India’s Government Raids Believers Church in Thiruvalla

The Hindu has this report of raids on headquarters of K.P. Yohannan’s Believers Church.

Makes me wonder when the U.S. authorities are going to come calling on Gospel for Asia.

GFA says they have no legal ties with Believers Church but K.P. Yohannan is in charge of both groups. Also, for years, GFA sent money to Believers Church via front groups in India. They were finally caught doing that and lost their government registration in 2017 (as the Hindu article says).

This all started with a group of former staffers who dared to question what GFA did. I got involved in 2015. It has been downhill from there for GFA.

Former League of the South Board Member Michael Peroutka Wins GOP Nomination for MD AG

The GOP just gets lower and lower.

Yesterday, GOP voters in Maryland elected Michael Peroutka to be their standard bearer in November’s race for Attorney General. Long time readers of this blog might recall many articles here about Peroutka’s involvement with the racist League of the South. The League was one of the white nationalist organizations involved in the Charlottesville riots in defense of the Confederate statues there. They have a long history of racist demonstrations and agitation. One of the stated objectives which Peroutka has been quite vocal about is Southern secession. I have a load of info about him and his Institute on the Constitution here and here.

While there are quite a few posts that come to mind on the occasion of his primary win, this one came to mind first. Once when speaking at the League of the South annual convention, Peroutka closed his part of the program by asking the audience to stand for the “national anthem.” However, instead of singing the U.S. national anthem, he led the audience in a rousing rendition of “Dixie.”

Here is the video:

Peroutka has said he isn’t in the League anymore. He has repudiated racism and said he didn’t see racism while he was in the League. Well, if you believe that, maybe you’ll believe Dixie is the national anthem.

David Barton Gets Called Out in Colorado

There isn’t much new here for regular followers of this blog, but I just wanted to give a shout out to Rich Allen and the Aspen Daily News.

David Barton and friends have been traveling around the country on a post-COVID, pre-midterm election scare out the vote tour. Reporter Allen and the Daily News folks were on top of it. Allen noted that Barton’s 2012 book on Jefferson “was voted the least credible history book in print by the independent History News Network.” Oh, and Allen just happened to cite a certain blogger and his co-author, who opined on Barton’s The Jefferson Lies. What was it The Blogger and Michael Coulter said?

“Barton misrepresents and distorts a host of Jefferson’s ideas and actions, particularly his views and practices regarding religion, slavery and church-state relations,” they said in a co-statement.

As good as Allen’s article was, it could have gone a little deeper. I wish some enterprising reporter would do a deep dive into Barton’s fleeting claim to have an earned doctorate. Of course that turned out to be a big old story about as true as his NCAA basketball story.

In any case, readers in that part of the country have a little more of the story than people usually get when Mr. Barton shows up.

Mises Caucus Takes Over the Libertarian Party

This looks like an interesting story going into the mid-term elections.

As the Republican party continues to deny the Big Truth (Trump did not win the 2020 election) and pretend the January 6 insurrection was a picnic, many conservative and moderate minded people will look for a third party. While many voted for Joe Biden, there is discontent with Biden and the Dems which may lead people to consider the Libertarians. For their part, there is lots of energy in that camp.

In their party convention held in Reno, NV recently, party offices were swept by members of the Mises Caucus. This group is led by Libertarians influenced by Murray Rothbard, Tom Woods, and of course, Ludwig von Mises, and seems to incorporate a more socially conservative element. For instance, the pro-choice plank was removed from the Libertarian platform as was the following language opposing bigotry:

We condemn bigotry as irrational and repugnant.

It is hard to say if this will make any difference in 2022 voting behavior. It could hurt Republicans by giving socially conservative voters a place to go besides the delusional GOP. It might hurt Democrats by taking away a few socially liberal voters into a party historically known for personal freedom and self-ownership.

In any case, I may be giving this issue more than a passing glance. There are some links with past work I have done. The Mises Caucus considers Ron Paul an elder statesment, if not a living saint. Ron Paul had a run for president a decade ago. At that time, he had some problematic endorsements of the theocratic variety. I noted the endorsement of Philip Kayser, who thought death a good end for gays, divorcees, etc., which didn’t help matters for Dr. Paul.

Will Paul rise again? Will there be a Libertarian strain of Christian Nationalism which will again rise up and influence the Christian right? The strange bedfellows may rise to sleep again.

Articles on the Mises Caucus

The Nation

Salon

Mises Caucus

Here is a great video summary of recent events.

Bill Hwang, Major Supporter of Ravi Zacharias, Indicted for Racketeering, Market Manipulation and Fraud

For many years, Bill Hwang was a high flying donor for Ravi Zacharias’ ministry. He also was someone who Zacharias put in front of his audiences even though Zacharias knew Hwang had a checkered past. Now some more of those chickens may be coming home to roost. Watch:

As I pointed out in 2017, Hwang’s first SEC rodeo cost him 44-million and the loss of his ability to trade securities for five years. Apparently, he found a way to do it and do it massively.