It’s said that those who don’t know the past are condemned to repeat it. Looking at church history, one can see two predictable patterns:

• The church flourishes under persecution
• The church becomes rotten when it ties itself to a dominant force (i.e., political or cultural)

History is generous with examples of this. The early church, persecuted under Nero and other Roman emperors, was forced out of Israel and Rome, and into all of mainland Europe and England. Martyrdom was an extremely common fate, but the Christians were devoted and multiplying.

However, that all changed with Constantine, the first “Christian Emperor” of Rome, converted after a dream and a battle. Constantine’s reign and influence on Christianity is the point to which much of Roman Catholic doctrine can be traced: the church gradually adopted a hierarchy, and pagan traditions began to seep in, especially after his sons mandated Christianity. Soon, the church and the state became practically inseparable - the “Holy Roman Empire” - a very corrupt system both politically and religiously, until the Reformation.

When Martin Luther came to his revelation about the book of Romans and ignited a sharp rift in the church, the Catholic church declared him a heretic and martyred many of his followers. Nevertheless, Protestantism continued to spread, and followers were particularly devout.

But soon, protestantism became a political tool in Germany and England to distance themselves from the power of the Pope. Henry VII, even though his personal sympathies were Catholic, converted because of a disagreement with the Pope, and after Anglicanism - with somewhat of a parallel structure to Roman Catholicism - became the official religion of England, complacency in the populace soon came about.

In America now, the church is perhaps farther rotted than it has been since immediately before the Reformation. America started out as such a “Christian-friendly” nation, that complacency was inevitable before long. But such a high standard of living as we have now only exacerbates the situation: Americans are consumers. The church, in this mindset, must meet consumer demands (more entertaining, less controversial, etc.), or die, like a business. Christianity is becoming trendy and hip, and has never been more “popular”. A.W. Tozer hit the nail on the head for modern America with his quote above, though it could be expanded into a more historical address to a more general, “Whenever the church succeeds in involving itself with the affairs of the world, nothing but corruption and rot can come from it”.

One last example: China’s Communist government had a quite ingenious plan for subverting the church - something I daresay was deliberately crafted to mirror the process of rot that has happened in America. In 1950, the government called 4 (theologically liberal) church leaders to a conference to draw up a “church manifesto”, essentially revoking rights to open proselytization and pledging loyalty to the Communist party. With the church now firmly tied to the government, they were then able to persecute Christians who openly preached the Word while still being able to maintain a “Christian-friendly” image, while Christianity as a whole stagnated in a remarkably American fashion. Having an official church gives the impression that conditions are not terrible for Christianity over there, but despite persecution of the more devout among Christians, missionary work (necessarily secret from the government) has been amazingly fruitful. Chinese are coming to Christ and away from the official church en masse, despite the potentially serious repercussions.

What then can be done to save Christianity as a whole in America? One can come to only one conclusion from looking at history: Christianity must be outlawed and ardently persecuted. Martyrs must be remade: the wheat will instantly separate from the chaff, and force the true believers closer to God, thus expanding itself in a much purer form. However, America’s political system is unfortunately set up in a manner similar to China’s, though more as an unintended result than deliberate machinations: immediate change like that cannot be made. If ever Christianity was to become outlawed, it would necessarily have decayed to the point that it is practically nonexistent at that point. We can’t fight for a more Christian-friendly environment, because that exponentiates church rot all the more, and we can’t fight against Christian-friendly politics, because any change would have to be eased in, and would have essentially the same consequence: by the time it passed, Christians would already be accepting of it (consider the issue of homosexual rights: as it gets closer to being codified in law, churches are becoming increasingly more accepting of it [An openly gay Episcopalian bishop, for example]. Just look at most of Europe where it’s already legalized: there is virtually no objection to it there anymore, even from the church), that being another conceded point.

Since an immediate illegalization is practically impossible, I believe the damage is irreparably done: some people will always have the wrong idea of Christ, and inoculation and decay on a further scale is all but inevitable. The only thing we can do is resist the rot in our own circles, and the only way rot can be reversed is to stop operating on the world’s turf: have them play on our ground, rather than conceding ground to reach them. Stop trying to make Christianity “cool” - stop trying to bring pop culture and politics into the church, and start bringing the church into contact with people by being different from them, not the same as what they already are.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not an astronomer, and I don’t pretend to be one. I won’t even pretend to have a stake in this argument, but it is of historic significance, so why not.

Pluto (to left, pictured with its moon Charon) has just been demoted from full-fledged planet to a “dwarf planet” - something that’s like a planet, but too small. This comes from the International Astronomical Union’s new definition of the word “planet”, marking the first time there’s been a concrete definition of the word.

Earlier this month, the IAU tossed out another definition of ‘planet’ (a round body at least 500 miles in diameter, and a certain mass) after a sharp backlash from astronomers who didn’t like the possibility of dozens more “planets”, some larger than even Pluto, floating around in the Kupier Belt. And as sentimental as people are having grown up with 9 planets (The Magic School Bus even visited Pluto), a dozen or more planets simply aren’t feasible. There’s no way even the Magic School bus could visit 3+ more planets in half an hour.

Like I said, I’m no astronomer, but I’m behind this new definition: Pluto needs to go. Even the discoverer of ‘Xena’, the so-called 10th planet, says that neither should be considered such. And even with this new definition, bodies that satisfy criteria (a) and (b) but not (c) will still be considered ‘Dwarf Planets’ (Pluto fails (c) because its orbit crosses Neptune’s), so all is not lost for Pluto. It was simply lucky to have been the first of these objects to be discovered.

Nothing short of another PR blunder (and believe me, we aren’t short of those. Heard the one about the dead guy?) could have dealt a bigger blow to the RIAA’s credibility: An artist, one of their own and a high-profile one at that, has not only come out against their actions (there have been plenty of those. Did you know Avril Lavigne is a Canadian against the RIAA? No? Not many people do), but has recorded a song, a single no less, roasting them in irony.

Weird Al’s new single, Don’t Download This Song, to the melody of We Are The World, lists all kinds of reasons why you shouldn’t:

‘Cause you start out stealin’ songs, then you’re robbin’ liquor stores / And sellin’ crack and running over schoolkids with your car…Oh, you don’t want to mess with the RI-double-A / They’ll sue you if you burn that CD-R / It doesn’t matter if you’re a grandma or a seven-year-old girl / They’ll treat you like the evil hard-bitten criminal scum you are

And my favorite line,

Don’t take away money from artists just like me / How else can I afford another solid-gold Humvee? / And diamond-studded swimming pools? These things don’t grow on trees

One of the RIAA’s favorite lines is how most artists aren’t nearly as rich as the pop stars you see on Cribs. And to say nothing about their own hypocrisy in that area (10-30¢ on the dollar is not good enough if you care about your “starving artists”), it’s good to see at least one that isn’t starving take a shot at the greed of the industry by sounding the trumpet of irony.

And the final blow: the song is available for download - legitimately and in 160k MP3 - from the Al-sponsored website dontdownloadthissong.com. Happy downloading, and try not to get sued!

Hooray for automatic audiences, eh? My first thought when I saw Facebook’s new Notes feature is versatile enough to use an RSS feed from an existing blog was, “Hey, I have a blog. And it has RSS feeds too!” So hello to all my new readers on Facebook. I’ll try to keep it interesting to you as well, even though I would much prefer you visit the original site (thrica.nfshost.com). I suppose I’ll have to write more often, since people actually visit Facebook. And to those of you reading on the actual blog (if there are any anymore), thanks for being faithful, and I’ll try not to whore myself out to the new audience. My original domain is still the heart and soul of this blog, so no sellout accusations (ok, ok, I sold out. The automatic audience was impossible to resist. But I’m not changing anything about the blog except perhaps to write more often so don’t worry there).

I’ll keep you posted as new things come up - my opinions on current events and what not; something interesting for everyone. And to restate the purpose of the blog for the new readers, this is not going to be a Xanga-type “omg let me tell you about my day” blog. It’s going to be captivating and interesting, whether you think so or not. So there.