The answer your guest didn't seem to articulate clearly is that DOMINATION can be brought to an end. It can crumble. The unfortunate part is that this process can lead to suffering and loss of life for many of us.
Howard Zinn, the American historian, likely meant that even enormous and seemingly strong systems, like authoritarian regimes or oppressive governments, can fall apart or break down relatively quickly. He wasn't specifically calling out certain regimes such as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, but he was making a broader point about how these kinds of systems can be surprisingly fragile.
What Zinn was getting at is that throughout history, various oppressive systems and authoritarian governments have eventually faced resistance, internal disagreements, or pressure from external sources that led to their collapse. These systems might seem stable and powerful, but they can unravel or crumble when they're challenged by factors like mass movements, public outcry, international pressure, economic issues, or changes in popular opinion.
In simpler terms, Zinn's perspective emphasizes that political and social systems are dynamic. It suggests that even the most deeply rooted powers can be susceptible to change and eventual collapse under the right circumstances.
"being flexible in times of need is what has helped us to survive" - Tara Williamson
Of Dogma and Ceremony
August 16, 2013
tags: Anishinaabeg, ceremony, Cree, media, technology, Turtle Island
by Tara Williamson
This article is about dogma. Not Christian dogma or Western political dogma, but North American Indigenous dogma. And, particularly (because that is the tradition I am from), Ojibwe and Cree dogma.
You know what I mean. It starts off as rules. Medicine people aren’t supposed to kill things. You shouldn’t pay for medicine. Women need to wear skirts to ALL ceremony. Women don’t sit at a drum. And, ceremony should definitely, DEFINITELY, not be documented.
I want to start with some stories about my great-grandmother, Kaapiidashiik. My kookoo was a medicine woman. And she was a good medicine woman. One of those women people travelled miles to see. One of my favourite stories is about how, when my mother told her there was a strange man in the yard, Kaapiidashiik locked up the doors and windows and huddled in the corner of the house behind a rocking chair with her granddaughter (my mother) and a loaded shotgun aimed at the door. My kookoo used to sell red willow baskets to make extra money for the family. That same red willow was used for kinnickinick. She harvested her own medicine and used to make a medicine of a hundred roots that would cure TB. Although she was a traditional person, I can’t imagine that she checked her snares in a skirt or that she waited for my grandfather to come home before taking care of her own fire. In fact, the most beautiful thing my mother remembers about Kaapiidashiik and Michael (my great-grandfather) was that they shared their home responsibilities across gender roles. She remembers their partnership as respectful, loving, and kind.
And, so, when I hear people today criticizing something like the filming of segments of a ceremony like the Sundance, part of me hurts because I come from a tradition where surviving (and, indeed, thriving) involved bending rules. The other part of me is conflicted and understands peoples’ concerns.
The dilemma for me is that I cannot understand my history in terms of dogma. Nor can I understand my present in terms of dogma. Every day, I make decisions that my ancestors never had to make (where to buy my food, how to give an offering while I live in a city, etc.), and every day I benefit from decisions that they made. I believe wholeheartedly that the reason I was lucky enough to grow up with tradition is because my relatives were clever enough to bend the rules. I believe my family has the language because they learned to whisper in school. I believe we still know how to give offerings of asemaa because we learned to replace natural tobacco with cigarettes. I believe we still have ceremony because we hid ourselves so well that nobody noticed. I believe we still believe in Gichi-manidoo because we understood how much this spirit looked like GOD. And, so, it is hard for me to condemn those who try to bend the “rules” – even now.
How do we fault people who are doing the best that they can?
Recently, David Blacksmith has come under fire for allowing APTN to come to a Sundance and film parts of this ceremony. I want to be upfront and say that David Blacksmith is my cousin. He is married to Sheryl Blacksmith who is the daughter of Charlotte & (the late) Ernest Daniels who are cousins of my mother. We share a grandmother. They are my family. And, when I heard about this event, I too was conflicted. But I thought about my Uncle Joe Esquash – who passed that Sundance along to David – and my heart softened. Uncle Joe is the most respectful, kind-hearted, traditional person I know. And, I know that David would never have made a decision about this ceremony without Uncle Joe.
And, so, I was forced to contextualize this issue. How could I condemn his actions when I knew the people and intentions involved?
And, I realized I couldn’t. That is the power of our spirituality. Context matters. The potential repercussions of making such a decision were not taken lightly. Nor will they be realized in the short term. Because I know these teachers, I know that a decision was made in the best way that it could be made. It is true that I don’t think there isn’t a definitive right or wrong answer to this situation, but it is also true that being flexible in times of need is what has helped us to survive as Anishinaabeg.
For example, I have learned that people under the influence of drugs or alcohol should not be using the “sacred” medicines (sage, cedar, tobacco, sweetgrass). Yet, in my work as a social worker, and truly in my own life, it is sometimes those times that I need the help of medicine most. Who am I to say that the drunk man on the street cannot breathe the sweet smell of wiingashk? Where does this teaching come from? Furthermore, if everything we put into our body is medicine, does this mean that this same man should not eat? Should not drink water? The most sacred thing of all? I cannot believe our teachings allow this.
Similarly, when we find many of our people living in urban areas or struggling with addiction and the effects of residential school, who are we to say that they should not hear something of the Sundance, even from somebody on tv?
Yes, you should have your own opinions, based on your own teachings and understandings. I have mine (and, you might be surprised to learn them, given this particular piece of writing). But, do not forget that the reason you have an opinion is because our relatives before us created space for us to learn and think. And this is the most generous gift. Our teachings aren’t ten commandments etched in stone. Our ceremonies aren’t confined to Sundances and Sweats. Our teachings are gifts. And, our ceremonies are manifested in our everyday lives.
So, before we condemn others’ actions, I hope we can see:
the re-evaluation of women’s teachings in the context of colonialism, misogyny, and Christianity;
the dilemma of paying for medicine in the context of oil prices, limited harvests, and remoteness;
the documentation of ceremony given the stats of residential school and addiction we all preach about.
Because, without context our practice as Indigenous peoples becomes a dogmatic religion that can no longer adapt and survive the way we have so far through the onslaught of colonialism, nation-statehood, Christianity, and so much more. By making judgments based on dogma and insinuating that one person’s actions are opening a proverbial floodgate, we are assuming the worst of someone’s actions and we rob those people of the most important ceremony and gifts of all – our ability to think critically and exercise free will.
Tara Williamson is an Anishinaabekwe/Nehayowak who was raised in Gaabishkigamaag, Swan Lake, Manitoba and is a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. She has degrees in social work, law, and Indigenous governance and is currently a Professor at Fleming College in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough, Ontario). She is a musician, aunty, sister, daughter, and poet.
Have you seen the movie (2006) Apocalypto? Irealize it is a fictionalized story & I am woefully ignorant about such things. If it is even half true, it gives me pause.
Where does the tribalism of the Native American peoples come into play here. What political right of domination was in play among the tribes of the Americas? I really wonder what Mr. Newcomb thinks about this? I think the Conquistidors and their ilk were awful people, but.......
It is October 13, 2023 and a much has come to pass since this video was originally posted. I am a Christian-I was baptized and raised in a Christian tradition. But, I never wished to dominate anyone, their religions, or their culture. I am not alone in this. There were many injustices forced by my ancestors, I suppose. I now see this being practiced in real time, all over the world. I am nonplussed, to put it mildly. The scales have fallen from my eyes, especially, where my country's efforts at world domination, and not just world domination, but the domination of humanity. The useful idiots in the government think they are immune to being thrown out with the other "riff raff". Howvever, they will eventually be discarded. They are just playing for time, and they don't even know it. I am very frightened by the future, if these demonic people reach their goals. The drums of WW3 are getting very loud and there is a stampede of humanity headed for a cliff. Evil is on display and flaunted. I have no sollution for this.
A eugenicist God?! You are confusing the Truth Claims of the Ruler of this World, the Father of Lies, with the Truth Claims of God found in scripture. Satan has used his version of these claims to lead the world down his rabbit holes designed to discredit God and all of His creation, and to kill us, God’s most prized creation. He has used many formal church settings and “religions” to do this, including the RCC and its “Vicars”. I just ask you to watch 2 videos, the first only about the first 1/2 and the second all of it.
Dear Tessa Lena, I haven't a clue as to how contact Steven Newcomb directly (apart from old ICT pages), but would like to forward to him another remarkable edition of Reiner Fuellmich's ICIC (& vice versa, your three interviews with Steve plus his documentary). This ICIC edition - among many well-known and lesser known things - an episode on a Maori judge (1) plus other first nations' resistance to "Mr. Global's Robocop." Starring among others Vera Sharav.
Some interesting news on this topic reported by Benjamin Fulford on April 3rd 2023
On March 30th, the Vatican renounced the Doctrine of Discovery. It was a once in 500-year news event that went almost completely unreported in either the corporate or alternative media.
This doctrine -first put forth by Popes in 1452- allowed Christians to murder, enslave and steal the land of non-Christians around the world. It led to over 500 years of relentless wars of conquest and pillage by the West against the rest of the world. That is why Spanish conquistadors would pull out a bible, ask Aztecs and Incas to obey its teachings and then start slaughtering them when they refused. It is what Americans used to justify the genocide of first nations. More recently, it was used by George Bush (Pecce) Jr. to justify a massive invasion of the Middle East.
Now, the Roman Empire is saying “We are sorry we tried to subjugate the entire planet to the obedience of a Caesar.” Pope Francis says: “Never again can the Christian community allow itself to be infected by the idea that one culture is superior to others, or that it is legitimate to employ ways of coercing others.”
I am writing to you before finishing the conversation with another beautiful soul but I have something I wanted to share. This conversation and the one with Thomas Harrington have been pivotal for me in an understanding that has been growing in me. In some ways I thank the Pandemonium insanity because it has caused me to realise that even as I have challenged authority in my own way, I can still be operating from a certain narrative. Which comes from my environment and all the influences in my part of the matrix. And the importance of language in this system of dominance into which I was born is central to creating the narrative and hijacking the Sacred. I truly understand now in my body why you use the name, Make Language Great Again. I don't really feel like I have anyone I can properly share this with so thank you for this space where I feel safe to express myself. The Pandemonium started a shift but then more recently I have started to look into the trans gender agenda and can now see the connection to the trans humanist movement which I had not looked at deeply so far. I keep thinking about Leonard Cohen in "Everybody Knows"
"And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past"
He was a prophet for sure, a beautiful man.
Understanding the abuse that is occurring in the name of trans gender rights somehow cracked me open a bit more and I am seeing yet another narrative. This one also in my opinion is also about covering up vaccine injuries from the last 30 odd years, gender dysphoria is a vaccine injury. Toby Rogers wrote an article that opened my mind. It's a horrible theory but sadly very plausible. https://tobyrogers.substack.com/p/trans-messaging-is-too-sophisticated
I finally understand how the climate change movement is another narrative that doesn't support true sustainability. What they want to sustain is their power and control.
Then I started watching Sasha Latypova and was introduced to your work through the conversation you had with Meryl Nass and Vera Sharav. Many factors have led to this but your work on examining the use of language and how it is used to create what we believe to be reality is really helping me along in this journey. I am starting to feel that I have the capacity to step back from all the narratives I can perceive that I do not agree with. Not all narratives are bad, we are story telling creatures and the stories we tell can lift us up and help us to do better. I am very grateful for what you are being in the world, a very positive influence. I can share bits of this with my husband who is a professional word smith, poet, writer and embodying mindfulness facilitator. Very creative but also with a lot of trauma (depression and anxiety) so I have to be careful with references to the domination system. He works hard to deal with his trauma so there are times when I need to turn somewhere else to share my excitement. That to me is respect and allowing for our differences. Thank you again and I look forward to listening to the rest of the conversation with Steven Newcombe. (-:
My Dad was Bar Mitzvah'd in 2004. He loved our reform Temple for the community, and they loved him and his singing voice. I remember being struck by the English translation of his Torah portion. It seemed to be saying, basically, I, God, give you these lands, and kick out the people who are already there - they belong to you, I will help you destroy the current inhabitants. (Something like that). I had a deeper understanding of the struggles of Palestine after that.
Continuing to listen, about 1/3 of the way through. Sometimes I find myself wishing for implantable tech that could help me digest all the most special conversations and substacks within the amount of time that actually exists.
But, no, as helpful as that may be on one level, no, I do not want that.
Brilliant interview, Tessa Lena. Your guest conflates the Jewish faith in the old testament with the life of Jesus in the new which informs the Christian faith.
I have always seen this artificial merging of two conflicting views as ridiculous.
The god of the old t bears no resemblance to the Father in the new t.
You nailed it, Tessa. Hence, the Transhumanist agenda is unpersonhood. Strip away the veneer of conscience, empathy , commitment and the power of love… the natural force so deep we would sacrifice ourselves to protect the ones we love.
The most stunning display of how removed society has become from what once would have sparked outrage was the complete non-reaction when Fauci’s beagle torture was exposed. No matter whether childless by choice ,misanthropic or not pet enthusiasts, torturing darling, helpless puppies in a normal , civilized society , has always been a line in the sand. That was the moment I realized we’d reached the point of no return. The Fauci adulation actually increased
Land Ownership is the source of inequity. Henry George offered the solution in “Progress & Poverty”
HISTORY OF THE GREAT AMERICAN FORTUNES - BY GUSTAVUS MYERS
PART I
CONDITIONS IN SETTLEMENT AND COLONIAL TIMES
CHAPTER I
THE GREAT PROPRIETARY ESTATES
“The noted private fortunes of settlement and colonial times were derived from the ownership of land and the gains of trading. Usually both had a combined influence and were frequently attended by agriculture. Throughout the colonies were scattered lords of the soil who held vast territorial domains over which they exercised an arbitrary and, in some portions of the colonies, a feudal sway.’
The conscious mind is the mother of all deceits - not least of which is to be-live you are victim to forces outside your control. That you are but an organism in a hostile environment. That you are what you think you are in a world that limits and denies at the same time as it beckons or promises.
Love is set treacherous when we want conflicted things according to conflicted beliefs given imaginative extension and emotional and physical reinforcement.
But this is not love. This is what we made of love as a result of seeking or grasping a special love, from a self set in image taken in vain - not because God is mocked - but because image and form cannot receive or return the love we give it or them, and so a futile search for a wholeness in pieces in place of our natural function of extending our presence of wholeness - of self-integrity.
What drive the self set for getting?
A victory or fulfilment of self-vindication runs the carrot.
While fear of self-disclosure to a lack of true validity runs the stick.
Together they wind up the toy of a self-specialness given power.
Together they wind the rack of suffering illegitimate impositions of adversary or oppression.
the Prodigal ran of with a mistaken inheritance - a Genie-lord in place of a true Genesis in Light that sees and knows itself verily Good or God of resonant coherence - without a second. Timeless within all that Is.
Bottoming out is the conditions in which we re-evaluate our beliefs as to our true nature for our experience of reality becomes intolerable - as was the prospect of looking at deeply defended, internalised beliefs set in life before we could self differentiate an articulate consciousness.
There are as many resets as people, but the idea of release of self-illusion is that or renewal in Spirit, not reset to New Game! the Game of polarised split and reactive identity is rooted in a god of vengeance given power as the righteous stamp over projected evils, that then covertly operate within the new era as the hidden pole of denial that frames the thought and subverts the hopes and dreams of becoming or fulfilments set in rules and filters of a life set over and against 'other'.
Perfect love casts out fear - in the sense of establishing conditions in which fear cannot be - and never has been. The idea that we should attain or achieve this is a deceit by which we are set in vain or futile failure. For love is our true Inherence - our truth and nature accepted by extension. As not more or less than our life as it is and as it embraces all that we are - far beyond the limits set for getting.
Control cannot substitute for love, but we can die trying, and we can die trying, and so on.
"New Game!"
Releasing control opens to fears, hates, rages, guilts, shames, powerlessness, despairs of self negation. All of these are rooted in beliefs and self-definitions that flock together like birds of a feather - for they are all masking self-evasions, or untruths chosen to limit feared truth.
Fear in whole truth is truly impossible, but what we make of truth by lie given power for survival in our terms is terrifying, and so we mask within whatever fragments can be salvaged from lost love to bolster a sense of normalised existence in the 'solidity' of what All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can put together again. And so we learn to 'see' and participate in a sense of thought or creation separate from its beholding. But as A Course in Miracles states as fundamental truth; "Thoughts do not leave the mind of the thinker" - to the ego of attempt to get rid of the hated and feared, this is not welcome or able to be heard. But to the desire to heal is the recognition we never truly left our Source - and so are in and of the Mind of Creation that is in no wise separate from the one love knows you now. Always now.
In this world love is believed sacrifice, because this world is the sacrifice of love for a specialness set apart. So perfect love is seen as total sacrifice. "But what about me?"
So fear of love invokes terror symbols by which to hedge against a re-cognition that restores a 'sleeping kingdom' to love and life that had been lost to a spiked hype-demic.
What is a true Principality but alignment with Sovereign Integral?
Watch out for Genies of a wish to be as you are not - for the image and form CAN be distorted to serve an un-whole-y purpose, and when the wind changes, your face will be set by what you thought to get, that now begets you in its image.
Love drives everything. But if I make a lens of conflicted fear and persist in it, a conflicted love will drive a phished identity. Within lies given power, love is but manipulative deceit. This is what we thought we made without love, but nothing we make is entirely without love and so what we release to love is redeemed to its original true nature as our true inheritance - shared in.
Just because we are made an offer in the Big Screen Projection of our world, does not mean we have to accept it. The work here is in demonstrating for ourselves that we want alignment to truth that heals, as we release the wish and support for lies made 'real'.
Renewal comes from the seed of our true harvest. The roots of life are timeless, and therefore now. Joy unlocks our natural genius to be the unfolding of who we are - as the moment at hand.
Thanks for these invaluable insights, and the many facets of this fascinating discussion touched upon, Tessa. May I assert, lovingly, with reference to Steven’s inclusion and characterization of biblical history and the activities depicted in the first or “Old” Testament as evidence of “religious domination”, that by his very admission that he does not view the biblical record as anything other than, essentially, literature and myth that he himself is not a believer and therefore a “partaker of the divine nature,” and he cannot therefore truly assess its content, intent and message or application, and by extrapolation, any excesses and abuses carried taken out of context or by those later claiming to represent it, either institutionally, individually or by specific groups (per the ”Author” who gave us these holy writings). This is not a criticism of him personally or an indictment of his obvious expertise and well-researched, comprehensive work on the subject (many portions with which I concur!). It is simply that no one who is on the “outside looking in” or attempting to contextualize and gain true understanding of the things of God via (his analogy), a “shore to ship,” perspective, can truly comprehend and adjudicate God’s purposes, intentions and actions in history or in the present, except as has been disclosed by God to us through His WORD (the bible). The bible explains this in a number of places and ways. We are told,” The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14). In 1 Corinthians 10:11, referring to the accounts of the activities and exploits and the characters of faith preserved in the “Old Testament” (or the Old Covenant), “The things that happened to those people [Old Testament people] are examples. They were written to be warnings for us. We live in the time that all those past histories were pointing to.” We also have God on record as having said (Isaiah 55:8-9), “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” In Romans 9:15-16, we read, “For he [God] says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God, who has mercy.” Or again in Romans 11:33-34, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” Or in Matthew 11:25, “At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” In Ephesians 3:4-5, speaking of the unveiling of a mystery, we’re told, “In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.” A rather long discourse with Job (likely the earliest book written in the bible) is recorded for us (Chapter 38) in which God challenges Job (and his miserable counselors) about their presumptions about Him (abbreviated/edited): “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge? … I will question you, and you shall inform Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?… Or who stretched a measuring line across it? …Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors…have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place, that it might spread to the ends of the earth and shake the wicked out of it? … Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken…Have the gates of death been revealed to you? … Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion? …Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? …Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind?” And again, in Job 36:22-23, we read, ““Behold, God is exalted in His power. Who is a teacher like Him? Who has appointed Him His way, And who has said, ‘You have done wrong’” Or in Isaiah 40:28, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.” Or in Isaiah 29:16, “You have turned things upside down, as if the potter were regarded as clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pottery say of the potter, "He has no understanding"? Although innumerable atrocities have since historic times and incidents depicted in the Old Testament time have been committed in the name of God, Christ, the “gospel” or as Steven points out, “Manifest Destiny”, it does not mean that those were God’s actions nor do we understand the rationale for them. That men have claimed to have that as their charter does not mean it is so. They were (and are today) in fact, (unregenerate), human-devised and inspired ploys to invoke the fear of “the sacred” for the purposes of gaining power in the “profane” activities of life in a fallen world system that is flawed – they are not intended to honor or glorify or further the intentions of God, but in fact to satisfy the sinful lusts and desires of fallen mankind (and it is apparent since their actions do not match the scriptures). Do we not have a will and the capacity to weigh and to make decisions about our actions, even against the tide of opinion and the persuasion of established power (isn’t that what we’re doing today as we see the vast and complex systems and the multifaceted attack on freedom and personal integrity as well as bodily integrity, etc.) – standing against the popular and forceful tide of history pressing in to have its way via an elite group claiming superior rationale for their forced and singularly evil “solutions”? If we go back to the Bible – to the “Old Testament” accounts Steven cited about the activities of the uncreated, uncaused & eternal Creator, God, as revealed to us through the inerrant and God-inspired scriptures, we see some important distinctions from what has been represented in his short rehearsal of using our faith and the actions of our God in “Old Testament” times before the final solution to man’s problem had been provided (Jesus, in the “New Testament) to justify men’s unholy and unrighteous behaviors ages after the earliest writings to justify acts of domination and cowardice, enslavement and eugenics, racism, etc. Since God created everything there is by divine fiat as is explained to us in Genesis, including mankind – THE ORIGINAL INDIGENOUS PEOPLE of the earth, and since He is the One who formed and gave life to the crown of His creation, man and woman, by breathing life into him (“them”) to accomplish His original purpose and intent -- to extend the fellowship He and the Spirit & the Son had for eternity past to created beings who would CHOOSE HIM AND HIS WAYS and reap the benefits of RELATIONSHIP with Him, then we also accept in His written word the purposes of His interactions (both those that are merciful and those of judgment). The accounts of the many methods of governance/guidance found in the “Old Testament” – Kings, Judges, Prophets, Laws, Sacrifices, and the occasional acts of faith by imperfect men and women that were deemed honorable and acceptable were evidencing the impossibility of “religion” -- of outward conformance and external behavioral reform -- to change the very fallen nature of mankind and to be acceptable to God. He exhausted every means possible to show the futility of a legal/law-based, relationship as the means for restoration and wholeness and the return of the earth to Edenic conditions. That included conquering nations that were not living in accordance with God’s holy, righteous standards, exiling His chosen when they failed (repeatedly), when there was division and lack of faith and belief, free choice used to serve and worship other gods (all of which eventually lead to worship of the evil one who inspired them). The only way through our present dilemma, is to adhere ourselves to God and His ways, so that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, no matter what befalls mankind, our hope is not in the material world and the evil that seems at the moment to dominate, but in the God who will one day have a final day of restitution and reparation and who will restore all that has been lost (that is salvation and imparted righteousness through Jesus, His Son, our Savior). The test is in believing Him and trusting Him THROUGH whatever comes, to use our best efforts to resist evil, to submit ourselves to God and to stand in the power of His might and in the peace and assurance of His love for us in the face of those who would impose their evil ways upon us.
Fantastic, Tessa! I've listened to all your interviews with Steven and taken copious notes. He's got such a way about him and your conversation hits all the right notes. You both make this craziness make sense, from a domination view. Thank you.
What Drives the Great Reset? A Conversation with Steven Newcomb
The answer your guest didn't seem to articulate clearly is that DOMINATION can be brought to an end. It can crumble. The unfortunate part is that this process can lead to suffering and loss of life for many of us.
Howard Zinn, the American historian, likely meant that even enormous and seemingly strong systems, like authoritarian regimes or oppressive governments, can fall apart or break down relatively quickly. He wasn't specifically calling out certain regimes such as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, but he was making a broader point about how these kinds of systems can be surprisingly fragile.
What Zinn was getting at is that throughout history, various oppressive systems and authoritarian governments have eventually faced resistance, internal disagreements, or pressure from external sources that led to their collapse. These systems might seem stable and powerful, but they can unravel or crumble when they're challenged by factors like mass movements, public outcry, international pressure, economic issues, or changes in popular opinion.
In simpler terms, Zinn's perspective emphasizes that political and social systems are dynamic. It suggests that even the most deeply rooted powers can be susceptible to change and eventual collapse under the right circumstances.
- Luc
Encl.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/police-state-documentary-5504121
"being flexible in times of need is what has helped us to survive" - Tara Williamson
Of Dogma and Ceremony
August 16, 2013
tags: Anishinaabeg, ceremony, Cree, media, technology, Turtle Island
by Tara Williamson
This article is about dogma. Not Christian dogma or Western political dogma, but North American Indigenous dogma. And, particularly (because that is the tradition I am from), Ojibwe and Cree dogma.
You know what I mean. It starts off as rules. Medicine people aren’t supposed to kill things. You shouldn’t pay for medicine. Women need to wear skirts to ALL ceremony. Women don’t sit at a drum. And, ceremony should definitely, DEFINITELY, not be documented.
I want to start with some stories about my great-grandmother, Kaapiidashiik. My kookoo was a medicine woman. And she was a good medicine woman. One of those women people travelled miles to see. One of my favourite stories is about how, when my mother told her there was a strange man in the yard, Kaapiidashiik locked up the doors and windows and huddled in the corner of the house behind a rocking chair with her granddaughter (my mother) and a loaded shotgun aimed at the door. My kookoo used to sell red willow baskets to make extra money for the family. That same red willow was used for kinnickinick. She harvested her own medicine and used to make a medicine of a hundred roots that would cure TB. Although she was a traditional person, I can’t imagine that she checked her snares in a skirt or that she waited for my grandfather to come home before taking care of her own fire. In fact, the most beautiful thing my mother remembers about Kaapiidashiik and Michael (my great-grandfather) was that they shared their home responsibilities across gender roles. She remembers their partnership as respectful, loving, and kind.
And, so, when I hear people today criticizing something like the filming of segments of a ceremony like the Sundance, part of me hurts because I come from a tradition where surviving (and, indeed, thriving) involved bending rules. The other part of me is conflicted and understands peoples’ concerns.
The dilemma for me is that I cannot understand my history in terms of dogma. Nor can I understand my present in terms of dogma. Every day, I make decisions that my ancestors never had to make (where to buy my food, how to give an offering while I live in a city, etc.), and every day I benefit from decisions that they made. I believe wholeheartedly that the reason I was lucky enough to grow up with tradition is because my relatives were clever enough to bend the rules. I believe my family has the language because they learned to whisper in school. I believe we still know how to give offerings of asemaa because we learned to replace natural tobacco with cigarettes. I believe we still have ceremony because we hid ourselves so well that nobody noticed. I believe we still believe in Gichi-manidoo because we understood how much this spirit looked like GOD. And, so, it is hard for me to condemn those who try to bend the “rules” – even now.
How do we fault people who are doing the best that they can?
Recently, David Blacksmith has come under fire for allowing APTN to come to a Sundance and film parts of this ceremony. I want to be upfront and say that David Blacksmith is my cousin. He is married to Sheryl Blacksmith who is the daughter of Charlotte & (the late) Ernest Daniels who are cousins of my mother. We share a grandmother. They are my family. And, when I heard about this event, I too was conflicted. But I thought about my Uncle Joe Esquash – who passed that Sundance along to David – and my heart softened. Uncle Joe is the most respectful, kind-hearted, traditional person I know. And, I know that David would never have made a decision about this ceremony without Uncle Joe.
And, so, I was forced to contextualize this issue. How could I condemn his actions when I knew the people and intentions involved?
And, I realized I couldn’t. That is the power of our spirituality. Context matters. The potential repercussions of making such a decision were not taken lightly. Nor will they be realized in the short term. Because I know these teachers, I know that a decision was made in the best way that it could be made. It is true that I don’t think there isn’t a definitive right or wrong answer to this situation, but it is also true that being flexible in times of need is what has helped us to survive as Anishinaabeg.
For example, I have learned that people under the influence of drugs or alcohol should not be using the “sacred” medicines (sage, cedar, tobacco, sweetgrass). Yet, in my work as a social worker, and truly in my own life, it is sometimes those times that I need the help of medicine most. Who am I to say that the drunk man on the street cannot breathe the sweet smell of wiingashk? Where does this teaching come from? Furthermore, if everything we put into our body is medicine, does this mean that this same man should not eat? Should not drink water? The most sacred thing of all? I cannot believe our teachings allow this.
Similarly, when we find many of our people living in urban areas or struggling with addiction and the effects of residential school, who are we to say that they should not hear something of the Sundance, even from somebody on tv?
Yes, you should have your own opinions, based on your own teachings and understandings. I have mine (and, you might be surprised to learn them, given this particular piece of writing). But, do not forget that the reason you have an opinion is because our relatives before us created space for us to learn and think. And this is the most generous gift. Our teachings aren’t ten commandments etched in stone. Our ceremonies aren’t confined to Sundances and Sweats. Our teachings are gifts. And, our ceremonies are manifested in our everyday lives.
So, before we condemn others’ actions, I hope we can see:
the re-evaluation of women’s teachings in the context of colonialism, misogyny, and Christianity;
the dilemma of paying for medicine in the context of oil prices, limited harvests, and remoteness;
the documentation of ceremony given the stats of residential school and addiction we all preach about.
Because, without context our practice as Indigenous peoples becomes a dogmatic religion that can no longer adapt and survive the way we have so far through the onslaught of colonialism, nation-statehood, Christianity, and so much more. By making judgments based on dogma and insinuating that one person’s actions are opening a proverbial floodgate, we are assuming the worst of someone’s actions and we rob those people of the most important ceremony and gifts of all – our ability to think critically and exercise free will.
Hold up your relatives.
We are all doing the best that we can.
__________________________________________________________
Tara Williamson is an Anishinaabekwe/Nehayowak who was raised in Gaabishkigamaag, Swan Lake, Manitoba and is a member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. She has degrees in social work, law, and Indigenous governance and is currently a Professor at Fleming College in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough, Ontario). She is a musician, aunty, sister, daughter, and poet.
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Have you seen the movie (2006) Apocalypto? Irealize it is a fictionalized story & I am woefully ignorant about such things. If it is even half true, it gives me pause.
Where does the tribalism of the Native American peoples come into play here. What political right of domination was in play among the tribes of the Americas? I really wonder what Mr. Newcomb thinks about this? I think the Conquistidors and their ilk were awful people, but.......
It is October 13, 2023 and a much has come to pass since this video was originally posted. I am a Christian-I was baptized and raised in a Christian tradition. But, I never wished to dominate anyone, their religions, or their culture. I am not alone in this. There were many injustices forced by my ancestors, I suppose. I now see this being practiced in real time, all over the world. I am nonplussed, to put it mildly. The scales have fallen from my eyes, especially, where my country's efforts at world domination, and not just world domination, but the domination of humanity. The useful idiots in the government think they are immune to being thrown out with the other "riff raff". Howvever, they will eventually be discarded. They are just playing for time, and they don't even know it. I am very frightened by the future, if these demonic people reach their goals. The drums of WW3 are getting very loud and there is a stampede of humanity headed for a cliff. Evil is on display and flaunted. I have no sollution for this.
A eugenicist God?! You are confusing the Truth Claims of the Ruler of this World, the Father of Lies, with the Truth Claims of God found in scripture. Satan has used his version of these claims to lead the world down his rabbit holes designed to discredit God and all of His creation, and to kill us, God’s most prized creation. He has used many formal church settings and “religions” to do this, including the RCC and its “Vicars”. I just ask you to watch 2 videos, the first only about the first 1/2 and the second all of it.
1) https://www.prageru.com/video/ep-307-what-does-god-care-about-most
2) https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2hhs6t
Creating dogma is as simple as placing testosterones in fancy garbs decorated with rows of bright colors.
Dear Tessa Lena, I haven't a clue as to how contact Steven Newcomb directly (apart from old ICT pages), but would like to forward to him another remarkable edition of Reiner Fuellmich's ICIC (& vice versa, your three interviews with Steve plus his documentary). This ICIC edition - among many well-known and lesser known things - an episode on a Maori judge (1) plus other first nations' resistance to "Mr. Global's Robocop." Starring among others Vera Sharav.
(1) Watch minute plm. 98,5 - 105.
https://icic.law/2023/05/08/%f0%9f%87%a9%f0%9f%87%aa%f0%9f%87%ba%f0%9f%87%b8-der-alptraum-der-nie-endete-the-nightmare-that-never-ended/ Scroll down to the undubbed English version)
Some interesting news on this topic reported by Benjamin Fulford on April 3rd 2023
On March 30th, the Vatican renounced the Doctrine of Discovery. It was a once in 500-year news event that went almost completely unreported in either the corporate or alternative media.
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/03/30/230330b.html
This doctrine -first put forth by Popes in 1452- allowed Christians to murder, enslave and steal the land of non-Christians around the world. It led to over 500 years of relentless wars of conquest and pillage by the West against the rest of the world. That is why Spanish conquistadors would pull out a bible, ask Aztecs and Incas to obey its teachings and then start slaughtering them when they refused. It is what Americans used to justify the genocide of first nations. More recently, it was used by George Bush (Pecce) Jr. to justify a massive invasion of the Middle East.
Now, the Roman Empire is saying “We are sorry we tried to subjugate the entire planet to the obedience of a Caesar.” Pope Francis says: “Never again can the Christian community allow itself to be infected by the idea that one culture is superior to others, or that it is legitimate to employ ways of coercing others.”
Source https://benjaminfulford.net/2023/04/03/new-world-order-ends-500-year-plan-to-conquer-the-planet/
I am writing to you before finishing the conversation with another beautiful soul but I have something I wanted to share. This conversation and the one with Thomas Harrington have been pivotal for me in an understanding that has been growing in me. In some ways I thank the Pandemonium insanity because it has caused me to realise that even as I have challenged authority in my own way, I can still be operating from a certain narrative. Which comes from my environment and all the influences in my part of the matrix. And the importance of language in this system of dominance into which I was born is central to creating the narrative and hijacking the Sacred. I truly understand now in my body why you use the name, Make Language Great Again. I don't really feel like I have anyone I can properly share this with so thank you for this space where I feel safe to express myself. The Pandemonium started a shift but then more recently I have started to look into the trans gender agenda and can now see the connection to the trans humanist movement which I had not looked at deeply so far. I keep thinking about Leonard Cohen in "Everybody Knows"
"And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past"
He was a prophet for sure, a beautiful man.
Understanding the abuse that is occurring in the name of trans gender rights somehow cracked me open a bit more and I am seeing yet another narrative. This one also in my opinion is also about covering up vaccine injuries from the last 30 odd years, gender dysphoria is a vaccine injury. Toby Rogers wrote an article that opened my mind. It's a horrible theory but sadly very plausible. https://tobyrogers.substack.com/p/trans-messaging-is-too-sophisticated
I finally understand how the climate change movement is another narrative that doesn't support true sustainability. What they want to sustain is their power and control.
Then I started watching Sasha Latypova and was introduced to your work through the conversation you had with Meryl Nass and Vera Sharav. Many factors have led to this but your work on examining the use of language and how it is used to create what we believe to be reality is really helping me along in this journey. I am starting to feel that I have the capacity to step back from all the narratives I can perceive that I do not agree with. Not all narratives are bad, we are story telling creatures and the stories we tell can lift us up and help us to do better. I am very grateful for what you are being in the world, a very positive influence. I can share bits of this with my husband who is a professional word smith, poet, writer and embodying mindfulness facilitator. Very creative but also with a lot of trauma (depression and anxiety) so I have to be careful with references to the domination system. He works hard to deal with his trauma so there are times when I need to turn somewhere else to share my excitement. That to me is respect and allowing for our differences. Thank you again and I look forward to listening to the rest of the conversation with Steven Newcombe. (-:
My Dad was Bar Mitzvah'd in 2004. He loved our reform Temple for the community, and they loved him and his singing voice. I remember being struck by the English translation of his Torah portion. It seemed to be saying, basically, I, God, give you these lands, and kick out the people who are already there - they belong to you, I will help you destroy the current inhabitants. (Something like that). I had a deeper understanding of the struggles of Palestine after that.
Continuing to listen, about 1/3 of the way through. Sometimes I find myself wishing for implantable tech that could help me digest all the most special conversations and substacks within the amount of time that actually exists.
But, no, as helpful as that may be on one level, no, I do not want that.
Brilliant interview, Tessa Lena. Your guest conflates the Jewish faith in the old testament with the life of Jesus in the new which informs the Christian faith.
I have always seen this artificial merging of two conflicting views as ridiculous.
The god of the old t bears no resemblance to the Father in the new t.
From Steshu with Love
You nailed it, Tessa. Hence, the Transhumanist agenda is unpersonhood. Strip away the veneer of conscience, empathy , commitment and the power of love… the natural force so deep we would sacrifice ourselves to protect the ones we love.
The most stunning display of how removed society has become from what once would have sparked outrage was the complete non-reaction when Fauci’s beagle torture was exposed. No matter whether childless by choice ,misanthropic or not pet enthusiasts, torturing darling, helpless puppies in a normal , civilized society , has always been a line in the sand. That was the moment I realized we’d reached the point of no return. The Fauci adulation actually increased
Land Ownership is the source of inequity. Henry George offered the solution in “Progress & Poverty”
HISTORY OF THE GREAT AMERICAN FORTUNES - BY GUSTAVUS MYERS
PART I
CONDITIONS IN SETTLEMENT AND COLONIAL TIMES
CHAPTER I
THE GREAT PROPRIETARY ESTATES
“The noted private fortunes of settlement and colonial times were derived from the ownership of land and the gains of trading. Usually both had a combined influence and were frequently attended by agriculture. Throughout the colonies were scattered lords of the soil who held vast territorial domains over which they exercised an arbitrary and, in some portions of the colonies, a feudal sway.’
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30956/30956-h/30956-h.htm
The conscious mind is the mother of all deceits - not least of which is to be-live you are victim to forces outside your control. That you are but an organism in a hostile environment. That you are what you think you are in a world that limits and denies at the same time as it beckons or promises.
Love is set treacherous when we want conflicted things according to conflicted beliefs given imaginative extension and emotional and physical reinforcement.
But this is not love. This is what we made of love as a result of seeking or grasping a special love, from a self set in image taken in vain - not because God is mocked - but because image and form cannot receive or return the love we give it or them, and so a futile search for a wholeness in pieces in place of our natural function of extending our presence of wholeness - of self-integrity.
What drive the self set for getting?
A victory or fulfilment of self-vindication runs the carrot.
While fear of self-disclosure to a lack of true validity runs the stick.
Together they wind up the toy of a self-specialness given power.
Together they wind the rack of suffering illegitimate impositions of adversary or oppression.
the Prodigal ran of with a mistaken inheritance - a Genie-lord in place of a true Genesis in Light that sees and knows itself verily Good or God of resonant coherence - without a second. Timeless within all that Is.
Bottoming out is the conditions in which we re-evaluate our beliefs as to our true nature for our experience of reality becomes intolerable - as was the prospect of looking at deeply defended, internalised beliefs set in life before we could self differentiate an articulate consciousness.
There are as many resets as people, but the idea of release of self-illusion is that or renewal in Spirit, not reset to New Game! the Game of polarised split and reactive identity is rooted in a god of vengeance given power as the righteous stamp over projected evils, that then covertly operate within the new era as the hidden pole of denial that frames the thought and subverts the hopes and dreams of becoming or fulfilments set in rules and filters of a life set over and against 'other'.
Perfect love casts out fear - in the sense of establishing conditions in which fear cannot be - and never has been. The idea that we should attain or achieve this is a deceit by which we are set in vain or futile failure. For love is our true Inherence - our truth and nature accepted by extension. As not more or less than our life as it is and as it embraces all that we are - far beyond the limits set for getting.
Control cannot substitute for love, but we can die trying, and we can die trying, and so on.
"New Game!"
Releasing control opens to fears, hates, rages, guilts, shames, powerlessness, despairs of self negation. All of these are rooted in beliefs and self-definitions that flock together like birds of a feather - for they are all masking self-evasions, or untruths chosen to limit feared truth.
Fear in whole truth is truly impossible, but what we make of truth by lie given power for survival in our terms is terrifying, and so we mask within whatever fragments can be salvaged from lost love to bolster a sense of normalised existence in the 'solidity' of what All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can put together again. And so we learn to 'see' and participate in a sense of thought or creation separate from its beholding. But as A Course in Miracles states as fundamental truth; "Thoughts do not leave the mind of the thinker" - to the ego of attempt to get rid of the hated and feared, this is not welcome or able to be heard. But to the desire to heal is the recognition we never truly left our Source - and so are in and of the Mind of Creation that is in no wise separate from the one love knows you now. Always now.
In this world love is believed sacrifice, because this world is the sacrifice of love for a specialness set apart. So perfect love is seen as total sacrifice. "But what about me?"
So fear of love invokes terror symbols by which to hedge against a re-cognition that restores a 'sleeping kingdom' to love and life that had been lost to a spiked hype-demic.
What is a true Principality but alignment with Sovereign Integral?
Watch out for Genies of a wish to be as you are not - for the image and form CAN be distorted to serve an un-whole-y purpose, and when the wind changes, your face will be set by what you thought to get, that now begets you in its image.
Love drives everything. But if I make a lens of conflicted fear and persist in it, a conflicted love will drive a phished identity. Within lies given power, love is but manipulative deceit. This is what we thought we made without love, but nothing we make is entirely without love and so what we release to love is redeemed to its original true nature as our true inheritance - shared in.
Just because we are made an offer in the Big Screen Projection of our world, does not mean we have to accept it. The work here is in demonstrating for ourselves that we want alignment to truth that heals, as we release the wish and support for lies made 'real'.
Renewal comes from the seed of our true harvest. The roots of life are timeless, and therefore now. Joy unlocks our natural genius to be the unfolding of who we are - as the moment at hand.
Thanks for these invaluable insights, and the many facets of this fascinating discussion touched upon, Tessa. May I assert, lovingly, with reference to Steven’s inclusion and characterization of biblical history and the activities depicted in the first or “Old” Testament as evidence of “religious domination”, that by his very admission that he does not view the biblical record as anything other than, essentially, literature and myth that he himself is not a believer and therefore a “partaker of the divine nature,” and he cannot therefore truly assess its content, intent and message or application, and by extrapolation, any excesses and abuses carried taken out of context or by those later claiming to represent it, either institutionally, individually or by specific groups (per the ”Author” who gave us these holy writings). This is not a criticism of him personally or an indictment of his obvious expertise and well-researched, comprehensive work on the subject (many portions with which I concur!). It is simply that no one who is on the “outside looking in” or attempting to contextualize and gain true understanding of the things of God via (his analogy), a “shore to ship,” perspective, can truly comprehend and adjudicate God’s purposes, intentions and actions in history or in the present, except as has been disclosed by God to us through His WORD (the bible). The bible explains this in a number of places and ways. We are told,” The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14). In 1 Corinthians 10:11, referring to the accounts of the activities and exploits and the characters of faith preserved in the “Old Testament” (or the Old Covenant), “The things that happened to those people [Old Testament people] are examples. They were written to be warnings for us. We live in the time that all those past histories were pointing to.” We also have God on record as having said (Isaiah 55:8-9), “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” In Romans 9:15-16, we read, “For he [God] says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God, who has mercy.” Or again in Romans 11:33-34, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” Or in Matthew 11:25, “At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.” In Ephesians 3:4-5, speaking of the unveiling of a mystery, we’re told, “In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.” A rather long discourse with Job (likely the earliest book written in the bible) is recorded for us (Chapter 38) in which God challenges Job (and his miserable counselors) about their presumptions about Him (abbreviated/edited): “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge? … I will question you, and you shall inform Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?… Or who stretched a measuring line across it? …Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket, when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors…have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place, that it might spread to the ends of the earth and shake the wicked out of it? … Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken…Have the gates of death been revealed to you? … Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion? …Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? …Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind?” And again, in Job 36:22-23, we read, ““Behold, God is exalted in His power. Who is a teacher like Him? Who has appointed Him His way, And who has said, ‘You have done wrong’” Or in Isaiah 40:28, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.” Or in Isaiah 29:16, “You have turned things upside down, as if the potter were regarded as clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pottery say of the potter, "He has no understanding"? Although innumerable atrocities have since historic times and incidents depicted in the Old Testament time have been committed in the name of God, Christ, the “gospel” or as Steven points out, “Manifest Destiny”, it does not mean that those were God’s actions nor do we understand the rationale for them. That men have claimed to have that as their charter does not mean it is so. They were (and are today) in fact, (unregenerate), human-devised and inspired ploys to invoke the fear of “the sacred” for the purposes of gaining power in the “profane” activities of life in a fallen world system that is flawed – they are not intended to honor or glorify or further the intentions of God, but in fact to satisfy the sinful lusts and desires of fallen mankind (and it is apparent since their actions do not match the scriptures). Do we not have a will and the capacity to weigh and to make decisions about our actions, even against the tide of opinion and the persuasion of established power (isn’t that what we’re doing today as we see the vast and complex systems and the multifaceted attack on freedom and personal integrity as well as bodily integrity, etc.) – standing against the popular and forceful tide of history pressing in to have its way via an elite group claiming superior rationale for their forced and singularly evil “solutions”? If we go back to the Bible – to the “Old Testament” accounts Steven cited about the activities of the uncreated, uncaused & eternal Creator, God, as revealed to us through the inerrant and God-inspired scriptures, we see some important distinctions from what has been represented in his short rehearsal of using our faith and the actions of our God in “Old Testament” times before the final solution to man’s problem had been provided (Jesus, in the “New Testament) to justify men’s unholy and unrighteous behaviors ages after the earliest writings to justify acts of domination and cowardice, enslavement and eugenics, racism, etc. Since God created everything there is by divine fiat as is explained to us in Genesis, including mankind – THE ORIGINAL INDIGENOUS PEOPLE of the earth, and since He is the One who formed and gave life to the crown of His creation, man and woman, by breathing life into him (“them”) to accomplish His original purpose and intent -- to extend the fellowship He and the Spirit & the Son had for eternity past to created beings who would CHOOSE HIM AND HIS WAYS and reap the benefits of RELATIONSHIP with Him, then we also accept in His written word the purposes of His interactions (both those that are merciful and those of judgment). The accounts of the many methods of governance/guidance found in the “Old Testament” – Kings, Judges, Prophets, Laws, Sacrifices, and the occasional acts of faith by imperfect men and women that were deemed honorable and acceptable were evidencing the impossibility of “religion” -- of outward conformance and external behavioral reform -- to change the very fallen nature of mankind and to be acceptable to God. He exhausted every means possible to show the futility of a legal/law-based, relationship as the means for restoration and wholeness and the return of the earth to Edenic conditions. That included conquering nations that were not living in accordance with God’s holy, righteous standards, exiling His chosen when they failed (repeatedly), when there was division and lack of faith and belief, free choice used to serve and worship other gods (all of which eventually lead to worship of the evil one who inspired them). The only way through our present dilemma, is to adhere ourselves to God and His ways, so that NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, no matter what befalls mankind, our hope is not in the material world and the evil that seems at the moment to dominate, but in the God who will one day have a final day of restitution and reparation and who will restore all that has been lost (that is salvation and imparted righteousness through Jesus, His Son, our Savior). The test is in believing Him and trusting Him THROUGH whatever comes, to use our best efforts to resist evil, to submit ourselves to God and to stand in the power of His might and in the peace and assurance of His love for us in the face of those who would impose their evil ways upon us.
Fantastic, Tessa! I've listened to all your interviews with Steven and taken copious notes. He's got such a way about him and your conversation hits all the right notes. You both make this craziness make sense, from a domination view. Thank you.