In 66 CE Christ was expected to return as the Judeans revolted against the Romans.  He didn’t. . . .

 

Thus far I have striven to avoid being too political in my blog posts here.  That will not change with the exception that I have today felt the need to write the following:

The time period between 70 CE, especially following the beginning of the reign of Constantine I, was a dark, sinister time in history; a time that some obviously feel is best forgotten.  So the world has limped along in its collective amnesia on the subject of this history, having really learned no lessons from it.  The result, as I see it, being the very real potential for a repeat of much of what took place at that time.

Skythoupolis is one of the places where events moved into complete, hideous, chaos!  Regardless of how some squeal that it never happened or it wasn’t that bad or whatever, the facts, as I demonstrate in my new book “Killing Roma: The Destruction of the Works of Femaleness and the Second Coming that Never Was; The Next Four to Five Hundred Years of Christian History; A Sequel to Apocalypse and Armageddon“, would tend to show otherwise.  In fact, contrary to those who protest, it should be classed as the very first known “death camp” in all of human history, run by Byzantine Christians primarily to rid the world of Pagans!

Skythoupolis should NEVER be forgotten again!  After all, if we had remembered and learned from this period in history, perhaps the Holocaust would never have taken place.

And Skythoupolis is just a taste of that which took place during this hideous period in Western history.  The Byzantine tyrants tried to create a patriarchal theocracy.  Sadly, there are some in our own nation today who desire to do exactly that here.  This effort truly originated with our fear in the 1950s of the “Red Menace” – the fear that the “Atheist” Communists would infiltrate and somehow take over our nation.  In a partial response to this fear, we placed the words “In God We Trust” on our currency.

Later, during the 1980s the so-called “Moral Majority” spearheaded a movement to inject “God” into all possible aspects of government and society, including, and especially, our schools.  Ronald Reagan, with his ultra-conservative trickle-down economic plan combined with his pro-Christian agenda, acquiesced to by every TV evangelist on the air in a disgusting play for power, nearly collapsed our economy before they figured out it wasn’t working!  But that seems to have taught most people nothing, so devoid are the folk of even recent historical knowledge and understanding.  In combination with this, Ed Meese and his laughable “war on pornography” only caused that to spread even more than ever before!

Today we have the misfortune of witnessing the specter of religious tyranny arising within our nation once again, beginning with the recent presidential election in which several candidates espoused the conservative Christian agenda of the 1980s once again.  One of these candidates somehow managed to become elected to the highest office in the land even amid evidence presented of his dearth of religious understanding and conviction combined with a dose of rather bizarre misogyny.  But, of course, he had promised the “evangelicals” the moon itself, so they ignored these shortcomings and were instrumental in electing him.

Further, it comes to light while listening to recent religious broadcasts that the evangelical leadership, the common folk (in general), and the extreme political right care nothing about his lack of credentials or knowledge nor of his questionable morals.  They are simply elated to have another Constantine (who, as history demonstrates, was also anything other than a man of moral integrity but who, at least, was highly intelligent), preferring to refer to him as another “Cyrus” so as to be a little less than obvious on this point.  This, combined with at least a minor resurgence of the “flat earth theory” (and I really did think we couldn’t get kookier than the “ancient alien theory”!) is actually fairly typical of the former Byzantine tyrants who were also supported by the Christian populace regardless of dubious morals.

Of late we have also added several efforts at state and local levels (sadly, in Tennessee) to, in my mind, soothe the consciences of both politician and populace.  One lawmaker, after endorsing an effort to manufacture beer with higher alcohol content, proposed that everyone in the state be required to purchase new automobile tags with the phrase “In God We Trust” on them.  Never mind religious liberties, everyone should have to place this phrase on their automobiles!  Thankfully, this effort has failed, at least for the time being.  Another lawmaker proposed, and got passed, an anti-pornography bill (shades of Ed Meese).  Still another has proposed that the Tennessee State Constitution be amended to include the phrase “We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from Almighty God”.  Such an addition is not only wholly absurd and unnecessary, but offensive to those state residents and citizens who do not hold this belief!  Thankfully, the House Civil Justice Subcommittee essentially killed this bill!  And, of course, the mantra of “putting God back into our schools” can be heard still from time to time.  It truly seems as if politicians are scrambling to invent ever new ways to please their god even as they support measures to bar religious and political refugees from our soil and taking away food assistance from the needy and the elderly.  How sad!

My new book, “Killing Roma” is timely.  This is the very best time for its dissemination.  This book deals with current issues by way of historical lessons from the time period above mentioned.

Paganism is a real religion!  It is not monolithic, but neither is any other religion or religious movement.  In fact, it recognizes that there is no need to attempt to be monolithic (certain fringe elements excepted) while the monotheist continually tries to hearken back to some monolithic point in their history which never actually existed.

We Pagans can’t actually “unite”, but we can “coalesce” to an acceptable degree and become stronger together in order to better fend off the monotheistic threat.  They still see us as not a “real” religion; as not legitimate.  We must work together to change that.  One means by which we can proceed is with dialogue.  If they finally engage us in this way they have tacitly recognized us.  But they don’t want to do that because they prefer to ignore the fact that we exist because we, in their minds, are such a threat to them.

People need proper education.  The Christian tries to ignore that this period in history even took place.  They will hardly acknowledge it regardless of whatever facts are presented to them.  They want to act as if it never happened.  THAT is why we must not only acknowledge it, but must also embrace it!  Otherwise, history is still their history, leaving us almost completely out of it.

So the dialogue simply must commence!  It should first move toward eliciting an acknowledgement from the Christians that this history did take place and an understanding by them of their role in it.  Once such acknowledgement has taken place, healing can begin for all parties involved.

They have had a virtual monopoly on history in the West for almost two-thousand years.  That time has come to an end!  It is time for us to reinsert ourselves into our proper place in history.  They can no longer have a monopoly on this.

Two evenings ago I listened to Hal Lindsey talk about why he had written his book, “The Late Great Planet Earth” (a book which I purchased in the 1970s and still actually possess), and listening to him, it was almost as if he had read the preface to my first book “Apocalypse and Armageddon: The Secret History of Christianity; The First Shall be Last and the Last Shall be First“, as he spoke about few being interested in the subject matter of his book prior to the time he wrote it other than scholars and theologians.  But, as he stated, he wanted to bring this knowledge (in his case, that of Bible prophecy) to the common people.  That was and is also my aim, as stated in the preface to the previously mentioned book.

So why should the folk deny themselves knowledge of this history, leaving it to the scholar and the theologian, who will rarely, if ever, disseminate it to them?  I think it is imperative that they have this knowledge!  For without it the populace is simply less informed than it really should be.  These are critical issues that should be viewed in the light of historical knowledge – those concerning religion, education, politics, etc.