500 лет

[tijd]

500 лет назад эпидемия оспы подкосила цивилизацию ацтеков на американском континенте и сделала их землю легкой добычей испанских конкистадоров во главе с Фернандо Кортесом.

Although Cortés was a skilled leader, he and his force of perhaps a thousand Spaniards and indigenous allies would not have been able to overcome a city of 200,000 without help. He got it in the form of a smallpox epidemic that gradually spread inward from the coast of Mexico and decimated the densely populated city of Tenochtitlan in 1520, reducing its population by 40 percent in a single year.
Smallpox is caused by an inhaled virus, which causes fever, vomiting and a rash, soon covering the body with fluid-filled blisters. These turn into scabs which leave scars. Fatal in approximately one-third of cases, another third of those afflicted with the disease typically develop blindness.
Smallpox existed in ancient times in Egyptian, Indian and Chinese cultures. It remained endemic in human populations for millennia, coming to Europe during the 11th century’s Crusades. When Europeans began to explore and colonize other parts of the world, smallpox traveled with them.
The native people of the Americas, including the Aztecs, were especially vulnerable to smallpox because they’d never been exposed to the virus and thus possessed no natural immunity. No effective anti-viral therapies were available.
Recalling the epidemic, one victim reported:
“The plague lasted for 70 days, striking everywhere in the city and killing a vast number of our people. Sores erupted on our faces, our breasts, our bellies; we were covered with agonizing sores from head to foot.”
A Franciscan monk who accompanied Cortés provided this description:
“As the Indians did not know the remedy of the disease, they died in heaps, like bedbugs. In many places it happened that everyone in a house died, and as it was impossible to bury the great number of dead, they pulled down the houses over them, so that their homes became their tombs.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-smallpox-devastated-the-aztecs-and-helped-spain-conquer-an-american-civilization-500-years-ago



Но важные потрясения в это время происходили и на других континентах.

С разницей в один год умерли Леонардо да Винчи и Рафаэль, подводя черту в эпохе Возрождения.

Эпоха географических открытий продолжилась кругосветным плаванием Магеллана.

Португальцев прогнали из Китая за то, что они похищали китайских детей и продавали их в рабство https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tunmen

В Европе возникало неразрешимое противоречие между доминирующей идеологией католицизма и новыми веяниями времени в виде гуманистического разворота Возрождения и географических открытий, явно демонстрирующих библейскую зашоренность.



Изобретением, которое помогло преодолеть противоречие, стал печатный станок. Вместо переписанных от руки манускриптов, написанных на мертвых языках и доступных только церковным элитам, книги внезапно становились общедоступными.

Пользуясь новой технологией, Мартин Лютер, переводчик Библии на немецкий, запустил эпидемию Реформации. Реформация служила отдушиной, сохраняя религию для тех, кто в ней нуждался, но одновременно модернизируя ее для снятия противоречия с либеральными веяниями времени.

His goal was not to usher in modernity but simply to make religion religious again. Heinz Schilling writes, “Just when the lustre of religion threatened to be outdone by the atheistic and political brilliance of the secularized Renaissance papacy, the Wittenberg monk defined humankind’s relationship to God anew and gave back to religion its existential plausibility.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/how-martin-luther-changed-the-world



Реформация и печатный станок приблизили эпоху Просвещения и научную революцию, после чего человечество смогло перейти на экспоненциальную траекторию в развитии технологии и росте благосостояния, включая борьбу с эпидемиями и болезнями и рост средней продолжительности жизни.



Все это для того, чтобы через 500 лет после Лютера евангелическое христианство в Америке с разгону заехало в тупик трампизма.

Когда в 2013 в Конгрессе обсуждался межпартийный закон об иммиграционной реформе, он был поддержана многими евангелистами и объединяющей организацией Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT). Расистскому крылу удалось, однако, внести раскол, запустив через Breitbart лживые сплетни о том, что EIT тайно финансируется страшным Соросом. В ответ консервативный автор и радиоведущий Эрик Метаксас покинул EIT и присоединился к альтернативной анти-иммиграционной и анти-соросовской организации EBI (Evangelicals for Biblical Integration), спешно созданной христианским деятелем из Огайо по имени Келли Монро Куллберг.

Eric Metaxas, a prominent Evangelical leader and author, dissociated himself from the Evangelical Immigration Table. He tweeted: “Did you know George Soros was behind the Immigration thing I signed but then had my name taken off? Yikes.” That tweet also linked to this report from Breitbart about a new group called Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration that takes a very different stance. And a few hours later, Metaxas tweeted the following: “Anything Soros is behind is worth quitting. So glad I’ve had my name removed from this.”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2013/10/evangelicals-and-immigration-betsy-woodruff/

In a June 2 article for Breitbart.com, Matthew Boyle claimed that the EIT "is actually a front group for players on the institutional left including billionaire George Soros and the Ford Foundation, according to Breitbart News and other outlets." <...>
However, the only evidence Boyle presents in the article that the EIT is funded by Soros is that two organizations that are part of the EIT had previously received funding from Soros. Boyle claims that the Soros/EIT link was established by "Breitbart News," the organization he's writing for, and "other outlets." None of the "other outlets" which Boyle references in the article, though, claim that Soros provided funding for the EIT.
The money for the ads came from Paul Singer, a Republican hedge fund billionaire, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Walmart, and other leading Christian business owners, Rodriguez explained.
The EIT has a diverse membership with groups from both the left, right and middle of the political spectrum, including Esperanza, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, National Association of Evangelicals, and Sojourners. Unsurprisingly, therefore, some of its member organizations have ties to liberal groups because they are themselves liberal.
While the critics are suggesting that Soros is manipulating the EIT members into supporting immigration reform, its members have long been in favor of immigration reform.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/evangelical-immigration-table-says-no-george-soros-money-was-used-for-its-ads-98357/



Организация ЕБИ выполнила свою функцию, организовав открытое коллективное письмо в Конгресс от группы влиятельных евангелистов и помогая тем самым пустить под откос попытки иммиграционной реформы.

Деятельность Куллберг на этом не остановилась. Во время предвыборной кампании 2016 она совместно с Метаксасом и другими соратниками создала новую организацию, AAE (American Association of Evangelicals), в пику традиционной NAE (National Association of Evangelicals). Главной деятельностью AAE вновь стало коллективное письмо, в данном случае - с разоблачением козней Сороса и неявным призывом голосовать за Трампа https://web.archive.org/web/20161115010538/https://americanevangelicals.com/

Накануне выборов агитация стала более явной. В статье "Christians Must Vote in Self-Defense" Куллберг объясняла, что христиане обязаны голосовать за Трампа невзирая на его личные качества, потому что он спасает их от прихода страшной Хиллари Клинтон и сатанинских сил, вскрытых Викиликс.

”Whatever Donald Trump’s personal failings, we have a clear moral obligation to stop Hillary Clinton, every bit as much as we would a home invader who crashed through our bedroom window. When so threatened, we would not stop the cop who comes to help us, and question him about his faith journey or his language. <...> Her campaign chairman, John Podesta, was revealed by Wikileaks to be scheming to disrupt the internal workings of the Catholic church, and to be receiving from his brother invitations to occult-themed dinners with a performance artist who specializes in simulated cannibalism. How much more of a warning does God need to send us about what we’re facing?”
https://stream.org/christians-must-vote-self-defense/



Образованный Метаксас, пересевший в набиравший ход поезд трампизма, написал более замысловатую статью "Should Christians Vote for Trump?", но с тем же выводом: голосуй за Трампа или бог покарает.

"For many of us, this is very painful, pulling the lever for someone many think odious. But please consider this: A vote for Donald Trump is not necessarily a vote for Donald Trump himself. It is a vote for those who will be affected by the results of this election. Not to vote is to vote. God will not hold us guiltless."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/should-christians-vote-for-trump-1476294992

Метаксас успел поучаствовать в закрытой встрече с евангелистами в Trump Tower, на которой была заключена сделка о поддержке на выборах.

The meeting on September 29th, 2016, was one of the ways he tried to move the needle, to convince the religious right that their vision for America was one he shared. Robert Jeffress, the head of 14,000-member megachurch First Baptist Dallas, a contributor to Fox News, and one of the earliest evangelical leaders to support Trump, presided over the meeting. “I usually stand when he comes in the room as a way of showing respect - he doesn’t ask that, but that’s just something that I’ve normally done,” Jeffress explained to the assembled, who included Wayne Grudem, a well-known theologian and co-founder of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood; Eric Metaxas, a bestselling Christian author and radio host; Ryan Anderson, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation; Jay Richards, a philosopher and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank that campaigns against teaching evolution in school; and Ivanka Trump, who popped in momentarily to say hello.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/christian-right-worships-donald-trump-915381/

Court Evangelical Eric Metaxas Says Maria Butina is Probably Innocent https://t.co/I7m5S29NT8 pic.twitter.com/5EHoPDB2Jw
- John Fea (@JohnFea1) December 18, 2018

Он же отметился тем, что в июле 2015 принимал у себя на радиопередаче Марию Бутину, а после защищал ее невиновность.

В сентябре 2015 Метакхас, поддерживающий в то время Бена Карсона, издевался над мнимым христианством Трампа в попыке юмористической колонки в New Yorker.

Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone more "okay" than John the Baptist #TrumpBible http://t.co/YaF9uwuzuB
- Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) September 11, 2015

После выборов приходилось придумывать удобоваримое обоснование для Трампа в качестве "the cop who comes to help us". Выходом стал образ "Donald the Caveman" в книжках для детей.



Дональд - пещерный человек с дубинкой - борется со злом в лице разных чудищ, в том числе иммигрантов, которые ломятся через границу, и динозавра по имени Джоржосорос.

BE OUR NEW KING, DONALD, RULE US AS A GOD EMPEROR pic.twitter.com/tueb5abEia
- The Littlest Bitch (@bitterkarella) November 9, 2019

Людей, знакомых с детской литературой в нацистской Германии, от подобных произведений несколько передергивает.

"Years ago when I was in college, I went on a tour of the university archives. They had an original Gutenberg Bible, and other famous texts-and an original Nazi children’s book published in the 1930s.
Shit shit shit. That’s what this reminds me of.
The book was all about the trouble the Jews caused. And the illustrations-oh, the illustrations. The Jewish people were built as hunched caricatures, while the Aryan German people were strong and tall.
Guys. Guys.
I’m not even sure what to say at this point. Reading that Nazi children’s book a decade ago made a bigger impression on me than I’d realized. And I tell you, I am getting the same vibe from Metaxas’ book.
We are at the fascist children’s literature stage. This is not a good place to be. Indeed, this is a very, very bad place to be. This isn’t edgy, or funny-it’s dangerous."
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2019/11/metaxas-donald-builds-the-wall-recalls-of-nazi-childrens-books.html



Что касается Келли Монро Куллберг, то она удвоила энергию в подготовке к выборам 2020 и, по лекалам путинской фабрики троллей, раскрутила множество фейковых сообществ в Фейсбуке с суммарной аудиторией больше миллиона человек.

A Snopes investigation on 15 May 2019 looked deeply into a small group of radical evangelical Christians that re-purposed Facebook pages and PACs to build a coordinated, pro-Trump network that spreads hate and conspiracy theories - below is a re-cap of key points. The content includes the assertion that the survivors of the Parkland school massacre are on a “leftist-Islamic payroll” and that Islamic refugee resettlement is “cultural destruction and subjugation.”
The names of these Facebook pages imply diverse support from Americans, with titles like “Blacks for Trump” and “Jews and Christians for America.” But Snopes.com found that each of these pages can be tied to a radical evangelical activist named Kelly Monroe Kullberg, who is neither black nor Jewish. We found at least 24 pages in the Kullberg network, which could be in violation of Facebook’s ban on “coordinated inauthentic behavior.”
Snopes also found that at least one prominent GOP donor, William Millis, funded and/or exploited the efforts of the Kullberg network. Millis was a fundraiser and campaign board member for current HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s 2016 presidential campaign.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/05/16/tldr-kullberg-network/

Muslims, the Kullberg network vigorously and ceaselessly asserts, work with progressives such as Soros to “exploit Christian teachings to empower those who seek to dismantle Christian civilization.” Soros, these Facebook pages claim, is behind a global, mass-migration movement that serves only to keep him in power while he tries “to demoralize and destroy” America. “Obviously, if you believe that Western civilization as a concept is civilizationally superior … then you need to account for how this ‘inferior’ civilization is managing to infiltrate it so successfully,” O’Donnell said. “One of the ways they get around that is by positing figures like George Soros as these traitorous insiders who are leveraging the superiority of the West in an effort to undermine and destroy it.”
The Kullberg network takes this conspiracy theory to an extreme. For example, posts shared in the network have suggested that the survivors of the Parkland school massacre are bankrolled by Soros and are therefore, evidently, fair targets for online harassment. A 20 August 2018 post accused these survivors of being “paid to lie and spin for Soros and comrades,” adding that “the Left & Islamists work together - against America.”
https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/05/15/radical-evangelical-facebook/



Отцы-основатели США были людьми просвещенными и малорелигиозными (если и не атеистами, то деистами) и оставили религию за скобками Конституции. Они, однако, отдавали себе отчет в том, что изначальные североамериканские колонии были основаны сектантами-пуританами. В их представлении в этом был плюс. Поскольку разные секты, разнесенные географией штатов, не в состоянии договориться между собой, это создаст барьер для появления общенациональных партий, объединенных экстремистской идеологией.

Джеймс Мадисон был особенно обеспокоен защитой новой республики от шарлатанов и демагогов ("men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs") и полагался на спасительный федерализм.

According to classical theory, republics could exist only in relatively small territories, where citizens knew one another personally and could assemble face-to-face. Plato would have capped the number of citizens capable of self-government at 5,040. Madison, however, thought Plato’s small-republic thesis was wrong. He believed that the ease of communication in small republics was precisely what had allowed hastily formed majorities to oppress minorities. “Extend the sphere” of a territory, Madison wrote, “and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other.” Madison predicted that America’s vast geography and large population would prevent passionate mobs from mobilizing. Their dangerous energy would burn out before it could inflame others.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/james-madison-mob-rule/568351/

The Court Evangelicals Take a Photo https://t.co/7fcCW6JjsI pic.twitter.com/ZzATM2LByC
- John Fea (@JohnFea1) January 5, 2020

Чего основатели не могли предвидеть, так это возникновения идеологии доминионизма, которая пытается объединить христиан разных сект и деноминаций перед приближающимся Концом Света, а силы, противостоящие проникновению религии во власть, считает демонскими кознями, для войны с которыми хороши все средства.

During his November 21 interview with Graham, Metaxas, a Salem Radio Network talk-show host, asked the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham, “What do you think of what is happening now? I mean, it’s a very bizarre situation to be living in a country where some people seem to exist to undermine the president of the United States. It's just a bizarre time for most Americans.”
Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, responded, “Well, I believe it’s almost a demonic power that is trying-”
At which point Metaxas interjected, “I would disagree. It’s not almost demonic. You know and I know, at the heart, it’s a spiritual battle.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/to-trumps-evangelicals-everyone-else-is-a-sinner/602569/



Об организации “Evangelicals for Trump” было объявлено во время трампинга во флоридской церкви, которой руководит Гильермо Мальдонадо, один из апостолов ново-апостольской реформации (NAR).

Maldonado leads what’s considered the biggest Spanish-speaking congregation in the country-El Rey Jesús, or King Jesus International Ministry-whose 7,000-seat sanctuary will be the location for today’s “Evangelicals for Trump” rally in Miami, a kickoff to Trump’s 2020 outreach to Christian leaders as well as the Hispanic faithful.
The 54-year-old Honduran American has joined fellow Pentecostal preachers such as spiritual-adviser-turned-faith-outreach-official Paula White-Cain at Trump’s gatherings with evangelical leaders, laying hands on him during a prayer session back in October and visiting most recently for a Christmas reception.
Maldonado serves as an apostle alongside his wife Ana who serves as a prophet at King Jesus, a 23-year-old global ministry that falls in line with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/january/evangelicals-for-trump-pastor-guillermo-maldonado-miami.html

Использование церкви для политического митинга противоречит законодательству, которое освобождает церкви от налогов, но на такие мелочи, как разделение церкви и государства, ныне не принято обращать внимание.

Attendees, some of them wearing Trump’s signature red campaign hats, nearly filled the room, which the church says holds 7,000. Some raised their hands in a sign of praise and swayed while music played loudly over the speakers before the president entered the room.
Pastors gathered around Trump on the stage for an opening prayer, while much of the audience remained standing with their hands aloft.
In his speech, Trump mocked Democratic challenger Pete Buttigieg, the Indiana mayor, for having what he said was an unpronounceable last name, and told attendees Democrats were waging war against religion.
“These angry radicals want to impose absolute conformity by censuring speech, tearing down crosses and symbols of faith and banning religious believers from public life.”
He got a big reaction from the crowd when he promised to bring religion into U.S. schools. A clause in the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from promoting one religion over the other, which means public schools don’t promote prayer or religious symbols.
“Very soon I’ll be taking action to safeguard students and teachers’ First Amendment rights to pray in our schools,” Trump said.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-evangelicals-for-trump-rally-20200103-fyuznit7kbatrnjwtioioridvi-story.html

Bishop Harry Jackson joined President @realDonaldTrump and Vice President @Mike_Pence in the Oval Office to offer a prayer for America on Good Friday. pic.twitter.com/R7MXgunefQ
- The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 10, 2020

А если скоро можно будет молиться в школах, то почему бы, на деньги налогоплательщиков, не помолиться непосредственно в Овальном кабинете? Этим в Великую (страстную) пятницу занимался пастор Гарри Джексон, тоже апостол.

BISHOP JACKSON: Once again, give this great man, our President, and give the Vice President wisdom beyond their natural limitations. Give them insights so they can cover us, lead us, and bless us. We bless them and America in Jesus’s name. Be encouraged. Hope is on the way. Amen.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Bishop. That’s beautiful.
BISHOP JACKSON: Thank you, my friend.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-easter-blessing-bishop-harry-jackson/

Harry Jackson has been a longtime member of a group called the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders that began in 1999 under the initiative of Cindy Jacobs, who then invited C. Peter Wagner to preside over the group. In 2008, Wagner officially passed leadership of ACPE on to Jacobs, with whom Harry Jackson works closely - such as in a 2007 effort to block the Hate Crimes Bill.
ACPE is perhaps the most important group of prophets in the global New Apostolic Reformation movement that church growth specialist Peter Wagner has played a major role in launching and helping organize.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-religion-adviser_b_9729606

Новоапостол и участник "POTUS Shield" Гарри Джексон был одним из первых среди тех, кто подписывал письма Келли Монро Куллберг против Сороса и иммигрантов. Любители борьбы с тайными заговорами известны определеной приверженностью к тайным заговорам.

HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY TO ALL!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2020

I wish everyone, including the haters and losers, a very happy Easter!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 5, 2015

Новоапостолов не смущает, когда Трамп поздравляет христиан со счастливым распятием Христа. Став их верным защитником, "Donald the Caveman" продолжает крушить достижения 500-летнего прогресса цивилизации.

"I believe that what God is doing today is calling the black church to team with the white evangelical church and the Catholic Church and people of moral conscience, and in this season we need to begin to tell both (political) parties, 'Listen, it's our way or the highway,'" he said, to loud applause.
"You and I can bring the rule and reign of the cross to America, and we can change America on our watch together," he called out. "Do you believe it?"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/megachurch-madness/