainly because they had lost all hope of achievement). In the 1830s, the movement became increasingly dominated by Southern slave owners, who did not want free blacks and saw sending them to Liberia as a solution. Slaves freed from slave ships were sent there instead of their countries of origin. The emigration of free blacks to Liberia particularly increased after Nat Turner's Rebellion of 1831. Middle-class blacks were more resolved to live as black Americans; many rural poor folks gave up on the United States and looked to Liberia to construct a better life. Liberia promised freedom and equality; it also represented a chance for a better life for the South's black farmers. The Liberian government offered 25 acres of free land for each immigrant family, and 10 acres for a single adult, who came to the Black republic. In the early 19th century, Liberia evoked mixed images in the minds of black Americans. They viewed Liberia as a destination for black families who left the United States in search of a better way of life, returning to their ancestral homeland of Africa.[55]: 2–9

As noted by researcher Washington Hyde, "Black Americans—who in the time of slavery lost their original languages and much of their original culture, gained a distinctly American, English-speaking Christian identity, and had no clear idea of precisely where in the wide continent of Africa their ancestors had come from—were perceived by the natives of Liberia as foreign settlers. Having an African ancestry and a black skin color were definitely not enough. Indeed, their settlement in Liberia had much in common with the contemporary white settlement of the American Frontier and these settlers' struggle with Native American tribes.... The Liberian experience can also be considered as anticipating that of Zionism and Israel—with Jews similarly seeking redemption through a return to an ancestral land and similarly being regarded as foreign interlopers by the local Arab tribes. It would take Americo-Liberians a century and more to become truly accepted as one of Liberia's ethnic groups.... All of which certainly contributed to most Black Americans rejecting the Back-to-Africa option and opting instead for seeking equal rights in America."[59]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-to-Africa_movement

Robert Gabriel Mugabe (/mʊˈɡɑːbi/;[1] Shona: [muɡaɓe]; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, and as a socialist during the 1990s and the remainder of his career.

Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia. Educated at Kutama College and the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, he then worked as a schoolteacher in Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Ghana. Angered by white minority rule of his homeland within the British Empire, Mugabe embraced Marxism and joined African nationalists calling for an independent state controlled by the black majority. After making antigovernmental comments, he was convicted of sedition and imprisoned between 1964 and 1974. On release, he fled to Mozambique, established his leadership of ZANU, and oversaw its role in the Rhodesian Bush War, fighting Ian Smith's predominantly white government. He reluctantly participated in peace talks in the United Kingdom that resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement, putting an end to the war. In the 1980 general election, Mugabe led ZANU-PF to victory, becoming Prime Minister when the country, now renamed Zimbabwe, gained internationally recognized independence later that year. Mugabe's administration expanded healthcare and education and—despite his professed desire for a socialist society—adhered largely to mainstream economic policies.

Mugabe's calls for racial reconciliation failed to stem growing white emigration, while relations with Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) also deteriorated. In the Gukurahundi of 1982–1987, Mugabe's 5th Brigade crushed ZAPU-linked opposition in Matabeleland in a campaign that killed at least 20,000 people, mostly Ndebele civilians. Internationally, he sent troops into the Second Congo War and chaired the Non-Aligned Movement (1986–1989), the Organisation of African Unity (1997–1998), and the African Union (2015–2016). Pursuing decolonisation, Mugabe emphasized the redistribution of land controlled by white farmers to landless blacks, initially on a "willing seller–willing buyer" basis. Frustrated at the slow rate of redistribution, from 2000 he encouraged black Zimbabweans to violently seize white-owned farms. Food production was severely impacted, leading to famine, economic decline, and foreign sanctions. Opposition to Mugabe grew, but he was re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2013 through campaigns dominated by violence, electoral fraud, and nationalistic appeals to his rural Shona voter base. In 2017, members of his party ousted him in a coup, replacing him with former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Having dominated Zimbabwe's politics for nearly four decades, Mugabe was a controversial figure. He was praised as a revolutionary hero of the African liberation struggle who helped free Zimbabwe from British colonialism, imperialism, and white minority rule. Critics accused Mugabe of being a dictator responsible for economic mismanagement and widespread corruption and human rights abuses, including anti-white racism, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Early life

Childhood: 1924–1945

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on 21 February 1924 at the Kutama Mission village in Southern Rhodesia's Zvimba District.[2] His father, Gabriel Matibiri, was a carpenter while his mother Bona was a Christian catechist for the village children.[3] They had been trained in their professions by the Jesuits, the Roman Catholic religious order which had established the mission.[4] Bona and Gabriel had six children: Miteri (Michael), Raphael, Robert, Dhonandhe (Donald), Sabina, and Bridgette.[5] They belonged to the Zezuru clan, one of the smallest branches of the Shona tribe.[6] Mugabe's paternal grandfather was Chief Constantine Karigamombe, alias "Matibiri", a powerful figure who served King Lobengula in the 19th century.[7] Through his father, he claimed membership of the chieftaincy family that has provided the hereditary rulers of Zvimba for generations.[8]

The Jesuits were strict disciplinarians and under their influence Mugabe developed an intense self-discipline,[4] while also becoming a devout Catholic.[9] Mugabe excelled at school,[10] where he was a secretive and solitary child,[11] preferring to read, rather than playing sports or socialising with other children.[12] He was taunted by many of the other children, who regarded him as a coward and a mother's boy.[13]

In about 1930 Gabriel had an argument with one of the Jesuits, and as a result the Mugabe family was expelled from the mission village by its French leader, Father Jean-Baptiste Loubière.[14] The family settled in a village about 11 kilometres (7 miles) away; the children were permitted to remain at the mission primary school, living with relatives in Kutama during term-time and returning to their parental home on weekends.[10] Around the same time, Robert's older brother Raphael died, likely of diarrhoea.[10] In early 1934, Robert's other older brother, Michael, also died, after consuming poisoned maize.[15] Later that year, Gabriel left his family in search of employment in Bulawayo.[16] He subsequently abandoned Bona and their six children and established a relationship with another woman, with whom he had three further offspring.[17]

Loubière died shortly after and was replaced by an Irishman, Father Jerome O'Hea, who welcomed the return of the Mugabe family to Kutama.[10] In contrast to the racism that permeated Southern Rhodesian society, under O'Hea's leadership the Kutama Mission preached an ethos of racial equality.[18] O'Hea nurtured the young Mugabe; shortly before his death in 1970 he described the latter as having "an exceptional mind and an exceptional heart".[19] As well as helping provide Mugabe with a Christian education, O'Hea taught him about the Irish War of Independence, in which Irish revolutionaries had overthrown the British imperial regime.[20] After completing six years of elementary education, in 1941 Mugabe was offered a place on a teacher training course at Kutama College. Mugabe's mother could not afford the tuition fees, which were paid in part by his grandfather and in part by O'Hea.[21] As part of this education, Mugabe began teaching at his old school, earning £2 per month, which he used to support his family.[22] In 1944, Gabriel returned to Kutama with his three new children, but died shortly after, leaving Robert to take financial responsibility for both his three siblings and three half-siblings.[22] Having attained a teaching diploma, Mugabe left Kutama in 1945.[23]

University education and teaching career: 1945–1960

During the following years, Mugabe taught at various schools around Southern Rhodesia,[24] among them the Dadaya Mission school in Shabani.[25] There is no evidence that Mugabe was involved in political activity at the time, and he did not participate in the country's 1948 general strike.[26] In 1949 he won a scholarship to study at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa's Eastern Cape.[27] There he joined the African National Congress youth league (ANCYL)[28] and attended African nationalist meetings, where he met a number of Jewish South African communists who introduced him to Marxist ideas.[29] He later related that despite this exposure to Marxism, his biggest influence at the time were the actions of Mahatma Gandhi during the Indian independence movement.[30] In 1952, he left the university with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and English literature.[31] In later years he described his time at Fort Hare as the "turning point" in his life.[32]

Mugabe was inspired by the example set by Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah.

Mugabe returned to Southern Rhodesia in 1952,[33] by which time—he later related— he was "completely hostile to the [colonialist] system".[34] Here, his first job was as a teacher at the Driefontein Roman Catholic Mission School near Umvuma.[28] In 1953 he relocated to the Highfield Government School in Salisbury's Harari township and in 1954 to the Mambo Township Government School in Gwelo.[35] Meanwhile, he gained a Bachelor of Education degree by correspondence from the University of South Africa,[36] and ordered a number of Marxist tracts—among them Karl Marx's Capital and Friedrich Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England—from a London mail-order company.[37] Despite his growing interest in politics, he was not active in any political movement.[34] He joined a number of inter-racial groups, such as the Capricorn Africa Society, through which he mixed with both black and white Rhodesians.[38] Guy Clutton-Brock, who knew Mugabe through this group, later noted that he was "an extraordinary young man" who could be "a bit of a cold fish at times" but "could talk about Elvis Presley or Bing Crosby as easily as politics".[39]

From 1955 to 1958, Mugabe lived in neighbouring Northern Rhodesia, where he worked at Chalimbana Teacher Training College in Lusaka.[36] There he continued his education by working on a second degree by correspondence, this time a Bachelor of Administration from the University of London International Programmes through distance and learning.[36] In Northern Rhodesia, he was taken in for a time by the family of Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom Mugabe inspired to join the liberation movement and who would later go on to be President of Zimbabwe.[40] In 1958, Mugabe moved to Ghana to work at St Mary's Teacher Training College in Takoradi.[41] He taught at Apowa Secondary School, also at Takoradi, after obtaining his local certification at Achimota College (1958–1960), where he met his first wife, Sally Hayfron.[42] According to Mugabe, "I went [to Ghana] as an adventurist. I wanted to see what it would be like in an independent African state".[43] Ghana had been the first African state to gain independence from European colonial powers and under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah underwent a range of African nationalist reforms; Mugabe reveled in this environment.[44] In tandem with his teaching, Mugabe attended the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute in Winneba.[45] Mugabe later claimed that it was in Ghana that he finally embraced Marxism.[46] He also began a relationship there with Hayfron who worked at the college and shared his political interests.[47]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe

Robert Francis Prevost named first American pope

by The National News Desk Thu, May 8th 2025 at 9:16 AM

Updated Thu, May 8th 2025 at 11:29 AM

Robert Francis Prevost has been named the new pontiff, becoming the first American to hold the position after a two-day conclave. He will go by the name Pope Leo XIV.

His first words greeting his new followers were "Peace be with you" in a speech that shifted from Italian to Spanish and centered on messages of peace, dialogue and missionary evangelization. He will now take over a Catholic Church with some 1.4 billion followers around the world facing decisions on how to move the church forward and whether to continue the path of his predecessor.

“We must try together to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and dialogue,” Pope Leo told his new followers before leading the Hail Mary prayer.

Born in Chicago, Pope Leo XIV spent much of his life outside the United States. He spent two decades in Peru, where he became a bishop and naturalized citizen before being brought to the Vatican by Pope Francis to oversee the office that chooses and manages bishops around the world. His prominence due to his position within the Vatican positioned him as a leading candidate heading into the conclave aside from his nationality.

White smoke rose from the chimney over the Sistine Chapel Thursday evening in Vatican City after just over 24 hours of voting, when Pope Leo XIV earned at least 89 votes from the 133 cardinals participating in the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Francis, who died last month at the age of 88.

A crowded St. Peter's Square cheered as a top cardinal said the words “Habemus Papam!” or “We have a pope!” from the loggia of the basilica. The new pope made his first public appearance and delivered a blessing. He is the 267th holder of the office in a line of pontiffs dating back to St. Peter. The last pope to take the name Leo was Pope Leo XIII, who led the church from 1878 to 1903.

He is expected to be a unifying figure for the Church after years of ideological divides between its progressive and conservative wings. Leo rarely took outspoken stances on some of the most controversial issues.

President Donald Trump congratulated Pope Leo XIV in a post on Truth Social.

"It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!" Trump wrote.

https://katu.com/news/nation-world/white-smoke-rises-above-sistine-chapel-to-signal-new-pope-has-been-chosen-vatican-conclave-cardinals

Salvatore "Robert" Loggia (/ˈloʊʒə/ LOH-zhə, Italian: [salvaˈtoːre ˈlɔddʒa]; January 3, 1930 – December 4, 2015) was an Italian-American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Jagged Edge (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for Big (1988).

In a career spanning over sixty years, Loggia performed in many films, including The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), three Pink Panther films, An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Scarface (1983), Prizzi's Honor (1985), Oliver & Company (1988), Innocent Blood (1992), Independence Day (1996), Lost Highway (1997), Return to Me (2000), and Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012).

He also appeared on television series, including the Walt Disney limited series The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca.[1] He played T. Hewitt Edward Cat in the NBC martial arts/action drama series T.H.E. Cat from 1966-1967,[2] and Nick Mancuso in Mancuso, FBI from 1989–1990. Loggia also appeared in Malcolm in the Middle in 2001, The Sopranos in 2004, and Men of a Certain Age in 2011.

Early life and education

Loggia was born in New York City on January 3, 1930,[3] to Biagio Loggia, a shoemaker born in Palma di Montechiaro, Province of Agrigento, Sicily, and Elena Blandino, a homemaker born in Vittoria, Province of Ragusa, Sicily.[4][5] He grew up in the Little Italy neighborhood, where the family spoke Sicilian at home. He graduated from New Dorp High School before taking courses at Wagner College where he joined the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.[6] In 1951, he earned a degree in journalism from University of Missouri.[7] He later studied acting with Alvina Krause at Northwestern University.[citation needed]

After serving in the United States Army as a reporter for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in the Caribbean,[8] he started his acting career at the Actors Studio, studying under Stella Adler.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Loggia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Francis

The St George Church Lalibela

The last of the eleven rock-hewn churches to be built in Lalibela, the Church of Saint George, known locally as Bete Giyorgis, was built by King Gebre Mesqel Lalibela of the Zagwe dynasty and remains a site of huge cultural and religious significance.

According to popular mythology, the king had an apparition in which one of Gods angels told him of plans for a building which could bring heaven down to Earth.

Inspired by his vision, the king commissioned the project to build the Church of Saint George. The mythology continues, insisting that upon its completion the same angels visited the site, and blessed all those who were present.

It is said that the hoof-prints of the white stallion that St George rode on the day the church was completed can still be found imprinted in the rocks surrounding the church.

Built on a cruciform plan, the sole material used in its construction was the volcanic rock found already on site.

The church has three west facing doorways, and a series of windows. Each layer of the building have distinct motifs, leading to the roof which is covered in intersecting crosses that lie within a bigger Greek cross.

The walls of the church reach a staggering 30 metres, and over 3,400 metres cubed of rock was excavated from the site in order to shape the exterior of the monolith. From here, a further 450 metres cubed was removed in order to facilitate the lavish interior.

The entrance to the church is accessible via a network of sunken trenches and tunnels that lead to a series of adjoining churches, sanctuaries and baptismal courtyards.

Amongst the labyrinth of sanctuaries lies a number of tombs, housing former monks and priests who dedicated themselves to the church and to ensuring its longevity.

The church also houses an array of hidden treasures, only accessible to a few high ranking members of the priesthood. Amongst these treasures is a wooden box apparently carved by the king himself.

Church of Saint George, rock-hewn churches in Lalibela Ethiopia

On entry, you'll be struck by the brightly coloured frescoes depicting the trials and tribulations of St George, circled by interweaving blue, gold and red patterns.

Spread across the room, these paintings lead all who visit through a spiritual rabbit hole, full of painted prophetic predictions based on the dream King Lalibela had all those years ago.

Now officially recognized as the eighth wonder of the world, the Church of St George is a mesmerizing display of commitment to faith, and represents the beating heart of spiritual Ethiopia.

https://artuexpeditions.com/the-st-george-church-lalibela

The Temple of Set recognizes several stages or degrees of initiation. The degrees indicate the individual Setian's development and skill in magic.[96] The degree structure is based on that of the Church of Satan, which in turn was based on the degrees of a nineteenth-century occult group, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.[97] The Temple terms the progression through degrees as "recognitions", because the organization's philosophy sees that the individual member initiates themselves and that the Temple merely acknowledges this by granting the degree.[98] These degrees are:[99]

Setian (First Degree)

Adept (Second Degree)

Priest / Priestess of Set (Third Degree)

Magister / Magistra Templi (Fourth Degree)

Magus / Maga (Fifth Degree)

Ipsissimus / Ipsissima (Sixth Degree)

The priesthood of the Temple of Set consists of members holding the third degree or higher; those in the first and second degrees are considered "lay members" of the Temple.[100] The first degree serves as a space for mutual evaluation, in which the Temple assesses whether the individual is appropriate for the group, and the individual decides whether they wish to further their involvement with it.[101] Full membership comes with recognition to the second degree.[98] Many members do not advance beyond the second degree, nor is this expected of them, as while the first and second degree members use the organization's teachings and tools for their own development, the priesthood involves greater responsibilities towards the organization, such as being its official representatives.[102]

Recognition is performed by members of the priesthood.[98] The fourth degree, which is acknowledged by the high priest/priestess, entails that the individual is so advanced in their magical skills that they are able to found their own school of magic, represented in the different orders of the Temple.[98] The fifth degree can only be awarded by the unanimous decision of the Council of Nine and by the approval of the Temple's high priest/priestess.[98] A fifth degree member has the power to utter and define a concept which somehow affects the philosophy of the organization, such as the concept of Xeper defined by Aquino in 1975.[98] Only a handful of members have attained this degree and most "fifth-degree" concepts defined in such a manner are no longer studied in the organization.[98] The final sixth degree represents a Magus "whose Task is complete".[98] This degree is held by a very select few in the Temple, although any fifth-degree member can assume the sixth degree based on their own assessment.[98]

Leadership

The organization is led by a high priest/priestess, who is also the public face of the Temple.[89] The high priest is chosen among fourth or higher degree members by the chairman of the Council of Nine.[89] This ruling council has nine members chosen from the priesthood (third degree or higher), whose mandate lasts for nine years with a new member being elected every year.[89] The chairman of the council is chosen from among the council members each year.[89] The council has the ultimate ruling power in the Temple and even the high priest is responsible to it.[89] The Temple also has an executive director, whose task is to deal with administrative issues.[89]

Since its founding in 1975, the temple has had the following high priests/priestesses:[89]

Michael A. Aquino (1975–1979, 1982–1996, 2002–2004)

Ronald K. Barrett (1979–1982)

Don Webb (1996–2002)

Zeena Schreck (2002)

Patricia Hardy (2004–2013)

James Fitzsimmons (2013–present)

Pylons, elements, and orders

Setian groups, or pylons, are named after the fortified gateways to ancient Egyptian temples (pictured here at the Isis Temple on Philae Island)

In addition to the international organization, the Temple sponsors initiatory Orders and Elements and local groups called Pylons. Pylons are intended to facilitate the initiatory work of the Temple's members by conducting meetings where discussions and magical works take place.[97] The purpose of a pylon is to provide a space in which the Setian can focus on their religion, aided by like-minded individuals.[103] Pylons typically meet in a member's home.[103] Members usually join the Pylon located geographically closest to them.[97] Correspondence- or Internet-based Pylons also exist,[97] with Harvey noting that this online networking is more common than in-person interaction.[71] A Pylon is led by a second-degree (or higher) member who is called a Sentinel.[97][103] The term pylon derives from the architectural features which served as fortified gateways to ancient Egyptian temples.[104] One Finnish Setian informed Granholm that the relationship between the orders and the temple was like that of different departments in a university.[97]

Elements are loosely structured interest groups, where specific themes and issues are addressed.[97] They can be open for non-members and are commonly in operation only for short periods.[97] Topics of interest include, for example, animal rights, which was the subject of the Arkte element operated by Aquino's wife Lilith.[97]

There are sections of the Temple known as Orders, each of which focus on a particular theme, for instance ancient Egypt, Norse culture, Tantric Hinduism, or vampirism.[105] Others focus on a particular skill, for instance the Order of Uart focuses on the visual arts and the Order of Taliesin on music.[106] Orders can be understood as schools of different aspects of magic providing different paths of initiation.[97] Orders are led by grand masters, who will usually be the founder of the order.[97] In longer-lived orders the founder may have a successive grand master.[97] Orders are founded by members of the fourth degree.[98] When members reaches the second degree of initiation, they are expected to join an order of their own choosing.[97] In normal circumstances, a Setian is only permitted to join one order, however special dispensation can be obtained for a practitioner to join two.[5]

Setians also hold annual International Conclaves. First Degree Initiates who obtain sponsorship by a member of the Priesthood are permitted to attend the International Conclave and Regional Gatherings.[107]

Demographics

In 2000, the Temple had thirteen pylons, which were operating in the United States, Australia, Germany, and across Sweden and Finland.[72] The extent of the Temple's membership has not been publicly revealed by the group;[103] however, in 2005 Petersen noted that academic estimates for the Temple's membership varied from between 300 and 500,[9] and Granholm suggested that in 2007 the Temple contained circa 200 members.[108] The Temple's members come from a variety of racial backgrounds.[109]

In 1999, the anthropologist Jean La Fontaine suggested that in Britain there were 100 members of the Temple at most, and possibly "considerably fewer".[110] In 2001 the scholar Gareth Medway posited that the group had 70 to 80 members in the United Kingdom, adding that it was the largest Satanic group then active in the country.[111] In 2009, Harvey concurred with La Fontaine's assessment, although still believed that it was the largest Satanic group in the United Kingdom.[112] He noted that most members were male, between the ages of twenty and fifty, and that—despite his expectation that they might be political extremists—they endorsed mainstream political positions, with all those whom he communicated with stating that they had voted for either the Conservative Party, Labour Party, or Liberal Democrats.[71]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Set

Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in the United States on November 7, 2028, to elect the president and vice president of the United States for a term of four years.

Background

See also: 2024 United States elections

Electoral system

Main article: United States Electoral College

See also: United States presidential primary and Primary elections in the United States

Eligibility

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2028_United_States_presidential_election

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_Harris

MAGA Make America Great Again: a presidential campaign slogan used by Donald J. Trump.'

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/maga

These are the individuals who act as spokespersons for the philosophy of the Church of Satan, which include the titles of “Priest”/“Priestess,” “Magister”/“Magistra,” “Magus”/“MAGA.” Members of the Priesthood make up the Council of Nine, which is the ruling body of the organization, appointed by and responsible to the High Priest/Priestess. The Order of the Trapezoid consists of the individuals who assist in the administration of the Church of Satan. Members of our Priesthood are people of accomplishment in the real world—they have mastered skills and have won peer recognition, which is how they have attained their position—“as above, so below.” They are “movers and shakers” who are the core of our movement. While expected to be experts in communicating our philosophy, they are not required to speak on our behalf and they may even choose to keep their affiliation and rank secret, in order to better serve their personal goals, as well as those of our organization. Thus, you may (even as a member), encounter members of our Priesthood and never know it." Hierarchy in the Church of Satan

Hierarchy in the Church of Satan - Church of Satan

https://www.churchofsatan.com/hierarchy/

On March 17, 1970, a curious article appeared in the Oakland Tribune. It was a report of an interview with Anton Szandor LaVey, Founder and "High PRIEST" of the "Church of Satan" in San Francisco, and the author of the Satanic Bible. Members of the Church of Satan wear an inverted pentagram, or pentacle (a well-known 'Satanic' symbol) with a a goathead on the inside of the circle. The cover of The Satanic Bible also bears an inverted pentagram, or satanic pentacle.

The Oakland Tribune article reported that LaVey had become " a favorite speaker at the University of San Francisco." When asked about his engagements at that university, LaVey proudly replied, "the Jesuits are my greatest audience." In case the reader was not already aware, the University of San Francisco is a renowned Jesuit institution of higher learning.

The statement by Satanist Anton LaVey about his work at this Jesuit University is no mystery. We invite the reader to give attention to this most audacious passage found in the writings of the Jesuit scholar Anthony Escobar. In his Secret Instructions, Escobar treats to what is perhaps the most innovative principle of Jesuitism (Roma Catholicism): "IT IS LAWFUL... TO MAKE USE OF THE SCIENCE ACQUIRED THROUGH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE DEVIL., PROVIDED THE PRESERVATION AND USE OF THAT KNOWLEDGE DO NOT DEPEND UPON THE DEVIL, FOR THE KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD IN ITSELF, AND THE SIN BY WHICH IT WAS ACQUIRED HAS GONE BY." Such is the effrontery of the Jesuits; such are their nostrums-my, my, what intriguing doctrines these Jesuits have-these men will sell their souls on eBay."

pages 73-74

"SCIENCE ACQUIRED THROUGH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE DEVIL"

Codeword Barbelon book One

by P.D. Stuart

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/730632681220167

Donald Trump The Art of the Deal

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DLcbnLrl6moQT7nGj1JitG6AiQ6qgK0y/view?usp=sharing

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden

The university has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in red and blue lights.

Author: WNEP Web Staff

Published: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

Updated: 10:52 PM EDT October 19, 2021

SCRANTON, Pa. — In preparation for President Joe Biden's visit, a university lit up their lights in his honor.

The University of Scranton has illuminated its Class of 2020 Gateway in blue and red with the number 46 prominently displayed to welcome the 46th president."

University of Scranton welcomes President Biden | wnep.com

https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/lackawanna-county/university-of-scranton-welcomes-president-biden-gateway-lights/523-cdba68b1-822b-4747-94be-4cd7e4de9d67

Codeword Barbelon

by P.D. Stuart

Donald Jasper Harris, OM (born August 23, 1938) is a Jamaican-American economist and emeritus professor at Stanford University, known for applying post-Keynesian ideas to development economics.[2] He was a scholar granted tenure in the Stanford Department of Economics, and he is the father of Kamala Harris, the 49th vice president of the United States and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, and of Maya Harris, a lawyer, advocate and writer.

Harris was raised in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica, earning a bachelor's degree from the University College of the West Indies and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He held professorships at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, and University of Wisconsin-Madison before joining Stanford University as professor of economics.

Harris's 1978 book Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution critiques mainstream economic theories, using mathematical modeling to propose an alternative model for thinking about the effects of capital accumulation on income inequality, economic growth, instability, and other phenomena. He has worked extensively on analysis and policy regarding the economy of Jamaica.[3] He served in Jamaica, at various times, as economic policy consultant to the government and as economic adviser to successive prime ministers.[4][5][6] In 2021, he was awarded Jamaica's Order of Merit, the country's third-highest national honor, for his "contribution to national development".[4][7]

Early life

Donald Jasper Harris was born in Brown's Town, St. Ann Parish, Jamaica, the son of Oscar Joseph Harris and Beryl Christie Harris (née Finegan),[8][9] who were Afro-Jamaicans.[10][11] As a child, Harris learned the catechism, was baptized and confirmed in the Anglican Church, and served as an acolyte.[12]

Harris's paternal grandmother, born Christiana Brown, told Harris that she was descended from Irish-born plantation owner Hamilton Brown (1776–1843), who founded the local Anglican Church where she is buried.[12]

Harris grew up in the Orange Hill area of Saint Ann Parish, near Brown's Town[13][14] and graduated from Titchfield High School in Port Antonio.[15] He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University College of the West Indies (then part of the University of London) in 1960, and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966.[4][16] His doctoral dissertation, Inflation, Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth: A Theoretical and Numerical Analysis, was supervised by econometrician Daniel McFadden.[17]

Career

Harris was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1966 to 1967 and at Northwestern University from 1967 to 1968. He moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an associate professor in 1968. In 1972, he joined the faculty of Stanford University as a professor of economics, and became the first black scholar to be granted tenure in Stanford's Department of Economics.[4][18] At various times, he was a visiting fellow in Cambridge University and Delhi School of Economics; and visiting professor at Yale University.[16] He served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Economic Literature and the journal Social and Economic Studies.[19][20] He is a longtime member of the American Economic Association.[21]

Harris directed the Consortium Graduate School of Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies in 1986–1987, and he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Brasília in 1990[22] and 1991, and in Mexico in 1992. In 1998, he retired from Stanford, becoming a professor emeritus.[16]

At Stanford, Harris's doctoral students have included Steven Fazzari, a professor of economics at Washington University in St. Louis,[17] and Robert A. Blecker, a professor of economics at American University in Washington, D.C.[18] Harris helped to develop the new program in Alternative Approaches to Economic Analysis as a field of graduate study.[16] For many years, he also taught the undergraduate course Theory of Capitalist Development. He took early retirement from Stanford in 1998 in order to pursue his interest in developing public policies to promote economic growth and advance social equity.[23][24][25]

Contributions to economic analysis and policy

Harris's economic philosophy was critical of mainstream economics and questioned orthodox assumptions.[18] The New York Times described him as "a prominent critic of mainstream economic theory from the left".[18]

Harris's research and publications have focused on exploring the process of capital accumulation and its implications for economic growth, arguing that economic inequality and uneven development are inevitable properties of economic growth in a market economy.[26]

Harris is said to work in the tradition of Post-Keynesian economics.[27][2][28] He has acknowledged the works of Joan Robinson, Maurice Dobb, Piero Sraffa, Michal Kalecki, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter, and W. Arthur Lewis as influences upon his work.[3][29][30][31][27]

One of Harris's most notable contributions to economics is his 1978 monograph Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution,[32] which is a critique of orthodox economic theories that provides an alternative, synthesizing the work of David Ricardo, Kalecki, Marx, Roy Harrod, and others. Harris employs mathematical modeling to explore the relationship between the accumulation of capital and income inequality, economic growth, economic instability, and other phenomena, arguing that typical theories fail to adequately consider power, class, and historical context.[33][34]

Harris has done research on the economy of Jamaica, presenting analyses and reports on the structural conditions, historical performance, and contemporary problems of the economy, as well as developing plans and policies for promoting economic growth and social inclusion.[3][4] Notable outcomes of this effort are the National Industrial Policy promulgated by the Government of Jamaica in 1996[35][36] and the Growth Inducement Strategy of 2011.[37][38]

He has published several books on the economy of Jamaica, including Jamaica's Export Economy: Towards a Strategy of Export-led Growth (Ian Randle Publishers, 1997)[39] and A Growth-Inducement Strategy for Jamaica in the Short and Medium Term (edited with G. Hutchinson, Planning Institute of Jamaica, 2012).[40] Jamaica has in recent years been considered an economic success story, as it has achieved sustained economic growth and large reductions in public debt, and some allies attribute this success to an agreement between Jamaica and the International Monetary Fund that was made possible through Harris's growth strategy for Jamaica.[4]

Personal life

Harris arrived at the University of California, Berkeley on the Issa Scholarship (founded and funded by Kingston merchant Elias A. Issa in the 1930s) in the fall of 1961.[41] Later in the fall of 1962, he spoke at a meeting of the Afro-American Association, a students' group at Berkeley.[41] After his talk, he met Shyamala Gopalan (1938–2009), a graduate student in nutrition and endocrinology from India at UC Berkeley who was in the audience.[41] According to Harris, "We talked then, continued to talk at a subsequent meeting, and at another, and another."[41] In July 1963, he married Shyamala.[41]

Harris and Shyamala had two children: Kamala Harris, the 49th vice president of the United States; and Maya Harris, a lawyer and political commentator;[18][41] the couple divorced in 1971.[42] The children visited Harris's family in Jamaica as they grew up.[4][43][44] Harris dedicated his 1978 book to his daughters.[4] He has led a largely private life amid his children's rise to prominence, declining nearly all interview requests.[45][46] Over the years, Kamala Harris has described her relationship with her father as cordial but distant, owing to her being primarily raised by her mother.[47]

At some time prior to May 2015, Harris became a naturalized U.S. citizen, and reportedly has a residence in Washington, D.C.[16][48][49][45] In the 1990s Harris remarried, to Carol Kirlew, a Jamaican-American who worked in communications for the World Bank.[50]

Selected publications

Books

Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution, Stanford University Press, 1978. ISBN 0-8047-0947-5.

Jamaica's Export Economy: Towards a Strategy of Export-led Growth, Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 1997. ISBN 976-8123-43-5.

A Growth-Inducement Strategy for Jamaica in the Short and Medium Term (edited with G. Hutchinson), Kingston, The Planning Institute of Jamaica, 2012. ISBN 978-976-8103-39-0.

Articles

Harris, Donald J. (1973). "Capital, Distribution, and the Aggregate Production Function". The American Economic Review. 63 (1): 100–113. JSTOR 1803129.

Harris, Donald J. (1972). "On Marx's Scheme of Reproduction and Accumulation". Journal of Political Economy. 80 (3): 505–522. doi:10.1086/259902. JSTOR 1830564.

Harris, Donald J. (1978). "Capitalist Exploitation and Black Labor: Some Conceptual Issues". The Review of Black Political Economy. 8 (2): 133–151. doi:10.1007/BF02689492.

Harris, Donald J. (1993). "Economic Growth and Equity: Complements or Opposites?". The Review of Black Political Economy. 21 (3): 65–72. doi:10.1007/bf02701705.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_J._Harris

Casper the Friendly Ghost is a fictional character who serves as the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a translucent ghost who is pleasant and personable,[4] but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio.

The character was featured in 55 theatrical cartoons titled The Friendly Ghost from 1945 to 1959.[5] The character has been featured in comic books published by Harvey Comics since 1952,[6] and Harvey purchased the character outright in 1959. Casper became one of Harvey's most popular characters, headlining several comic book titles.

Following Harvey's purchase of the character, he appeared in five television series: Matty's Funday Funnies (1959–1961), The New Casper Cartoon Show (1963–1970), Casper and the Angels (1979), The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (1996–1998) and Casper's Scare School (2009–2012).[7] The character made his theatrical film debut in a live-action adaptation of the series by Universal Pictures: Casper (1995), to where he became the first computer-generated character to star in a film.[8] He would later appear in four direct-to-video and made-for-TV follow-up films.

Creation

The origins of Casper are disputed, with both Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo claiming to be the character's creator. According to Oriolo, Casper was created on a Halloween night to assuage his four-year-old daughter Joan's fear of the dark. He made a cardboard cutout of a friendly ghost and hung it in the backyard tree to show her that not all ghosts are bad.[9]

Though Joan has corroborated this story, Seymour Reit maintains that Casper was born with a short story which he conceived and wrote entirely by himself and gave to Oriolo to illustrate.[9][10] Reit concluded, "Joe [Oriolo] created the actual cartoon of the character - but the concept, series, idea and plotline were mine, prior to Joe's involvement. Joe played an important part, but I was Casper's legit 'Poppa'." [emphasis in original][9]

Reit and Oriolo intended to sell the story to either Fleischer Studios (where they were both employed as animators) or to a children's storybook publisher, and they eventually lined up a deal with Grosset & Dunlap.[9] When Reit was away on military service during World War II before the book was released, Oriolo sold the rights to the book to Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios animation division for a total of $175. This one-time payment was all that he received, missing out on a share of the revenue earned from the films, comic books and merchandise to come.[11] For his part, Reit received no payment for the book at all.[9]

In the original Harveytoons animation, Casper is standing next to a grave inscribed with "Casper", that supports the theory he is indeed a ghost. Originally, stories have shown that his visibility is due to wearing a sheet. In the Casper live-action film, this is not shown and it is implied that he is naturally visible to humans as a white creature.[12]

The Friendly Ghost, the first Noveltoon to feature Casper, was released by Paramount in May 1945 with a few differences from the book. In the cartoon adaptation, Casper is a cute ghost-child with a New York accent who inhabits a haunted house along with a community of adult ghosts who delight in scaring the living. Casper, in contrast, would prefer to make friends with people. He packs up his belongings and goes out into the world, hoping to find friends. However, the animals that he meets (a rooster, a mole, a cat, a mouse named Herman, and a group of hens) take one horrified look at him, scream: "A ghost!" and run off in the other direction. Distraught, Casper attempts suicide (apparently forgetting that he is already dead) by lying down on a railway track before an oncoming train, before he meets two children named Bonnie and Johnny who become his friends. The children's mother, apparently widowed and impoverished, is frightened of Casper. She later welcomes him into the family after he unintentionally frightens off a greedy landlord, who, unwilling to own a "haunted" house, tears up the mortgage and gives her the house outright. The short ends with the mother kissing Bonnie, Johnny, and Casper as she sends them off to school, with Casper wearing clothing as if he were a living child.

Casper appeared in two more cartoons, There's Good Boos To-Night and A Haunting We Will Go, released in 1948 and 1949 respectively, even though Famous Studios's president and general manager Sam Buchwald had already given approval for Casper to have his own series.[9] In these cartoons Casper's appearance was cuter and more infantile than in his debut cartoon; head animator Myron Waldman has claimed credit for the redesign.[9] There's Good Boos To-Night differs wildly from later Casper cartoons: although the theme of Casper trying to find a friend and failing in these attempts before succeeding also occurs in later cartoons, the tone of this short turns remarkably dark when a hunter and his dogs appear, chasing the little fox cub named Ferdie that Casper has befriended. Although Casper scares the hunter and dogs away, Casper discovers Ferdie dead after a harrowing chase scene.[9] Ferdie returns as a ghost to join his friend Casper in the afterlife.

These three cartoons were initially billed as Noveltoons before Paramount started the official Casper the Friendly Ghost series in 1950, and ran the theatrical releases until summer 1959. Most of the entries in the series were relatively the same: Casper (now slightly thinner than the pudgy figure that appeared in the earlier cartoons) escapes from the afterlife of a regular ghost because he finds that scaring people can be tiresome year after year, tries to find friends but inadvertently scares almost everyone, and finally finds a (cute little) friend, whom he saves from some sort of fate, leading to his acceptance by those initially scared of him. Animation historian Leonard Maltin, in his book Of Mice and Magic, criticized the series for its repetitious plot devices, saying that Casper was "the most monotonous character to invade cartoonland since Mighty Mouse. It seemed as it every Casper cartoon followed the same story line, with only minor variations."[13] One of the animators, Lee Mishkin, similarly complained, "With the Casper series, you never knew what picture you were working on because they were all exactly the same."[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casper_the_Friendly_Ghost

Friends: of the Society are to be sought and cultivated [426, 823, 824] on behalf of them, whether living or dead, prayers are to be offered and other signs of gratitude are to be shown [638], 413; the extent to which communication with friends in the world is to be had [60, 246], 53, 111; the extent to which an examiner can examine candidates who are his friends [143]

The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms

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The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (French: Société des amis de la Constitution), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality (Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité) after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club (Club des Jacobins) or simply the Jacobins (/ˈdʒækəbɪn/; French: [ʒakɔbɛ̃]), was the most influential political club during the French Revolution of 1789. The period of its political ascendancy includes the Reign of Terror, during which well over 10,000 people were put on trial and executed in France, many for political crimes.

Initially founded in 1789 by anti-royalist deputies from Brittany, the club grew into a nationwide republican movement with a membership estimated at a half million or more.[1] The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s: The Mountain and the Girondins.[3] In 1792–93, the Girondins were more prominent in leading France when they declared war on Austria and on Prussia, overthrew King Louis XVI, and set up the French First Republic. In May 1793, the leaders of the Mountain faction, led by Maximilien Robespierre, succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government featured high levels of political violence, and for this reason the period of the Jacobin/Mountain government is identified as the Reign of Terror. In October 1793, 21 prominent Girondins were guillotined. The Mountain-dominated government executed 17,000 opponents nationwide as a way to suppress the Vendée insurrection and the Federalist revolts, and to deter recurrences. In July 1794, the National Convention pushed the administration of Robespierre and his allies out of power and had Robespierre and 21 associates executed. In November 1794, the Jacobin Club closed.

In the British Empire, Jacobin was linked primarily to The Mountain of the French Revolutionary governments and was popular among the established and entrepreneurial classes as a pejorative to deride radical left-wing revolutionary politics, especially when they exhibit dogmatism and violent repression.[4] In Britain, the term faintly echoed negative connotations of Jacobitism, the pro-Catholic, monarchist, rarely insurrectional political movement that faded out decades earlier tied to deposed King James II of England and his descendants. Jacobin reached obsolescence and supersedence before the Russian Revolution, when the terms (Radical) Marxism, anarchism, socialism, and communism had overtaken it.

In France, Jacobin now generally leans towards moderate authoritarianism, more equal formal rights, and centralization.[5] It can, similarly, denote supporters of extensive government intervention to transform society.[6] It is unabashedly used by proponents of a state education system that strongly promotes and inculcates civic values. It is more controversially, and less squarely, used by or for proponents of a strong nation-state capable of resisting undesirable foreign interference.[7]

History

Foundation

When the Estates General of 1789 in France convened in May–June 1789 at the Palace of Versailles, the Jacobin club, originating as the Club Breton, comprised exclusively a group of Breton representatives attending those Estates General.[8] Deputies from other regions throughout France soon joined. Early members included the dominating comte de Mirabeau, Parisian deputy Abbé Sieyès, Dauphiné deputy Antoine Barnave, Jérôme Pétion, the Abbé Grégoire, Charles Lameth, Alexandre Lameth, Artois deputy Robespierre, the duc d'Aiguillon, and La Revellière-Lépeaux. At this time meetings occurred in secret, and few traces remain concerning what took place or where the meetings convened.[8]

Transfer to Paris

By the March on Versailles in October 1789, the club, still entirely composed of deputies, reverted to being a provincial caucus for National Constituent Assembly deputies from Brittany. The club was re-founded in November 1789 as the Société de la Révolution, inspired in part by a letter sent from the Revolution Society of London to the Assembly congratulating the French on regaining their liberty.[9][10][11]

To accommodate growing membership, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the Dominican monastery of the “Jacobins” in the Rue Saint-Honoré, adjacent to the seat of the Assembly.[10][11] They changed their name to Société des amis de la Constitution in late January, though by this time, their opponents had already concisely dubbed them "Jacobins", a nickname originally given to French Dominicans because their first house in Paris was in the Rue Saint-Jacques.[8][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobins

Casper is a 1995 American supernatural fantasy comedy film directed by Brad Silberling, in his feature film directorial debut, based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost created by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo. The film stars Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriarty, and Eric Idle, with voice talents of Joe Nipote, Joe Alaskey, Brad Garrett, and the film introduction of Malachi Pearson in the title role. The film follows the title character who peacefully haunts a mansion called Whipstaff Manor in Friendship, Maine, meets and befriends a teenage girl named Kat Harvey (Ricci), the daughter of Dr. James Harvey (Pullman), a paranormal therapist who is hired to move into Whipstaff in order to rid the mansion of its spectral inhabitants.

The film makes extensive use of computer-generated imagery to create the ghosts, and it is the first feature film to have a fully CGI character in the lead role. It goes for a darker interpretation of Casper in comparison to the previous comics, cartoons and theatrical shorts, notably providing the character a tragic backstory that addresses his death.

Casper was released in cinemas on May 26, 1995, by Universal Pictures. It received mixed to positive reviews from critics, who praised the film for its faithfulness to its source material (specifically the title character's portrayal), visual effects, music score, and performances, but criticized its dark tone and humor. The film earned $288 million[2] on a $55 million budget,[2] and spawned two direct-to-video indirect prequels, Casper: A Spirited Beginning (1997) and Casper Meets Wendy (1998) as follow-ups to the film and released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and an animated television spin-off, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper.

Plot

Following the death of her father, neurotic and spoiled heiress Carrigan Crittenden discovers she has only been left Whipstaff Manor, located in Friendship, Maine, in the will while his vast wealth has gone to several charities. Carrigan and her lawyer and close friend Dibs find a map within the will's papers that tell of an alleged treasure hidden inside the manor, but find the property haunted by a friendly ghost named Casper and his poltergeist uncles the Ghostly Trio. They unsuccessfully attempt to force the ghosts out by way of paranormal experts and a demolitions team.

A lonely Casper watches a news report about paranormal therapist James Harvey and is instantly smitten with his teenage daughter, Kat, prompting Casper to inspire Carrigan in summoning Harvey to Whipstaff. Kat dislikes her father's reputation and obsession with contacting the ghost of his late wife, Amelia. The Harveys move into Whipstaff, but Casper's attempt to befriend them fails when his uncles try to torment and scare them away, which eventually fails.

Casper gains the Harveys' trust when he serves them breakfast, and follows Kat to school, where she becomes popular when her class learns she is living in Whipstaff, and agrees to host their Halloween party there. Her classmate Amber plots with her friend, Vic, to humiliate Kat during the party. Harvey attempts therapy sessions with the Ghostly Trio, who reveal they know Amelia; in exchange for convincing Carrigan to leave them alone, they promise to get Harvey a meeting with his wife.

Kat learns Casper has no memory of his life, and restores his old playroom in the attic to remind him. Casper recognizes an old wooden sled his father bought him, and remembers playing outside until he caught a severe cold and died of pneumonia, becoming a ghost to keep his father company. A newspaper article reveals that Casper's father was declared legally insane after he built a machine, the Lazarus, which he claimed could bring the dead back to life. Casper and Kat venture to the basement and find the Lazarus. Carrigan and Dibs sneak inside and steal the formula that powers the machine, plotting to use it to grant themselves immortality. However, they attempt to kill each other to test the theory and retrieve the treasure that they think is in the basement's locked vault. This culminates in Carrigan attempting to run Dibs over with her Range Rover, but instead crashing into a cliff-side tree; upon exiting her car, Carrigan falls to her death and becomes a ghost.

Harvey becomes depressed after the trio pulls a prank on him, prompting them to take him out on the town. They plan on killing him to make themselves a quartet, but have a change of heart after the drunken therapist declares he will tell Carrigan off so they can stay in their home. However, Harvey accidentally falls to his death.

In the laboratory, the ghostly Carrigan confronts Casper and Kat, stealing what she believes to be the treasure from the vault and launching Dibs out a window when he tries to double-cross her. As Carrigan demands to be brought back to life, Casper and Kat remind her that Casper's treasure was her unfinished business and by getting it completed her unfinished business, causing her to be ejected into the afterlife. The treasure is revealed to be Casper's prized baseball, signed by Duke Snider; the map was part of a game Casper played with his father. Harvey, now a ghost and still in his drunken state, returns with Casper's uncles; after bringing him back to his senses, Kat's despair over this prompts Casper to sacrifice his one chance to return to life, restoring Harvey instead.

The Halloween party kicks off upstairs; Amber and Vic's prank is thwarted by the Ghostly Trio, and they flee in terror. A boy dances with Kat, and is revealed to be Casper, temporarily granted physical form by Amelia, who had become an angel after her death. Amelia meets with Harvey, explaining that the Ghostly Trio kept their promise to get him a meeting with her, and tells him that she was so content with her family while alive that she has no unfinished business and thus did not become a ghost. Amelia departs as the clock chimes ten, promising Harvey that they and Kat will be together again one day; after kissing Kat, Casper transforms back into a ghost, then inadvertently scares Kat's guests away. Kat is nonetheless impressed with the party, and the Ghostly Trio play their nephew's theme for them to dance to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casper_(film)

Caspar (otherwise known as Casper, Gaspar, Kaspar, Jasper, Kasper,[1] and other variations) was one of the 'Three Kings', along with Melchior and Balthazar, representing the wise men or Biblical Magi mentioned in Matthew 2:1-9. Although the Bible's Gospel books don't specify who or what the Magi were, since the seventh century the Magi have been identified in Catholicism as Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Caspar and the other two Magi are considered saints by the Catholic Church.

Name origin

Further information: Casper (given name)

While it is generally accepted that Casper/Kaspar/Gaspar/Jasper was one of the Biblical Magi or 'three wise men' who were said to have visited the infant Jesus – bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh – there is some debate in academic literature over the rendering of his name. It is likely that these varied renderings are driven by regional and linguistic differences among scholars in different times, places and tongues. [2][3][4][5][6]

Jasper is traditionally identified as having brought the frankincense, hence the Persian etymology of Jasper as a given name, meaning 'bringer of gifts' or 'treasurer'.[7][8]

The name Caspar or Casper is derived from "Gaspar". In turn, "Gaspar" is from an ancient Chaldean word, "Gizbar", which, according to Strong's Concordance, means "treasurer".[9] The form "Gizbar" appears in the Hebrew version of the Old Testament Book of Ezra (1:8). In fact, the modern Hebrew word for "treasurer" is still "Gizbar".[10] By the 1st century B.C., the Septuagint gave a Greek translation of "Gizbar" in Ezra 1:8 as "γασβαρηνου" ("Gasbarinou", literally son of "Gasbar"). [11] The transition from "Gizbar" to "Caspar" and "Kaspar" can thus be summarized as: Gizbar > Gasbar > Gaspar > Caspar > Kaspar (with "C" being a misreading of the manuscript "G" and "K" having the same phonetic value as "C". Another derivation proposed by Gutschmid (1864) could be the corruption of the Iranic name "Gondophares".[12] [13]

Place of origin

Who the Magi were is not specified in the Bible; there are only traditions. Since English translations of the Bible refer to them as "men who studied the stars", they are believed to have been astrologers, who could foresee the birth of a "Messiah" from their study of the stars.[14]

Caspar is often considered to be an Indian scholar. An article in the 1913 Encyclopædia Britannica[15] states that "according to Western church tradition, Balthasar is often represented as a king of Arabia, Melchior as a king of Persia, and Caspar as a king of India." Historian John of Hildesheim relates a tradition in the ancient silk road city of ancient Taxila that one of the Magi passed through the city on the way to Bethlehem.

Some consider Caspar to be King Gondophares (AD 21 – c. AD 47) mentioned in the Acts of Thomas. Others consider him to have come from the southern parts of India where, according to tradition, Thomas the Apostle visited decades later. The town by name Piravom in Kerala State, Southern India has for long claimed that one of the three Biblical Magi went from there. The name Piravom in the local Malayalam language translates to "birth". It is believed that the name originated from a reference to the Nativity of Jesus. There is a concentration of three churches named after the Biblical Magi in and around Piravom, as against only another three so named in the rest of India.

There are some who consider that Caspar's kingdom was located in the region of Egrisilla in India Superior on the peninsula that forms the eastern side of the Sinus Magnus (Gulf of Thailand) by Johannes Schöner on his globe of 1515. On it can be seen Egrisilla Bragmanni ("Egrisilla of the Brahmans"), and in the explanatory treatise which accompanied the globe, Schöner noted: "The region of Egrisilla, in which there are Brahman [i.e. Indian] Christians; there Gaspar the Magus held dominion".[16] The phrase hic rex caspar habitavit (here lived King Caspar) is inscribed over the Golden Chersonese (Malay Peninsula) on the mappemonde of Andreas Walsperger made in Constance around 1448. Whether it was a latter day king who took the name of Caspar is also not known.

The Magi are now considered by some not to have been kings. The reference to "kings" is believed to have originated due to the reference in Psalms "The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents; the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring him gifts: and all the kings of the earth shall adore him" Psalm 72:10.

Some late medieval depictions of Caspar as an African king may have been influenced by accounts of the hajj pilgrimage of the Malian ruler Mansa Musa.

Gift to Child Jesus

Matthew wrote that the Magi brought three gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh. These gifts apparently have deeper significance, the gold signifying the regal status of Jesus, the frankincense his divinity, and the myrrh his human nature. Caspar is traditionally portrayed with a reddish beard in the middle of the three kings, as younger than Melchior and older than Balthasar, and who waits in line behind Melchior to give the gift of frankincense to the Child Jesus.[17] He is often portrayed in the act of accepting his gift from an assistant, or in the act of removing his crown, signs of preparing to be next at the feet of Child Jesus.

Death

According to tradition, Caspar became a martyr, and some consider that the other two Magi also met with the same fate. The relics of the Magi were found in Persia by Helena, but were later brought to Constantinople and then to Milan in Italy. From there, they reached Germany, where they are now housed in the Cologne Cathedral.[18]

Caspar is commemorated on the Feast of Epiphany along with the other members of the Magi but is also commemorated in Catholicism with his feast day, 11 January. Following his return to his own country, avoiding King Herod, it is purported that Caspar celebrated Christmas with the other members of the Magi in Armenia in 54 AD. Caspar died on January 11, 55 AD, aged 109.[citation needed]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_(magus)

295 In the elaboration and expression of our theogical views and in our choice of pastoral options, we must always actively seek to understand the mind of the hierarchical Church, having as our goal the Society s objective to help souls. At the same time we must try to articulate the sensus fidelium and help the magisterium discern in it the movements of the Spirit in accord with the teaching of Vatican II.[125]

The Constitutions of The Society of Jesus and Their Complimentary Norms

A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts

THE INSTITUTE OF JESUIT SOURCES

SAINT LOUIS, 1996

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What is Masada? What is the history of Masada?

TL;DR:

Masada is not mentioned in the Bible but was a place where the Jewish Zealots hid when the Romans attacked. Masada calls us to trust in God and to stand for what is true.

what does the bible say?

Masada is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible. The events surrounding Masada occurred during the time period between the Old and New Testaments, so it's not directly referenced in biblical texts. However, Masada is a historically significant site, particularly known for the events that took place there during the Jewish-Roman War in the 1st century AD.

Herod the Great built the mountain fortress of Masada in 31 BC above the western shore of the Dead Sea in Israel. He feared revolt and wanted a place to make a stand that was difficult to attack and easy to defend. The fortress, with large places to store food, vast cisterns to store water, and defensive structures, was accessed only by a narrow path up the 1,300-foot mountain.

King Herod, an Edomite appointed by Roman rulers to oversee Judea, built the fortress and made it nearly impregnable, but it was the Jewish Zealots who hid there one hundred years later who made Masada famous.

In AD 70, the Romans attacked Judea and overran Jerusalem. Masada was the last holdout and center of resistance. General Flavius Silva couldn't directly attack the fortress, so in AD 72 he put thousands of slaves to work building a siege ramp. It took months to complete and when the troops broke into the fortress in AD 73, they found 953 people dead of a ceremonial mass suicide. Two women and five children hid in a cistern and survived to tell the story. They quoted Eleazar, their leader, saying, "Since we, long ago, my generous friends, resolved never to be servants to the Romans, not to any other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice."

from the old testament

Masada is not mentioned in the Old Testament.

from the new testament

Masada is not mentioned in the New Testament.

While Masada itself isn't mentioned in the Bible, some of the events related to the Jewish-Roman War are indirectly referenced in the New Testament, particularly in Jesus' prophecies regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (Matthew 24:1–2; Mark 13:1–2; Luke 21:20–24). However, Masada is not specifically mentioned in those passages.

implications for today

The story of Masada teaches us the enduring lesson of perseverance and courage in the face of adversity. Despite being outnumbered and facing overwhelming odds, the Jewish Zealots at Masada chose to stand firm in their beliefs and resist Roman rule. While the way we hold onto what is true may vary depending on situation, God calls us to hold onto Him and to build our lives on the Rock on whom we can stand. God is our refuge and strength; in Him we find the courage we need to stand for what is right.

https://www.compellingtruth.org/history-of-Masada.html

Golems, Gender, and Magic JV

ByJericho Vincent

The word Golem appears once in the Biblical texts:

תהילים קל״ט:ט״ז

(טז) גׇּלְמִ֤י ׀ רָ֘א֤וּ עֵינֶ֗יךָ וְעַֽל־סִפְרְךָ֮ כֻּלָּ֢ם יִכָּ֫תֵ֥בוּ יָמִ֥ים יֻצָּ֑רוּ (ולא) [וְל֖וֹ] אֶחָ֣ד בָּהֶֽם׃

Psalms 139:16

(16) Your eyes saw my "golem"/unformed limbs; they were all recorded in Your book; in due time they were formed, to the very last one of them.

In the Talmud, the world "golem" is only used to refer to a mindless clod. But we are told of rabbis who create a mute living being (the word golem is not used) and an edible calf:

The bold words are literal translations, unbolded words come from the modern editor to make the terse style of the Talmud make sense.

סנהדרין ס״ה ב

... אמר רבא אי בעו צדיקי ברו עלמא שנאמר כי עונותיכם היו מבדילים וגו' רבא ברא גברא שדריה לקמיה דר' זירא הוה קא משתעי בהדיה ולא הוה קא מהדר ליה אמר ליה מן חבריא את הדר לעפריך

רב חנינא ורב אושעיא הוו יתבי כל מעלי שבתא ועסקי בספר יצירה ומיברו להו עיגלא תילתא ואכלי ליה.

Sanhedrin 65b

...Rava says: If the righteous wish to do so, they can create a world, as it is stated: “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God.” In other words, someone without iniquities is alike to God and therefor has God-like world-creating powers.

Some examples:

Rava created a man, and sent his creation before Rabbi Zeira. Rabbi Zeira would speak to him but he would not reply. Rabbi Zeira said to him: You were created by one of the members of the group, one of the Sages. Return to your dust.

Rav Ḥanina and Rav Oshaya would sit every Shabbat eve and engage in the study of Sefer Yetzira, and a third-born calf [igla tilta] would be created for them, and they would eat it in honor of Shabbat. §

The oldest surviving records of the creation of a being called a golem emerge in medieval commentaries of Sefer Yetzirah. Sefer Yetzirah is the oldest surviving mystical Jewish text. It translates all of reality into a code of letters and words, like the code of the Matrix or the letters of DNA. Scholars believed that if they could master this code of life, they could create life.

One of these commentaries, written by Rabbi Eleazar of Worms (late 12th c.), includes the following recipe for a golem:

To engage with Sefer Yetzirah a person has to purify themselves and dress in white clothes. A person should not engage alone but in groups of two or three as it is written "Two are better than one" (Kohelet 4:8) and it is written "and the souls they made in Charan" (Gen 12:15) and it is written "It is not good for man to be alone, I will make a fitting helper for him." That is why Bereishit Barah/the Torah's opening lines of creation begin with a "bet" (the number two).

A person must take virgin mud from the mountains where no person has dug, and mix the soil with living water and make a golem, and begin to permutate the alphabets of the 221 gates, limb by limb, each limb together with the corresponding letter in Sefer Yetzirah. All the alphabets will be permutated at the begining, and afterwards they shall permutate with all of the vowels. And always a letter of the Holy Name with each vowel....

Golems are activated with sacred words and, often, a magic word written on paper and buried in the Golem's belly or head, worn on a necklace, or carved on the Golem's head.

Another medieval commentary shares the famous Golem activation/de-activation code of Emet/Met:

Sefer Gemmatriot of R Yehudah the Chasid/Pious

Written down at the end of the thirteenth century

Ben Sira wanted to study Sefer Yetzirah. A voice came out and said, "You cannot do it alone." He went to Jeremiah, his father. Ben Sira is numerically equivalent to Ben Jeremiah (the son of Jeremiah), and they studied it and after three years, a man was created to them, upon whose forehead it was written Emet, as on the forehead of Adam. And the created one said to them: "If the Unique One, the Holy One, Blessed be, created Adam, when [later] if God wanted to kill Adam, He erased a letter from emet and what remained was MeT (dead), even more so I would like to do it and you shall no longer create a man, so that people shall not err concerning him, as it happened in the generation of Enosh. This is why Jeremiah said: Cursed is the man who relies on Adam." The created man said to them: "Reverse the combination of the letters backwards." And they erased the letter 'aleph from his forehead and he immediately turned into ashes.

Traditionally, a Golem is formed from earth to mimic the creation of us earthlings, as in this Biblical verse:

בראשית ב׳:ז׳

(ז) וַיִּ֩יצֶר֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֗ם עָפָר֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים וַיְהִ֥י הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּֽה׃

Genesis 2:7

(7) The Multi-portal Divine formed the Earthling from the soil’s loose dirt, blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Earthling became a living being.

WOMAN AND GOLEM

The Golem is traditionally a mute servant. The resonance with women under patriarchy is obvious. Sometimes literally so:

סנהדרין כ״ב ב

...אמר רב שמואל בר אוניא משמיה דרב אשה גולם היא ואינה כורתת ברית אלא למי שעשאה כלי שנאמר (ישעיהו נד, ה) כי בועליך עושיך ה' צבאות שמו תנא אין איש מת אלא לאשתו ואין אשה מתה אלא לבעלה אין איש מת אלא לאשתו...

Sanhedrin 22b

...Rav Shmuel bar Unya says in the name of Rav: A woman is golem/raw material, like a vessel that has not been completed, and makes a covenant only to the one who made her a vessel through her first act of sexual intercourse, as it is stated: “For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name” (Isaiah 54:5).

It is taught: A man dies only to his wife, i.e., it is primarily she who suffers the pain and sadness resulting from his death, and a woman dies only to her husband...

Stories of Golems who are female pop up across sacred texts:

Matzref haHokhmah--Gathering the Wisdom, 1625

Rabbi Joseph Shlomo del Medigo, Kabbalist, mathematician, and student of Galileo,1591-1665 Crete & Poland

Quote from Rabbi Meir Goldstein's The Bride of Golem Sefaria source sheet

They said Rabbi Shelomo ben Gabirol, that he created a woman, and she waited on him. When he was denounced to the authorities, he showed them that she was not a perfect creature, and [then] he turned her to her original state, to the pieces and hinges of wood, out of which she was made. And similar oral traditions are found in great number, especially in Ashkenaz.

The Torah says that Joseph told his father "bad reports" about his brothers. The 17th century mystic The Shelah (The Shnei Luchat Habrit), explains that these reports involved female sex robots/Golems:

שני לוחות הברית, תורה שבכתב, וישב, מקץ, ויגש, דרך חיים, וישב ה׳

(ה) עוד איתא בגמרא (שם) רבא ברא גברא שדריה לגבי ר' זירא כו', ופירש רש"י (ד"ה ברא גברא) ע"י שמות ספר יצירה. והנה יש שמות שמצירופים נברא זכר, ויש שנברא נקיבה, והיו מטיילין עמה ויוסף לא ידע מזה והיה סובר שהיא נקיבה אשה מהאב ואם, ובא והודיע לאביו שהם חשודים בעריות. וכשעסקו השבטים בצירוף סודות אלו ורצו להתחבר עליהם בני השפחות, אמרו השבטים אתם בני השפחות וכונתם היתה לשם שמים כי לא נמסרו אלו העניינים אלא למיוחסים שבדור הזה, ויוסף לא ידע זה וסבר שהיו מזלזלים בכבוד אחיהם לקרוא אותם עבדים...

Shenei Luchot HaBerit, Torah Shebikhtav, Vayeshev, Miketz, Vayigash, Derekh Chayim, Vayeshev 5

(5) Sanhedrin 65b reports that the Amora Rava created a human being. He sent that creature to Rabbi Zeirah, etc. Rashi explains this was done through the names from Sefer Yetzirah.

There are letters in certain names of G–d, which, if manipulated in the correct manner, enable one to create female creatures, whereas other letters in other names of G–d, when correctly manipulated, produce male creatures. It is quite possible that the brothers used their knowledge of the Sefer Yetzirah to create female creatures, and that they tripped out with/had sex with these creatures. Joseph didn't know about this and thought this woman was a sister, and went to tell their father that [his brothers] were suspected of immorality.

When the brothers were engaged with these secret permutations, the sons of the maidservants (Bilhah and Zilpah) wanted to hang out with them, the brothers [refused and] said to them: "You're just the children of maidservants."

The brothers' intentions were holy, because these matters were only given to the distinguished ones of the generation. Yosef did not know this and thought his brothers were belittling their brothers' honor by calling them servants...

Modern thinkers, writers, and artists often explore the intersection of womanhood and golem, as in this poem:

Golem

by Sarah Matthes

Retrieved from https://bwr.ua.edu/project/golem-by-sarah-matthes/

...He made a wooden girl. By winter, golem made him warm.

Golem stands aproned in the kitchen

shucking scales off a slim mackerel.

Oil spits in the iron over a fire.

With a silver spoon she gouges the eyes

neatly out of the fish's surprised face,

and pops them into her own rough sockets.

The sound of a creaking door as

something in her

smiles....

Sometimes women like me are called golems, too.

Not human until another human beats inside us....

Clay Godly beings of power have ancient origins in our tradition: For generations they were a technology maintained by women to channel feminine magical power. From the 8th-6th c BCE and beyond, the ancestors connected to Asherah, the female portal to the Divine, with magical "Judean pillar figurines," female sacred figures made of clay:

In early Genesis, the matriarch Rachel steals her father's "teraphim." We don't know what they're made of, but they seem to be sacred figurines that belong to him, but are important enough to her that she steals them:

בראשית ל״א:י״ט

(יט) וְלָבָ֣ן הָלַ֔ךְ לִגְזֹ֖ז אֶת־צֹאנ֑וֹ וַתִּגְנֹ֣ב רָחֵ֔ל אֶת־הַתְּרָפִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לְאָבִֽיהָ׃

Genesis 31:19

(19) Meanwhile Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s teraphim.

Desperate for these teraphim, Lavan searches for them, but Rachel outwits him.

בראשית ל״א:ל״ד-ל״ה

(לד) וְרָחֵ֞ל לָקְחָ֣ה אֶת־הַתְּרָפִ֗ים וַתְּשִׂמֵ֛ם בְּכַ֥ר הַגָּמָ֖ל וַתֵּ֣שֶׁב עֲלֵיהֶ֑ם וַיְמַשֵּׁ֥שׁ לָבָ֛ן אֶת־כׇּל־הָאֹ֖הֶל וְלֹ֥א מָצָֽא׃ (לה) וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אֶל־אָבִ֗יהָ אַל־יִ֙חַר֙ בְּעֵינֵ֣י אֲדֹנִ֔י כִּ֣י ל֤וֹא אוּכַל֙ לָק֣וּם מִפָּנֶ֔יךָ כִּי־דֶ֥רֶךְ נָשִׁ֖ים לִ֑י וַיְחַפֵּ֕שׂ וְלֹ֥א מָצָ֖א אֶת־הַתְּרָפִֽים׃

Genesis 31:34-35

(34) Rachel, meanwhile, had taken the idols and placed them in the camel cushion and sat on them; and Lavan rummaged through the tent without finding them. (35) For she said to her father, “Let not my lord take it amiss that I cannot rise before you, for I am in a womanly way.” Thus he searched, but could not find the household idols.

Later patriarchal crusades denounced all religious figurines beloved by women, even those revered by Rebecca, as "idol worship." Remember: Whenever you come across the term "idol worship" in a patriarchal text that references women, the term is often code for female-centered religious practices.

In one of the early medieval conversations on the golem, the 14th c writings of The Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel), we get a hint that there's a connection between a golem and the birth of "idol worship":

רא"ש על התורה, בראשית ד׳:כ״ו

(א) אז הוחל לקרא בשם ה'. מלמד שבאו בני הדור ושאלו לו לאנוש מה שמו של אביך א"ל שת ושמו של אבי אביך א"ל אדם ושם אביו של אדם מה היה שמו א"ל לא היה לו אב אלא הקב"ה בראו גולם מן הארץ ונפח בו נשמת חיים אמרו לו כיצד עשהו מיד לקח רגיבת עפר ועשאו צורת גולם ונכנס בנפיחיו השד והיה בו חיות מיד אמרו זה אלהינו והאמינו בו...

Rosh on Torah, Genesis 4:26

"Then [after the birth of Enosh, Adam's grandson] [people] began to call on the name of the Divine." (Gen 4:26) This teaches that the people of that generation came and asked Enosh, 'What was your father's name?' He replied, 'Seth.' 'And what was the name of your father's father?' He replied, 'Adam.' Then they asked, 'And what was the name of Adam's father?' He replied, 'He had no father but the Holy One, Blessed be, created a golem from the earth and breathed into him the breath of life.' They said to him, 'How did He make him?' Immediately, [Enosh] took a clump of soil and formed it into the shape of a golem, and with his breath, life entered it. Upon seeing this, they said, 'This is our god,' and they believed in it...

The following alternate explanation of the teraphim, dating from somewhere between the 4th and 12th centuries, conjures up the plastered skulls of Jericho (see below), which were only unearthed in the 20th century.... Perhaps (and this is wildly speculative) this text reflects a cultural memory of this ancient practice.

Note the use of incantation to animate this being, just as incantation animates later golems:

תרגום יונתן על בראשית ל״א:י״ט

(יט) וְלָבָן אָזַל לְמֵיגַז עָנֵיהּ וּגְנֵיבַת רָחֵל יַת צַלְמָנַיָא דַהֲווֹן נַכְסִין גַבְרָא בּוּכְרָא וְחִזְמִין רֵישֵׁיהּ וּמַלְחִין לֵיהּ בְּמִילְחָא וּבוּסְמָנִין וְכָתְבִין קוּסְמִין בְּצִיצָא דְדַהֲבָא וִיהָבִין תְּחוֹת לִשְׁנֵיהּ וּמְקַיְמִין לֵיהּ בְּכוּתְלָא וּמְמַלֵיל עִמְהוֹן וְאִילֵין הֲווֹן דַהֲוָה גָחִין לְהוֹן אָבוּהָא

Targum Jonathan on Genesis 31:19

(19) "And Laban had gone to shear his flock; and Rahel stole the images." For they had killed a man, a firstborn, and had cut off his head; they salted it with salt and spices, and wrote incantations on a plate of gold, and put it under his tongue, and set it up in the wall, and it would speak with them. These were the idols that her father would bow down to.

An example of a plastered skull from Jericho, displayed in Britian's Ashmolean museum. The lower jaw was removed and the skull is packed with dirt, plastered, and painted and decorated:

GOLEMS AS PROJECTIONS

Golems can be understood as an externalization of parts of a person or a people that feel knotted or inaccessible. Externalizing a part of ourselves can enable us to better understand it:

Claude Lévi-Strauss

The Savage Mind

What is the virtue of reduction either of scale or in the number of properties? It seems to result from a sort of reversal in the process of understanding. To understand a real object in its totality we always tend to work from its parts. The resistance it offers us is overcome by dividing it. Reduction in scale reverses this situation. Being smaller, the object as a whole seems less formidable. By being quantitatively diminished, it seems to us qualitatively simplified. More exactly, this quantitative tranposition extends and diversifies our power over a homologue of the thing, and by means of it the latter can be grasped, assessed and apprehended at a glance. A child's doll is no longer an enemy, a rival or even an interlocutor. In it and through it a person is made into a subject.

In Eastern Europe, where Jewish physical prowess and self-defense were brutally repressed, the Golem becomes a figure of strength and protection. Some of these golems in include:

The Golem of HaRav Eliyahu Baal Shem of Chelm (16th c.)

https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/567962?lang=bi

Sunday August 13, 1961 continued

The ride into Jackson was uneventful. It was dark and few people noticed our being sirened through all the traffic lights by our escort of police cars. The Masonic Temple is located in the middle of downtown Jackson, on Lynch Street. When we entered, it was almost full, a sea of Negro faces (although I became aware later that there were some whites among them, even some Jackson whites, particularly from Temple Beth Israel, the Jewish congregation in Jackson). As we filed to the seats reserved for us, the people of Jackson stood up and cheered us. I felt very strange; I had never been the guest of honor at a larger meeting before, and even sharing the limelight with almost two hundred others, it gave me a feeling of mixed humility and pride.

The opening invocation was given by Freedom Rider who was a rabbi from San Francisco, Joseph Gumbiner, and I was at this point introduced to on of the strangest (to me) aspects of southern Negro audience, their habit of responding aloud to sentiments with which they are pleased. As the rabbi repeated some of the most common and familiar (to me) phrases of Jewish ritual, I heard choruses of "That's right," "We believe," and "A-men!" At first I could not help feeling that this was impolite and inappropriate, but as it continues through the evening I began to get into the spirit too and to shed some of my northern reserve. The speeches, by Reverent C.T. Vivian, Jim Farmer, and various other leaders of the movement from all over the country."

page 113

Chapter 12 "Events"

Freedom Rider Diary

by Carol Ruth Silver

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ySwr5Z2ARlgLZc67EyuyjUR9B7iorZM8/view

In 1843, New York Reform Jews founded the exclusively Jewish Masonic Lodge, B'nai B'rith.

Their institutions and influence grew. At the turn of the 20th century, the B'nai B'rith founded the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Congress and Federations of Jewish Charities.

According to Rabbi Antelman, Reform #Jews who became lawyers were, and still are, active in the subversively oriented National Lawyers Guild. In addition these lawyers were instrumental

in founding the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Once the Frankist-Reform Jews were well established in the illuminated Masonic Lodges, they pushed for civil rights for the downtrodden, primarily for Blacks, according to Antelman, "to

exploit them for their own ends." He further remarks on their influence on the events of the 1960s:

"I have found their descendants in the United States to be very active in Marxist-Leninist and Third World activities. They have attempted to convert the Civil Rights movement into a Black

revolution, and are attempting to further polarize this country by promoting women's liberation. Their children who are prominent in the SDS [Students for a Democratic Society] organize and recruit for the El Fatah, and have succeeded in destroying synagogues and

Jewish institutions by instigating Black radicals mostly concentrated in nine urban centers in the U.S."

Rabbi Antelman lists three steps Reform Jews plan to use to eliminate all Jewry: "The initial thrust was philosophically Karaitic, an attack on the Talmud. [The Karaites were a Jewish sect founded in Babylonia toward the end of the 8th century, who denied the authority of the Oral Law and the Talmud.] The intermediate stage was complete apostasy, an attack on the Torah.

However, the final state is even worse": a complete reversal of all Biblical law. Antelman, writing in 1974, said the Reform "has followers today who are now calling for abolition of capital punishment in our society, who endorse abortion, who seek to justify the tolerance of criminal elements, who approve of adultery and illicit sexual relations and who have even incorporated homosexual congregations into their structure and praise for 'atheistic' rabbis...."

The Reform's planned destruction of traditionally Jewish and #Christian society through Masonic revolution was premeditated. Antelman states that "when attempts were made by the Illuminati,

Jacobins and Frankists to infiltrate the Masons.. .their infiltration did not mean that they harbored any particular love for Freemasonry. On the contrary, they hated it with a passion and only wished to utilize the cover of Freemasonry as a means of spreading their revolutionary doctrines and to provide a place where they could covertly meet without arousing suspicion."

Antelman wrote eight years before the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail exposed Freemasonry as a front for both Sion and the Templars. Now we know that instead of taking over #Freemasonry, as many conspiracy researchers have thought, the Illuminati-Frankist Jews were absorbed, then exploited, by the more powerful Masonic Lodges. Freemasonry learned well the Frankist doctrines and usurped their Reform system to destroy the existing order. Jews such as Moses Mendelssohn, and later Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky, were used by Freemasonry to replace the old order with their own Gentile Masonic New World Order. Should

the conspiracy be exposed, the doctrinally subversive Frankist/Reform Jews would be the scapegoat."

Chapter 8 "The Jewish Connection"

Scarlet and the Beast

by John Daniel

https://ia803001.us.archive.org/28/items/ScarletAndTheBeastJohnDaniel1995/Scarlet%20and%20the%20Beast,%20John%20Daniel%20(1995).pdf

Wednesday, May 31, 1961

In the afternoon mail today I received the material from CORE, some descriptive little pamphlets and a mimeographed form to be signed and returned to them. For the first time I began to learn just who and what CORE is. Actually I never herd of the organization until the beginning of the sit-in demonstrations last year, and I got the impression then that it had been formed not more than a year or so ago, with participation in the sit-ins its primary activity.

On the contrary, CORE has been around for something like twenty years. In the beginning it was a small organization dedicated to bettering race relations by applying Gandhian techniques although I could not get quite clear about what exactly this entailed). Its current ASCENDANCY began with the beginning of the sit-in demonstrations. These broke out like a highly CONTAGIOUS rash over the face of the South after having been started (more or less) by a small group in Greensboro, North Carolina. The students had gone up to a lunch counter together, sat down, and waited for service. The lunch counter closed up.

CORE came in as those in jail or otherwise in need of help. And some of its local chapters began challenge segregation by organizing their own lunch counter sit-ins, or wade-ins at beaches and public pools, stand-ins at movie ticket lines, read-ins at libraries and the like. The method used in all cases was nonviolent resistance, with Martin Luther King, Jr's bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, as the prime example."

page 9

Freedom Rider Diary

by Carol Ruth Silver

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ySwr5Z2ARlgLZc67EyuyjUR9B7iorZM8/view

Chapter 43 The Jesuits — 1960 – 1963 1455 A. Philip Randolph Leading Black Civil Rights Leaders, 1964

Here sit the greatest traitors to American Black People who ever disgraced the sad, tragic history of this generally servile and downtrodden race. With no true Black men loyal to their race allowed to advocate a “Back to Africa” movement or the establishment of a new Black nation in North America—to the exclusion of all White people—, these Jesuit-ruled, Masonic “Uncle Toms” of the Black Pope championed an integrationist agitation that has only antagonized the relationship between American Whites and Blacks for the last sixty years—while further centralizing executive power in Washington! Massive unconstitutional socialism, such as President Johnson’s “War on [Black] Poverty” igniting a sky-rocketing national debt, has given rise to huge, easily-agitated, welfare-dependent, savage, inner-city, Black populations whose bent to illegitimacy, vice and Black-on- White crime has been continually stoked by the Company’s CIA/Mafia gunrunners, illicit drug trade, Jesuit/Knight of Malta-controlled Hollywood theater movies and now “gangster rap.” From the Order’s NAACP headquarters in New York City we see (L-R): Bayard Rustin, co-founder of the Rockefellerfunded University of Chicago’s Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); Jewish Jack Greenberg, NAACP New York lawyer; Masonic Whitney M. Young, Jr., National Urban League executive director; James Farmer, cofounder and national CORE director; Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the NAACP later awarded St. Louis University’s “Sword of Ignatius Loyola” in 1976; Martin Luther King, Jr. (groomed for the movement while a student at the all-Blackmale Morehouse College by its Masonic president, Benjamin Elijah Mays) president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; John Lewis, radical chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee; Masonic A. Philip Randolph, “the Chief;” and Courtney Young of Lewis’ student group. Socialist Martin King with his White Master, Pope Paul VI, 1964 #612 Archbishop Paul Marcinkus gazes at King after an “audience” with the Pope. SMOM Henry R. Luce’s Time magazine named King “Man of the Year” in 1964 on orders from Cardinal Spellman, furthering Rome’s Civil Rights agitation. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4737372.stm "

Vatican Assassins Third Edition

by Eric Jon Phelps

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uQl1CmWeLL87RWVtzKttGFKm0frSNR8D/view?usp=sharing

SOCIALISTS IN THE KOOL-AID

October 15, 2018 By ISI Archive

Forty years ago, the name Jim Jones and the idea of “drinking the Kool-Aid” became indelibly etched in our collective memory as the world learned of a mass cult suicide in the jungles of South America. Movies and books have been written about Jones, but a key element of his story remains in the shadows: his career in San Francisco as a preacher and politico, courting and seducing some of the most powerful Democratic Party players in that weird and wild city, including a man who has become a cultural icon and hero to many, Harvey Milk. Daniel J. Flynn, author of Blue Collar Intellectuals and Intellectual Morons, has written a deeply researched and chilling account of the strangest of bedfellows—Cult City, which hits bookstores today. Here is an excerpt.

The advertisement billed the December 2 benefit gala as “A Struggle Against Oppression.” Scheduled speakers included rising Assemblyman Willie Brown as the master of ceremonies and funnyman Dick Gregory as the keynote. Supervisor Harvey Milk and other movers and shakers of an oft moved and shaken city crammed their big names into a small font on the flyer. For the bargain of $25—and “tax deductible” at that—influence seekers could seek to influence the mighty of a great American city. In addition to mingling with such power brokers as Brown and Milk, they could corner Sheriff Eugene Brown, physician and newspaper publisher Carlton Goodlett, and Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver at San Francisco’s Hyatt Regency. And doing well meant doing good. The dinner’s proceeds subsidized the Peoples Temple Medical Program.

The Hyatt ballroom remained empty on December 2, 1978. Two weeks earlier, the small staff of the Peoples Temple Medical Program had mixed cyanide with Flavor Aid and administered the poisonous, sugary elixir to hundreds of people in faraway Guyana. The smiling seniors and racial rainbow of children touting the wholesomeness of the agricultural commune in the fundraiser’s promotional literature rotted in piles in the steamy South American jungle. On an airstrip in nearby Port Kaituma, five people, including Congressman Leo Ryan, lay dead, gunned down by Peoples Temple assassins. Others, including future congresswoman Jackie Speier, State Department official Richard Dwyer, and San Francisco Examiner reporter Tim Reiterman, nursed bullet wounds. In Guyana’s capital city, a former Harvey Milk campaign volunteer slashed her children’s throats.

The Reverend Jim Jones, the darling of the San Francisco political establishment, orchestrated the murders and suicides of 918 people on November 18, 1978. The man-made cataclysm represented the largest such loss of civilian life in American history until 9/11 and the largest mass suicide of the modern age. Nothing before or after struck Americans as so bizarre.

The event shocked the world. But the small world surrounding Peoples Temple predicted it—loudly and repeatedly. Not every utterance from Jonestown’s namesake, after all, proved as cryptic as the one block-quoted on the “Struggle Against Oppression” promotional literature: “We have tasted life based on total equality and now have no desire to live otherwise.”

THE BIG COVER-UP

In the chaotic aftermath of the carnage, the Temple’s aggressive communism and evangelical atheism got lost in translation from the Guyanese jungle to bustling urban newsrooms looking to get the story first rather than right.

A New York Times article alleged that “Mr. Jones had preached a blend of fundamentalist Christianity and social activism.” The Associated Press called the people of Peoples Temple “religious zealots.” Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, described Jim Jones as “a power-hungry fascist.” Comedian Mort Sahl explained on his radio show days after the massacre, “The exercise in Guyana was a fascist exercise, no matter what the label on the can. Socialists don’t do that.” Neither a half-hour CBS special called “The Horror of Jonestown” nor an NBC report titled “Jonestown, November 1978: How Could It Happen?” raised the issue of the group’s Marxism.

Not everyone accepted the initial narrative. One fundamentalist minister, in a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, objected to a California News Service article that termed Jones’s flock a “fundamentalist congregation.” Pravda, the official newspaper of the Soviet Communist Party, seized an opportunity to ridicule the West by noting that “the United States news media are trying to convince Americans as well as the foreign public that the deaths were the action of wild religious fanatics.”

Pravda and the Globe’s fundamentalist correspondent—strange bedfellows—were right. The supposed religious fanatics of Jonestown had hosted a Soviet delegation, taught Russian to residents in preparation for a mass pilgrimage to the place Jim Jones dubbed the group’s “spiritual motherland,” and willed millions of dollars to the Soviet Union. Peoples Temple goons confiscated Bibles reaching Jonestown from the United States. Jonestown celebrated December 25 as Revolution Day. They sang songs about Jim rather than Jesus. Jones openly denounced the “stupid Skygod.” When the jungle community ran out of toilet paper, Jones distributed Bibles for bathroom use—a practice hitherto unknown among fundamentalist Christians.

The initial rush of information confused falsehood for fact to such an extent that many gleaned an impression of the Temple diametrically opposed to reality. Jonestown, a jungle citadel of evangelical atheism and militant socialism, strangely became a cautionary tale about the dangers of evangelical Christianity.

The Nation offered one of the few reality checks. “The temple was as much a left-wing political crusade as a church,” the weekly offered. “In the course of the 1970s, its social program grew steadily more disaffected from what Jim Jones came to regard as a ‘Fascist America’ and drifted rapidly toward outspoken Communist sympathies.”

Distortions endure. The cover of Rebecca Moore’s 2009 book Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple, a follow-up to A Sympathetic History of Jonestown and In Defense of Peoples Temple, shows pictures of a white teacher patiently instructing black children, jubilant multiracial chefs preparing a dinner, an elderly man receiving medical care, and an industrious boy spinning a pottery wheel. Moore insists that the commune’s “reality was not completely at odds with the façade” it presented to the world.

“If anything,” Julia Scheeres maintains in 2011’s A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown, “the people who moved to Jonestown should be remembered as noble idealists. They wanted to create a better, more equitable, society. They wanted their kids to be free of violence and racism. They rejected sexist gender roles. They believed in a dream.”

Most people who live in a nightmare do.

The beliefs of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple—political, spiritual, and otherwise—ultimately proved a terrible embarrassment to allies; their actions, more so. Politicians, journalists, and others distanced themselves from the Temple.

The situation was far different when Jones was alive. During Peoples Temple’s heyday, Huey Newton, Jane Fonda, and Angela Davis heaped praise on the clergyman. A Los Angeles newspaper named Jones “Humanitarian of the Year.” The prominent interfaith organization Religion in American Life named him one of the nation’s one hundred outstanding clergymen, feting him at New York’s Waldorf Astoria. The president of CBS talked to Jones about producing a TV documentary on Peoples Temple.

Peoples Temple offered the political class votes and volunteers. In return, the Temple received legitimacy. Jones held court with future first lady Rosalynn Carter; two vice presidents, Nelson Rockefeller and Walter Mondale; Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally of California; and many other political figures. Willie Brown compared Jones to Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King Jr. Local media speculated that Jones could abandon the pulpit for the best office in City Hall.

POISONED MILK

Just nine days after the live-action horror movie in Guyana, another tragic event shook San Francisco: Supervisor Dan White murdered fellow supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone in City Hall. As with the Jonestown massacre, myths cloud our understanding of these assassinations.

In life, the assassin served as a protégé of future U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein, a public-employees union activist, and a friend and occasionally an ally of Harvey Milk. He represented blue-collar San Francisco Democrats as a blue-collar San Francisco Democrat. But after murdering fellow Democrats Milk and Moscone, the surely disturbed Dan White morphed into a “disturbed right-wing supervisor.”

White’s victims experience a similar treatment of revisionist history. Moscone and Milk, tightly linked to Peoples Temple in life, strangely became untethered from the group in death. Moscone probably owed his election as mayor to Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. As thanks, the mayor appointed Jones to an important city post, making him chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission.

Harvey Milk became one of Jones’s most effusive advocates. He sent gushing letters to Jones and lobbied prominent leaders on behalf of Peoples Temple. Milk sent the president of the United States a letter so fawning that, in the words of one Temple chronicler, it “reads as if it were written by a Temple publicist.” To the prime minister of Guyana, Milk declared, “Such greatness I have found at Jim Jones’ Peoples’ Temple.”

Before Peoples Temple drank Jim Jones’s Kool-Aid, powerful people in San Francisco did. Harvey Milk imbibed most enthusiastically.

The popular treatments of Milk’s life do not leave this impression. In the Academy Award–winning movie Milk, starring Sean Penn, the Peoples Temple preacher, who proved crucial to Milk’s political rise and whose rise crucially depended on Milk and other Bay Area pols, appears nowhere. Leading biographies of Milk and Jones barely mention how the two San Francisco leaders helped each other.

Whereas chroniclers whitewashed Jim Jones before the events of November 1978, they whitewashed Harvey Milk after them. A man who had a long romantic relationship with a runaway he picked up at age sixteen now gives his name to a state holiday celebrated in California’s schools. A pioneer in the practice of “outing” and a constant practitioner of in-fighting with other gays now serves as a homosexual Martin Luther King figure idealized to the point of distortion. A politician who served honorably in the military subsequently won praise for a nonexistent dishonorable discharge that fuels a victimhood storyline. If Jones’s death eventually unearthed the truth about him, Milk’s unleashed a caricature often at odds with the facts.

In addition to uncovering archived material unavailable to or overlooked by previous researchers, this book includes scores of interviews providing a fresh perspective that upends what we think we know about the events of November 1978. The figures interviewed include Jim Jones’s onetime chief lieutenant; one of only three still-living survivors of the Jonestown tragedy present when the killings began; classmates of Harvey Milk and a playmate of Jones; a follower who plotted to kill Jones; the police officer who arrested Dan White; people shot by Peoples Temple enforcers; colleagues and rivals of Milk, White, and Moscone; and numerous other eyewitnesses to history largely unheard until now. These voices tell an untold story.

WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN

Characters propelled the events of November 1978. A unique setting allowed the tragedy to occur.

In San Francisco, the tie-dyed, Day-Glo 1960s morphed into a grimmer 1970s scene populated by serial killers, mad bombers, political assassins, and atavisms advertising the excesses of the previous era in gait, speech, and stare. In the Star Wars bar scene of 1970s San Francisco, Peoples Temple fit in more than it stood out. Yet the thumbnail tale of the Temple generally fixates on how so many could fall for such a charlatan in Guyana. What about San Francisco? There Herb Caen, Paul Avery, and other star journalists fawned over Jones, clergy celebrated him, and elected officials spoke of him as though speaking of a supernatural force and not a mere man.

Many crooked preachers fool the flock from the pulpit. Jim Jones suckered an entire city, or at least that portion of it holding the most sway.

The tragedy birthed in Guyana was conceived in California. One of the midwives was Harvey Milk. He depicted Jim Jones as a saint, Jonestown as an Eden, and the Temple’s opponents as loathsome. He wrote lobbying letters to more powerful political leaders touting the Temple and its leader. Though generally phobic toward organized religion, he described his experiences attending Peoples Temple in ecstatic terms. Jones incentivized such treatment by producing campaign volunteers, promoting the politician, and providing material support. More important, he preached a message Milk wanted to hear: Jones used the pulpit to extol homosexuality when other religious figures regarded it as a sin. Milk chose to see the beautiful illusion and not the insanity staring him in the face.

People with worse educations and fewer opportunities did so at greater penalty. Never speaking with much of a megaphone in life, and silenced in death, the victims became victims all over again in the aftermath. The mighty back in San Francisco washed their hands of any complicity. The narrative stressed a band of kooks isolated in the jungle. It largely bypassed the alliance between Jim Jones and Harvey Milk, George Moscone, and other local leaders.

Reasons specific to San Francisco set the tragedy in motion. So did ones universal within human nature. The Temple’s influential friends overlooked evidence of severe wrongdoing to actively promote Jim Jones. The glorious vision Jones elucidated obscured the dark reality. The attempt to create heaven on earth instead produced a hell.

Jones found allies among the powerful; he found devoted followers in the pews. A charismatic preacher, he attracted thousands to his San Francisco services and exerted an extraordinary hold over his Peoples Temple followers. They called him “Father” and viewed him as God. The deeper they rooted their support for Jim Jones, the more difficult they found it to dig themselves out of the hole. The same phenomenon that damned the judgment of the powerful in San Francisco doomed the powerless in Jonestown. The cover-ups, the prioritizing of correct politics over right conduct, and the fidelity to the narrative when it clashed with facts led to the faithful’s demise and characterized the mentality of their boosters safe in San Francisco. And four decades later, the scrubbing of reality to produce a politically cleaner version continues. People who bowdlerize the events of 1978 strangely wonder how people in 1978 could have bowdlerized events in 1978.

In the cases of Jim Jones and Harvey Milk, an end-justifies-the-means mentality erased faults and emphasized good deeds. Then, politicians enjoying Peoples Temple support dismissed specific reports from numerous eyewitnesses of serious criminal conduct by Jim Jones. Now, Harvey Milk’s admirers erase his close alliance with Jim Jones. To note the tall tales he told about himself and others to further a persecution narrative, the outing of a friend for political advantage, and his predatory relationships with teens and young men all mark the messenger as indecent. This book confronts the noble lie.

Jones did no wrong in life. Milk proved infallible upon death. The politician and the preacher, a saint and a devil in their afterlives, walked the earth as human beings.

Daniel Flynn is the author of five books, including Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America, and Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas. A senior editor of the American Spectator, he has written for the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the New York Post, City Journal, and National Review. He lives in Massachusetts. "

https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/socialists-in-the-kool-aid/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley

It was while investigating the Little Rock integration incident in 1957 that I first learned of Pike’s rapid advance in Freemasonry, and knowing that Weishaupt, using Thomas Jefferson and Moses Holbrook, had infiltrated Illuminists into the Masonic Lodges of America, I decided I would find out if the fact that Pike’s mansion in Little Rock had thirteen rooms had any significance. “Thirteen’ figures prominently in Satanic, Luciferian and Cabalistic rituals, codes, and writings, etc. My investigations produced documentary evidence to show that, because of Pike’s exceptional mental ability, he came under the notice of professors in Harvard who were members of the Illuminati, who developed in his mind the ‘idea that a One World Government, a One World Religion and a One World financial and economic system was the ONLY solution to the world’s many and varied problems. I next discovered that his departure from Harvard was not due to lack of finances, or because of a misunderstanding with the faculty over tuition fees, but because of his ‘radical’ ideas and teachings. When he returned home determined that he would ‘fight’ his way to the top despite all opposition, he was in a suitable frame of mind to be recruited as a ‘Minerval’ or ‘apprentice’ into the lower degrees of the Illuminati."

Satan Prince of This World by William Guy Carr

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hw94yTrcRzvZjNQOo8T5_w-jqL8v5IMu/view?usp=sharing

Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, also known as Adams Field, is a joint civil-military airport on the east side of Little Rock, Arkansas. It is operated by the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission.

The largest commercial airport in Arkansas, it served more than 2.1 million passengers in the year spanning from March 2009 through to February 2010.[6] While Clinton National Airport does not have direct international passenger flights, more than 50 flights arrive or depart at Little Rock each day, with nonstop service to 14 cities.[7] The airport is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2019–2023, in which it is categorized as a small-hub primary commercial service facility.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_National_Airport

The President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site is located in HOPE, Arkansas.[2] Built in 1917 by Dr. H. S. Garrett, in this house the 42nd president of the United States, Bill Clinton, spent the first four years of his life, having been born on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in HOPE, Arkansas.[3][4] The house was owned by Clinton's maternal grandparents, Edith Grisham and James Eldridge Cassidy, and they cared for him when his mother, Virginia, was away working as an anesthetist in New Orleans.[5]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_William_Jefferson_Clinton_Birthplace_Home_National_Historic_Site

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_and_Hope

Bilderberg Group: What To Know About the Secretive Meetings

https://time.com/4362872/bilderberg-group-meetings-2016-conspiracy-theories/

Bill Clinton ‘Encouraged’ Trump to Run

SLICK WILLY

Updated Apr. 14, 2017 10:12AM EDT /

Published Aug. 05, 2015 3:33PM EDT

https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/08/05/bill-clinton-encouraged-trump

Donald Trump The Art of the Deal

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DLcbnLrl6moQT7nGj1JitG6AiQ6qgK0y/view?usp=sharing

Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner October 20, 2016 Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Henry Kissinger Gayle King Cardinal Dolan Katie Couric Chuck Schumer Mayor Bill de Blasio"

https://www.facebook.com/MariaBartiromo/posts/alfred-e-smith-memorial-foundation-dinner-october-20-2016-donald-trump-hillary-c/1353937201283479/

https://jesuitas.lat/uploads/the-constitutions-of-the-society-of-jesus-and-their-complementary-norms/Constitutions%20and%20Norms%20SJ%20ingls.pdf

Controlled opposition is the use of black propaganda and saboteurs who claim to oppose a particular faction but are in fact working for the faction.

One alleged example is the Serbian Party Oathkeepers (SSZ), led under their president Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, who claim to be opposed to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). [citation needed]

Controlled opposition can also mean a party or group that stands as a placeholder for the opposition, but who are ultimately completely ineffective and therefore everything is "controlled" by the ruling parties, without necessarily a direct conspiracy taking place. [6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_(politics)

https://www.facebook.com/billy.dunn.50767/posts/pfbid0vDTuLR9ebRBXDNWEDicV1yp7USvdzed22UXqtzdb2Wrbd8xf2enwSHpKp6USQ1Sul

How should Christians view the Black Lives Matter movement?

Answer

Modern “discussions” of race and politics are more often dueling echoes than conversations. Deep issues require careful consideration. With that in mind, please refer to our other resources on social issues, such as systemic racism, for important background perspectives. Phrases such as “Black Lives Matter” often mean entirely different things to different people, depending on what they want to defend or support. Examining every possible nuance of these variations is well beyond our ministry’s ability.

Rather, we choose to address points, commonly associated with Black Lives Matter, over which Christians ought to be concerned. Our focus is on pointing out where legitimate concerns over racism, inequality, or culture can be co-opted by non-biblical ideas and become unbiblical. Neither our expertise nor our purpose is in the subtlest, finest details of social theories or cultural debates. We choose to present clear biblical principles in places where they intersect with culture. No article will ever present every facet of a social issue to the satisfaction of every possible reader, and we make no claims otherwise.

Started in 2013 in response to separate police shootings of two young black men, the Black Lives Matter movement (or BLM) came into prominence with its use of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag. Ever since, the phrase black lives matter has been a rallying cry of those who believe there is institutional racism against African-Americans in virtually every aspect of society, but especially in police departments and the legal system.

There is no point in discussing the statistics on black crime vs. the percentage of the black population and/or the numbers of black-on-black murders vs. the number of blacks killed by police officers. For every statistic, there is a dueling statistic or a way to reinterpret the statistic. There is no point in discussing the specific cases that spawned the Black Lives Matter movement. The various sides all seem to be rigorously locked into their understanding of the events and the aftermaths. Like most issues connected to race, it appears to be virtually impossible to have a constructive dialogue about the Black Lives Matter movement.

As a concept, it is true that black lives matter. Blacks/African-Americans are equally created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). In God’s eyes, blacks are equal in value to whites, browns, reds, yellows, and everyone in between. Racism is evil. There is only one race, and that is the human race. Ultimately, we all have the same parents (Genesis 5).

As a movement, Black Lives Matter has taken that true concept (black lives matter) and twisted it into something completely unbiblical. The organization has recently showed its true colors, openly promoting causes that oppose biblical values. The two co-founders of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, claim Marxism as their ideology: “We actually do have an ideological frame,” Cullors said in an interview, “Myself and Alicia in particular, we’re trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on ideological theories” (quoted in the Washington Times, “The matter of Marxism: Black Lives Matter is rooted in a soulless ideology,” June 29, 2020).

On their official website, BLM expresses their support of the LGBTQ agenda: “We make space for transgender brothers and sisters to participate and lead. We . . . dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk. . . . We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual” (https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe, accessed 6/16/20).

Perhaps most troubling is Black Lives Matter’s stance on the family: “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable” (ibid.). What BLM calls the “Western-prescribed nuclear family” is actually the God-ordained family unit: a father, a mother, and their children. To work to “disrupt” that design is to actively oppose God’s plan for society.

Concerning racism, we can all agree that no one should be judged by the color of his or her skin. We should fight against all true forms of racism and be compassionate to its victims. Through it all, we should point people to Christ as the only answer for racism. Protests, policies, awareness, changes to the legal system, etc., will never solve the problem. Racism is the result of sin. Until the sin problem is dealt with—until people become new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17)—the problem of racism will never be eradicated. Only in Christ can racial reconciliation be found: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility” (Ephesians 2:14).

Concerning the methods used by Black Lives Matter, peaceful protests against racial injustice are appropriate. But Christians should never be involved in rioting, looting, violence against police officers, hateful speech, and/or “reverse” discrimination/racism against non-blacks. Injustice and hatred will not be ended by more injustice and hatred.

As for BLM’s position on issues not related to race, there is no way a Christian should support the godless ideology of Marxism, allow the destruction of the nuclear family, or be involved in a “queer-affirming network” that advocates for the normalization of transgenderism.

As with any group, it’s important to know what Black Lives Matter believes. And some of what they believe is incompatible with biblical truth. Of course, all Christians should be in full support of black lives matter as a concept, as we are all created in the image of God; however, Christians should reject the BLM movement’s hijacking of this truthful concept and its promotion of philosophies and methodologies that are completely unbiblical.

https://www.gotquestions.org/black-lives-matter.html

George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd had used a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, on May 25, 2020.[2] Derek Chauvin, one of four police officers who arrived on the scene, knelt on Floyd's neck and back for over nine minutes, fatally asphyxiating him.[3] After his murder, a series of protests against police brutality, especially towards black people, quickly spread globally and across the United States. His dying words, "I can't breathe", became a rallying slogan.

Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Floyd grew up in Houston, Texas, playing football and basketball throughout high school and college. Between 1997 and 2005, he was convicted of eight crimes. He served four years in prison after accepting a plea bargain for a 2007 aggravated robbery in a home invasion.[4] After he was paroled in 2013, he served as a mentor in his religious community and posted anti-violence videos to social media.[5][6][7][8] In 2014, he moved to the Minneapolis area, residing in the nearby suburb of St. Louis Park, and worked as a truck driver and bouncer. In 2020, he lost both jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

After his death, the City of Minneapolis settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Floyd's family for $27 million. Chauvin was convicted on two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter on April 20, 2021,[9] and on June 25, 2021, was sentenced to 22+1⁄2 years in prison.[10] The other three officers at the scene were also later convicted of violating Floyd's civil rights.[11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd

In a legend, Saint George—a soldier venerated in Christianity—defeats a dragon. The story goes that the dragon originally extorted tribute from villagers. When they ran out of livestock and trinkets for the dragon, they started giving up a human tribute once a day. And, one day, the princess herself was chosen as the next offering. As she was walking towards the dragon's cave, St. George saw her and asked her why she was crying. The princess told the saint about the dragon's atrocities and asked him to flee immediately, in fear that he might be killed too. But the saint refused to flee, slew the dragon, and rescued the princess. The narrative was first set in Cappadocia in the earliest sources of the 11th and 12th centuries, but transferred to Libya in the 13th-century Golden Legend.[1]

The narrative has pre-Christian origins (Jason and Medea, Perseus and Andromeda, Typhon, etc.),[1] and is recorded in various saints' lives prior to its attribution to Saint George specifically. It was particularly attributed to Saint Theodore Tiro in the 9th and 10th centuries, and was first transferred to Saint George in the 11th century. The oldest known record of Saint George slaying a dragon is found in a Georgian text of the 11th century.[2][3]

The legend and iconography spread rapidly through the Byzantine cultural sphere in the 12th century. It reached Western Christian tradition still in the 12th century, via the Crusades. The knights of the First Crusade believed that Saint George, along with his fellow soldier-saints Demetrius, Maurice, Theodore and Mercurius, had fought alongside them at Antioch and Jerusalem. The legend was popularised in Western tradition in the 13th century based on its Latin versions in the Speculum Historiale and the Golden Legend. At first limited to the courtly setting of chivalric romance, the legend was popularised in the 13th century and became a favourite literary and pictorial subject in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, and it has become an integral part of the Christian traditions relating to Saint George in both Eastern and Western tradition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_George_and_the_Dragon

What does it mean to cut Rahab in pieces in Isaiah 51:9?

Answer

Most Bible readers know Rahab as the heroine of the battle of Jericho story (Joshua 2; 6:22–25). But the name Rahab is also associated in the Bible with a mythical sea creature. In the original Hebrew, the spelling is slightly different: the Rahab of Jericho was רָחָב, while the Rahab of the sea was רַהַב. The difference is a cheit versus a hei as the middle letter.

Bible writers sometimes used the imagery of Rahab, a monster of chaos, as a derogatory representation of Egypt, as in Isaiah 51:9:

“Awake, awake, arm of the Lord,

clothe yourself with strength!

Awake, as in days gone by,

as in generations of old.

Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces,

who pierced that monster through?”

We know this is a poetic allusion to God’s deliverance from Egypt, because the next verse mentions Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea:

“Was it not you who dried up the sea,

the waters of the great deep,

who made a road in the depths of the sea

so that the redeemed might cross over?” (Isaiah 51:10)

In other words, God’s magnificent miracle involving the Red Sea is depicted as a great battle in which God slays a sea monster, cutting it into pieces. The prophet Isaiah harkens back to the exodus as he predicts the captivity in Babylon; he is crying out for God to display His mighty power of deliverance just like He did long ago. Israel would need another exodus.

Earlier in Isaiah, Rahab also stands for “Egypt.” In Isaiah 30:1–7, Judah is portrayed as seeking refuge and protection from Egypt instead of depending on the Lord for help. The prophet contends that Egypt’s assistance was “utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing” (verse 7). Egypt was proud and powerful under Pharoah’s rule—a raging sea dragon—but it was helpless and humiliated when confronted by the strength of Yahweh. Israel needed to seek their help from the Lord.

The prophet Ezekiel pronounced an oracle against Egypt, that ancient enemy of the Lord who had enslaved God’s people. She is not named Rahab in Ezekiel, but Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is addressed as “you great monster, lurking in the streams of the Nile” (Ezekiel 29:3, NLT).

In other places in the Bible, Rahab can picture something other than Egypt. Scripture depicts God as the all-powerful architect of the world, in full control of the elements. In the book that bears his name, Job stresses the weakness of humans when compared to the omnipotent invincibility of God. One of Job’s examples of God’s power is His control of the sea:

“By his power he stilled the sea;

by his understanding he shattered Rahab.

By his wind the heavens were made fair;

his hand pierced the fleeing serpent” (Job 26:12–13, ESV).

This passage is likely a reference to creation, as God brings order out of chaos (see Genesis 1). The poetic description involves God crushing and wounding Rahab—the dragon of chaos. The waters of the earth are pictured as a proud, enraged monster that God tamed and brought under control (see also Job 9:11–15). Job’s point is that, if the great and mighty Rahab (a tempestuous sea) could not stand up against the Lord, how can mere humans expect to prevail against Him?

Psalm 89:9–10 uses imagery similar to that of Job to show God’s mastery over the forces of nature and of evil:

“You rule the raging of the sea;

when its waves rise, you still them.

You crushed Rahab like a carcass;

you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm” (ESV).

Interestingly, The Hebrew name Rahab means “pride, arrogance.” The Bible reveals that God opposes the proud and brings them low (2 Samuel 22:28; Jeremiah 50:31; Isaiah 2:11–12; Proverbs 15:25; 16:18; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). This is true for the pride of the sea, the pride of ancient Egypt, and the pride of sinful humans.

In Scripture, Rahab the sea monster symbolizes rebellion and power and pride. But the forces of evil can’t hold a candle to the supreme power of the God of the universe. Rahab is “cut to pieces” by Him, and all that humans take pride in will come to naught. Nothing in all creation threatens God’s supremacy because He is God Most High (Genesis 14:18–20). All things, no matter how monstrous, are under His control (Nehemiah 9:6; Daniel 2:21; 4:35; 1 Chronicles 29:12).

https://www.gotquestions.org/cut-Rahab-in-pieces.html

1 Peter 5

1599 Geneva Bible

5 1 He warneth the Elders not to usurp authority over the Church, 5 willing the younger sort to be willing to be taught, and to be modest, 8 to be sober and watchful to resist the cruel adversary.

1 The [a]Elders which are among you, [b]I beseech which am also an Elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed,

2 [c][d]Feed the [e]flock of God, [f]which dependeth upon you, [g]caring for it not by constraint, but willingly: not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind:

3 Not as though ye were Lords over God’s [h]heritage, but that ye may be examples to the flock.

4 [i]And when that chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive an incorruptible crown of glory.

5 [j]Likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the Elders, and submit yourselves every man, one to another: deck yourselves inwardly in lowliness of mind: [k]for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

6 Humble yourselves therefore [l]under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

7 Cast all your care on him: for he careth for you.

8 [m]Be sober, and watch: for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

9 Whom resist steadfast in the faith, [n]knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your [o]brethren which are in the world.

10 [p]And the God of all grace, which hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a little, make you perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

11 To him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.

12 [q]By Silvanus a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, have I written briefly, exhorting and testifying how that this is the true grace of God, wherein ye stand.

13 [r]The Church that is at [s]Babylon elected together with you, saluteth you, and Mark my son.

14 Greet ye one another with the kiss of love. Peace be with you all which are in Christ Jesus, Amen.

Footnotes

1 Peter 5:1 He describeth peculiarly the office of the Elders, that is to say, of them that have the care of the Church.

1 Peter 5:1 He useth a preface touching the circumstance of his own person: to wit, that he as their companion, communeth with them not of matters which he knoweth not, but wherein he is as well experienced as any, and propoundeth unto them no other condition but that which he himself hath sustained before them, and doth still take the same pains, and also hath one selfsame hope together with them.

1 Peter 5:2 The first rule: He that is a shepherd, let him feed the flock.

1 Peter 5:2 He saith not, Offer for the quick and dead, and sing patched shreds in a strange tongue, but (Feed.)

1 Peter 5:2 The second: Let the shepherd consider, that the flock is not his, but God’s.

1 Peter 5:2 The third: Let not the shepherds invade other men’s flocks, but let them feed that which God hath committed unto them.

1 Peter 5:2 Let the shepherds govern the Church with the word and example of godly and unblamable life, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, not as Lords over God’s portion and heritage, but as his ministers.

1 Peter 5:3 Which is the Christian people.

1 Peter 5:4 That the shepherds’ minds be not overcome either with the wickedness of men, or their cruelty, he warneth them to cast their eyes continually upon that chief Shepherd, and the crown which is laid up for them in heaven.

1 Peter 5:5 He commendeth many peculiar Christian virtues, and especially modesty: which admonition all of us stand in need of, but especially the younger sort, by reason of the outwardness and pride of that age.

1 Peter 5:5 Because pride seemeth to many, to be the way unto the glory of this life, the Apostle witnesseth on the contrary side, that ignominy and shame is the reward of pride, and glory the reward of modesty.

1 Peter 5:6 Because those proud and lofty spirits threaten the modest and humble, the Apostle warneth us to set the power of God against the vanity of proud men, and to hang wholly upon his providence.

1 Peter 5:8 The cruelty of Satan, who seeketh by all means to devour us, is overcome by watchfulness and faith.

1 Peter 5:9 The persecutions which Satan stirreth up are neither new nor proper to any one man, but from old and ancient time common to the whole Church, and therefore we must suffer that patiently wherein we have such and so many fellows of our conflicts and combats.

1 Peter 5:9 Amongst your brethren which are dispersed throughout the world.

1 Peter 5:10 He sealeth up as it were with a seal the former exhortation with a solemn prayer, again willing them to ask increase of strength at his hands of whom they had the beginning, and hope to have the accomplishment, to wit, of God the Father in Jesus Christ in whom we are sure of the glory of eternal life.

1 Peter 5:12 Continuance and perseverance in the doctrine of the Apostles, is the only ground and foundation of Christian strength: Now the sum of the Apostles’ doctrine, is salvation freely given of God.

1 Peter 5:13 Familiar salutations.

1 Peter 5:13 In that famous city of Assyria, where Peter the Apostle of the circumcision then was.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%205&version=GNV

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