If it is acknowledged (or believed) that top-down evil - purposive evil originating global, multinational, and national institutional level ("The Establishment") - is a real and significant phenomenon - then various implications follow.
But it is clear that not many people, including not many Christians, really believe in top-down evil.
Or else regard it as insignificant - otherwise they would not think, speak, write and behave in the ways they do - all of which assume that the most powerful, wealthy, influential and high status levels of society are basically well-intended.
This is why the Litmus Tests mostly work as a method of discernment, and why they cluster - so that failure in one Test (including emerging Tests; such as the Birdemic, the peck, "AI") is associated with - and leads to - failure in other Tests.
My opinion is that the weakness in Christians, their cumulative proneness to fail Litmus Tests as they emanate from The Establishment; is related to their faith being primarily in their church as an institution - in the 2025 context of a totalitarian world where all institutions are strongly inter-linked.
5 comments:
Today all institutions, without exception, are spiritually corrupt and spiritually corrupting. If you put your faith in an institution, churches included, your loyalty will be exploited and you will be led astray. People don't want to believe this but the test of the times is that you are thrown back on yourself. If you are going to be saved you must rely only on God and not anything external.
@William - Yes. I see it as a question of what is your "bottom line".
Churches certainly can be very helpful to some people in some circumstances (and perhaps especially outside of The West) - but, as you say, unless your faith is rooted in your personal relationship with the divine, and you are able to evaluate your church spiritually and reject its leadership when spiritually-indicated; then sooner or later "your loyalty will be exploited and you will be led astray"...
Most people are psychologically incapable of disagreeing with those they perceive as high status. Therefore most people *have* to see the actions of the high status as good, whatever they may be.
@Crosbie- It's strange, because almost the whole of popular media culture (which comes from the Establishment) appears to encourage an anti-Establishment and "radical" mind-set... In theory.
In practice, the more that people assert and affect their radical anti-establishment nature, the more assimilated into, and rewarded by, The System that they become.
As I have mentioned before, the people I knew who most paraded their cynicism as adolescents and young adults, were all (I think without any exceptions) high level and loyal bureaucrats by their middle age - without dropping their radical affectations (dress style, ear-rings etc).
I don’t know that many Christians who seem to have strong faith in their church as an institution - definitely the minority, and I’ve been around churches a lot in my life. Some have faith in Christ, some have faith in “values”, some have faith in being a good person, some have faith in… I don’t really know what. There is a lot of talk about faith though.
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