Past Postings

Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.

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[ch. 13]
...In the world everything is nominal, and nothing real... ...We have recounted, as I think, all the various causes of the wearing of the crown, and there is not one which has any place with us: all are foreign to us, unholy, unlawful, having been abjured already once for all in the solemn declaration of the sacrament. For they were of the pomp of the devil and his angels, offices of the world, honours, festivals, popularity huntings, false vows, exhibitions of human servility, empty praises, base glories, and in them all idolatry, even in respect of the origin of the crowns alone, with which they are all wreathed. Claudius will tell us in his preface, indeed, that in the poems of Homer the heaven also is crowned with constellations, and that no doubt by God, no doubt for man; therefore man himself, too, should be crowned by God. But the world crowns brothels, and baths, and bakehouses, and prisons, and schools, and the very amphitheatres, and the chambers where the clothes are stripped from dead gladiators, and the very biers of the dead. How sacred and holy, how venerable and pure is this article of dress, determine not from the heaven of poetry alone, but from the traffickings of the whole world. But indeed a Christian will not even dishonour his own gate with laurel crowns, if so be he knows how many gods the devil has attached to doors; Janus so-called from gate, Limentinus from threshold, Forcus and Carna from leaves and hinges; among the Greeks, too, the Thyræan Apollo, and the evil spirits, the Antelii...
~ Tertullian (c.160–220 AD), The Chaplet

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[ch. 2]
I affirm that not one of the Faithful has ever a crown upon his head, except at a time of trial. That is the case with all, from catechumens to confessors and martyrs, or (as the case may be) deniers...
~ Tertullian (c.160–220 AD), The Chaplet

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If those without a heart scorn or reject you, what should you care? For remember, what is most valued in the long term is not what merely is desired but what is truly loved. And while many claim to love, relatively few last in this and actually do so.

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If you cannot at last trust them 98-100% of the time, call them anything but brother or friend.

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"Hell is man entirely without wisdom or philosophy, and so separated from the contemplation of God."
~ from "The Philosophy of Dante" by Roger Theodore Lafferty, p. 24.
See: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40165857

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You like ghoulish weirdoism. But I hate it.

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Psychotronic weaponry (and all this time I was calling them brain torture radios) -- the legal alternative to homicide.

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A: But pirates frighten me.

B: Why there's no need to fear pirates -- if they are your friend. Now he is a bad pirate. But that one is a good pirate. What you need to do is be friends with the good pirate.

A: Oh, now I see!

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Honesty, rationality, fair dealing, trustworthiness, selfless courage, selfless charity - where will you find these? Never as such or per se in an institution, social movement, or a religion, but only in genuinely good and sincere hearts, attuned in Christ to the Spirit of Faith, Love and Truth. For where else is the root and well-spring of these things?

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You can hardly imagine how wonderful, sweet, and beautiful life would be without recidivist, violent criminals. Oh the very thought of it makes my soul leap to sheer rapture and ecstasy.

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My thoughts regarding the latest, umpteenth school shooting?

I think those are mistaken who are quick to blame the NRA, but turn a blind eye to Harry Potter, et al., and rabid neo-pagan culture in all its myriad and various forms. Criminal spirit people are indeed among us, indeed always have been, but their effect, influence and the brazen unprecedented open dealing has been dramatically on the rise in roughly the last 30 years. For which reason, permit me to explain a few things on this subject.

We typically think of devils as wanting to advocate, encourage, and incite what is bad, or in worser case scenarios what is evil. But this is a great distortion. The formal position of criminal spirit people is actually rather Manichean in nature, or as they themselves would express it, they do things both ways. That is, they avail themselves of doing bad or good as it suits them. Now in practice, as a thinking person could expect, this idea and approach of having and doing things both ways does not really work. What happens instead is that you get more bad happening and practitioners of this dual moral relativism becomes more and more incapable of doing much or any worthwhile good (the more so of course as they adhere to such a doctrine.) And yet this is a persuasive teaching to use on dumb, childish and semi-rational people. Do it both ways, and what better method to adopt for the purposes of having everything?

While I laud and admire much a lot of the political activism on the internet that helps to inform and bring about positive change, it usually has the defect of overlooking the importance of arts, culture, and education; foolishly thinking that law and government will solve all our ills. Secondly, it is almost always seeing bad behavior as intentional. This also is very mistaken, indeed more often than not people act badly, including criminally, not because they intend or wish bad, but rather because they intend and wish good, and perhaps are specifically fooled or tricked into believing this; that is that doing bad, as they see it, can be a way of achieving positive good. Again, it is a Manichean like notion that originates with these criminal spirit people.

So while people are aghast at the school shooting, they think frequent use of foul language (or knee jerk lewdness) amusing, and yet the two are ultimately related as far as who is encouraging this. Remember it is one of the aims of hard core serious criminal spirit to get people guilty, preferably very guilty. Because the more guilty people at large are and the more they see guilt as a usual and acceptable thing, the more hard core criminal spirit people can reason they themselves then are not so bad as they are or have been accused of; since they are that much less uncommon and rare.

The soul of a people is like any commodity, something that can be bought. And the drastic down turn in recent decades of the quality of culture, in the arts, music, entertainment, education, you name it, is something criminal spirit can and have purchased with money and social privileges. Degrade the culture and arts of your people, and I will pay you big money for your doing so. And this can be done both by deliberately trashing what is good in the culture, but also by sponsoring, subsidizing and or glorifying what is worthless, phony, and mediocre. You further accomplish this by effectively outlawing fair competition, and side-lining, if not assassinating, those with actual talent and merit who will not accede to such a system.

Not surprisingly, persons who think little or nothing of arts and culture, slight if not overtly decry the importance of the heart and spirit, and think absolutely nothing of selling it. Money matters, not proper art and culture and education. Art, culture, and education, as such view the question, are merely extraneous concerns, ways to kill time or to awe and impress people. Money and coerced or bribed public opinion are the real thing. As a result, we as a society are made to learn to go without sincerely felt sentiment, real laughter, good music, meaningful drama; and hence the accompanying pervasiveness of violence and noise and sensationalism; with good being measured by status; with status in turn is measured primarily by money, propaganda, and club affiliation, not talent, merit, or moral character.

But then you pretty much already knew all this I am telling you, didn't you?

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[ch. 1]
...Thereafter adverse judgments began to be passed upon his conduct— whether on the part of Christians I do not know, for those of the heathen are not different— as if he were headstrong and rash, and too eager to die, because, in being taken to task about a mere matter of dress, he brought trouble on the bearers of the Name, — he, forsooth, alone brave among so many soldier-brethren, he alone a Christian. It is plain that as they have rejected the prophecies of the Holy Spirit, they are also purposing the refusal of martyrdom. So they murmur that a peace so good and long is endangered for them. Nor do I doubt that some are already turning their back on the Scriptures, are making ready their luggage, are equipped for flight from city to city; for that is all of the gospel they care to remember. I know, too, their pastors are lions in peace, deer in the fight...
~ Tertullian (c.160–220 AD), The Chaplet

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