A Slice of Life from 22 Years Ago

MAY YOU BE AMUSED AND EDIFIED… 🙂

[The letter below is a replica of a bulletin sent to my email list in 2001, not long after the transcript of the talk which I published a couple of days ago was originally presented. That is how I rediscovered it recently, when I found the transcript of that talk, and I wanted to share it with you. I want to share this bulletin with you too, just as I sent it then. This was before the days of social media, messaging services, Fakebook, Google, etc. All my communication then was via an email list which, at its height, was around the 1500 mark. I wanted to share it with you because it is a strange slice of my personal life from 22 years ago which could easily have been written today, as you will see. Anyway, I leave you with this. (ALSO, just as a ‘heads-up’, in the next week, I hope to be publishing the 50-page, 17,000-word article, entitled “You were Once Darkness: The True Nature of the Human Condition Without Christ”. This article goes into very profound spaces, and I believe that it will have a transformative effect on anyone who reads it and who is willing to receive what is being taught. It has certainly had that effect on me). Anyway, here is my personal email to my email list from almost exactly 22 years ago. Keep reminding yourself that it is from that era as you read it. I hope it amuses you].

Dear Friends,

How exhilarating to be back in the Vallespir! As I drove home from the airport through the night with the family asleep in the car next to me, I revelled in the stars and space around me, saw the sky turn from the deepest blue to a venal red, watched the temperature gauge settle on 23C at 4am, wound down the window to breathe in the thick warm scent of pine and rosemary, and watched the mountains emerge like a work of art from the darkness.

Having been homesick for our French haven for three weeks, I realised that the dawn which greeted me on arriving home was not merely a dawn for this house in this valley but a symbol for all that has dawned on our minds in recent months and years. There is truth in that dawn. Beautiful truth tinged with melancholy (as must always be the case with truth).

I am glad that I live somewhere remote, isolated, untainted by so much of the world’s detritus. Glad for my wife. Glad for my children. It’s a good life for them here. Our three weeks in the UnUnited Kingdom (UUK) has convinced us even more of that fact. The UUK is seared and scarred so badly now that we couldn’t wait to get our kids away from it. Decades of lousy immigration and housing policies have left it with its earth scorched by alien multiculture, drugs, and inner cities like trash dumps and shanty towns. The education system is a national scandal. The cities and towns are steeped in violence to such an extent that it is intimidating to walk alone at night, even in many country market towns, because of the preponderance of yobs on the streets.

Everywhere, a hyper-abundance of political correctness ensures the continued suppression of truth. A man there can no longer be a real masculine man nor can a woman be an elegant feminine woman without receiving frowns of disapproval. Originality and individuality have been crushed beneath the bland greyness imposed from the top down by the stifling socialism of Phoney Blair’s governance. To see the way that the UUK has hardly uttered a peep while white farmers are pillaged, looted and murdered by rapacious black squatters in Rhodesia is all part of the PC stance today. So stifling and big-brotherish has life become in the UUK that it is now deemed politically incorrect to say anything negative about the actions or words of black people — no matter how wicked they may be. To do so would lead to charges of racism — even though one would make exactly the same judgement of a white person committing the same crimes.

All this is equally true in the religious realm. A series of television programmes has recently been screened in the UUK about Islam. One of the programmes depicted the “stoning of Satan” which takes place on the pilgrimage to Mecca, during which there is a hysterical stampede when numerous people are killed and injured. If a TV documentary had been made depicting Christians indulging in such cultic madness, there would have been a public outcry with representations being made to the government in jurisdiction about the barbaric nature of such practices. Morality has been stood on its head. Black spins to white and light turns to darkness. In the UUK today, if you were to apprehend an armed thief in your house with a baseball bat, it is far more likely to lead to YOU being prosecuted for “threatening behaviour” or “assault” rather than to the burglar (bless his poor underprivileged socialworkified cotton-socks) being charged with burglary. Such is life in the UUK today!

If it tells you anything, here in this rural part of France, to take an armed burglar out will make you into a local hero, feted by your neighbours for your courage and upholding of individual liberty! Here, your home really is your castle. You can be yourself here without raising an eyebrow. Originality and creativity do not make people jealous but instead elicit admiration. Amazing! Old-fashioned values of kindness and courtesy abound. If my kids’ friends are visiting and I come into the room, they actually stand up, put their hand out to shake mine and say “Bonjour, monsieur”. There is everywhere a laidbackness and friendliness which is hard to find elsewhere. When a friend came into our garden to feed our rabbits while we were away, our 80-year-old neighbour immediately appeared in person and firmly but courteously challenged the person as to who they were and what they were doing there. In similar circumstances in the UUK, your neighbour would cower behind the lace-net curtains and peep nosily at the intrusion, hoping to turn it into a spot of gossip down at the post office!

Not only is life socially stifling in the UUK, but it is also religiously repressive too. All that I have observed in the Reformed/Evangelical scene has convinced me of this utterly. Slavish toadyism to the ruling caste (or should I say “junta”), a spineless lack of ability to stand up for what is true and good and right, a hatred of originality and creativity, a failure to uphold personal liberty of conscience (leading to an Emperor’s New Clothes syndrome), are all part of the warp and woof of evangelical church life there today. Those relatively few really decent pastors that there are have been progressively weakened and ostracised. If the control freaks can’t actually take over (as occasionally happens), they just leave the church and take a large bunch of people with them. Mostly they just take over. And if the pastors are not part of one of the cosy conformist clubs which run the show in the UUK, they will be stigmatised as isolationists and individualists, while lies and innuendoes are spread around about them. I was amazed to discover from folks I met with there that the rumour which is still being spread around about me in the UUK is that I have gone to France to join a cult (yawn). Now some lovely “brother” or “sister” (sic) must have started that with a deliberate lie, and it has just gone on from there. But this only confirms to me that there are two main types (among others) of people in churches in the UUK today: 1) The mendacious manipulators who will stop at nothing in order to prop up their phoney lives as hypocrites, and 2) The lily-livered lackeys who let them continue with impunity. How come hardly anyone thinks to challenge with the simple questions: “Who told you that?” or “Which cult has he joined?” or “Is your source reliable”, etc. What about the rest, apart from the mendacious manipulators and lily-livered lackeys? Well on my recent travels in the UUK I met many people who had got out of the churches and — apart from their understandable sadness — they felt a profound sense of relief and liberation. I know exactly what they mean!

In our recent discussions, Catherine and I have come to the conclusion that two of the biggest influences in churches today are competitiveness (which, in turn, breeds jealousy and resentment) and conformism (which leads to persecution of non-conformists). Competition to see who can put themselves across the most successfully as a “godly” person (there should be an Oscar for some performances!). Competition to pray the most impressively spiritual prayer (usually riddled with umpteen cringing clichés which seem to impress many but leave me cold). Competition for the pastor’s attention (now THAT is a minefield for any pastor as it ALWAYS leads to uncontrollable sibling rivalry!). Competition to appear to know most about the Bible in a Bible Study (best to get genned up by whizzing through that commentary before going there!). Competition to bring up their children the most successfully (producing goody-two-shoes kids is a must, but what a litter of guilt-ridden parents it leaves among those unable to make the grade!).

The other big influence in churches, conformism, is cripplingly stifling. Do not be different or stand out from the crowd or they will try and close you down. Amusingly, there have been a number of contenders to try and take over (stifle) Diakrisis. The first guy thought he could buy me off with a 1000 GBP cheque. He set himself up as chairman of an oversight committee, but I dissolved it pronto when I saw the writing on the wall after they spent their time discussing how they could insure themselves against any libel suits which may come their way as a result of my writings. (Forgive me while I chortle!). Another well-known guy who came on the mailing list a few months ago soon tried to get himself established as the first member of a Diakrisis steering committee of oversight, claiming that it would make me more “accountable” (how they just love that word, which basically means controllable by them!). I wouldn’t have anything to do with it as I knew where he was coming from. Surprise, surprise, within a few weeks he un-subscribed from the mailing list claiming that he didn’t have the time to read my articles anymore, amidst gigantic hints about there being too many “free electrons” among Christians today. I politely asked him how come he was so keen to set himself up as leading light of a steering group of oversight for Diakrisis when he didn’t have any time to read the articles. Naturally, I received no reply. Aren’t people predictable? I mean what’s with all these characters? Control freaks every one!

If you are a REAL Christian, my friend, and you are REALLY interested in undiluted truth (knowing it, speaking it and uncovering it) you are going to find your back pressed increasingly up against the proverbial wall — not so much by the world but especially by the “church”! A lot of professing Christians say that they have a love for the truth, but they are just fooling themselves. A great many of the people who attend churches are not Christians. They utter all the “right” phrases and even read all the “right” books; but you only have to get real with them and they go all out to try and crucify you — either upfront or in countless other subtle ways! This is why, whenever I am invited these days to preach in a church, I ALWAYS preach a simple Gospel message and save the deep teaching for special Bible studies. Recently, I preached on the Conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch, the Unsearchable Riches of Christ, the Vicarious Sufferings of Christ, and Christ’s Recipe for Salvation. Preach the Gospel at all public worship meetings! Save the deep teaching for some other occasions. I make no estimation about a congregation at a public church meeting other than that many of them will not be saved even though those many will think that they are.

By the way, have you noticed how so many professing Christians today have a real penchant for total rudeness and insensitivity. (We’ll put to one side for the moment the guy who recently wrote to me anonymously, saying: “All your site is a heap of unspeakable sh-t, really unbelievable!” I had to laugh. At least that was amusing too, especially as — unknown to him — I got his IP address and traced his identity!). I’m talking here about the everyday insensitivity and rudeness of professing Christians fuelled by competitive spite and old-fashioned jealousy. Usually, when I raise this, all I get told is: “We’re all still sinners”. But I don’t think that this even begins to excuse the chronically sick behaviour of so many. It is all part of a failure to grow which I believe is rooted in a aversion to progressive sanctification. I discussed this, amongst other things, in a recent talk I gave entitled “Whatever Happened to the Christian Mind?”, which I hope to have transcribed shortly and will post to this list.

Speaking of what has happened to the Christian mind, some of you may recall how a number of superstitious folks had been put off signing up with Diakrisis because my former postcode in France was 66690. (Yeah, I know. It’s nuts! But it’s true). Now you may have thought that, having moved to a new address, folks would be reassured that I was no longer “working for the Antichrist” and had taken up new employment (or joined a new cult – smile). No such luck! I had a mail recently from someone who said that my present postcode of 66150 was also unacceptable because the 1 and 5 added up to 6, thus making it still 666!!!! Hey, you really need a sense of humour if you want to get along in today’s wacky Christian scene! It is stuffed full of lunatics!

Fortunately, I only received about 500 e-mails while away. So I was able to deal with many en route, and the remainder since returning (with a few biggies still outstanding). Now that we are back home with a purpose, some new material should soon be coming your way from this end. I am currently working on a couple of CyberSermons and the second part of “Discerning the Signs of the Times”, entitled “Novus Ordo Seclorum: The New Spirituality & the New World Order”. Hopefully, the talk I mentioned earlier about the Christian mind will soon be transcribed and written up into an article. I must also add that I have had some considerable inspiration for my book during my recent travels. Alongside everything else I’m writing, there is this novel — my problem child. That’s not the title (although it could be!) but a description. It is a dark exposition of the meaning of truth in an age of lies. It traces the parallel lives of two men — one is a Christian minister who is waking up, the other is a campaigner for social justice who is breaking down, who are unaware of each other until the last part of the book. After a long account of their lives, loves, heartbreaks, women, adventures, etc., they finally meet in a government reprogramming centre where they are being held by the authorities “in order to make blunt that which is sharp”, as one of their female reprogrammers sinisterly puts it. But a shroud is no match against a knife edge, as the book will show. I had better say no more about it as the Christian scene is rife with plagiarists. I could write a book about that! The title of my last book “The Serpent & the Cross” was actually a second choice because the original title (which I still prefer) was stolen by a minister for his book after I made the mistake of announcing it long before it was ever published! This is why the title of the present book is also under wraps!

It was great to meet with you folks who crossed our path in the UUK. We were only sorry that we couldn’t meet up with everyone who we know there. But we’d have to have been there for three months rather than three weeks. We wept to hear some of your stories about your lives at the hands of other Christian churches and pastors. What an unexposed iceberg there is in all that. Even Catherine, who is normally a very positive and optimistic sort of person, had to confess that she is now convinced that we are into the Great Apostasy and that it is even more hideously deceiving than most people realise. Quality internet communication is the only thread onto which many can hang today. We should thank God for it daily.

Anyway, enough of this rambling. It is good to be in contact again. Do keep in touch and let me know your news.

Yours, in the cause of God & Truth,

Alan

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]