About James Kalb 148 Articles
James Kalb is a lawyer, independent scholar, and Catholic convert who lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of The Tyranny of Liberalism(ISI Books, 2008), Against Inclusiveness: How the Diversity Regime is Flattening America and the West and What to Do About It (Angelico Press, 2013), and, most recently, The Decomposition of Man: Identity, Technocracy, and the Church (Angelico Press, 2023).

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  1. In considering who government is for, and what its purpose is, it is helpful to return to the thinking of the Christians of the Early Church. St. Irenaeus, who was a student of St. Polycarp, who was a student of the Apostle John, has provided us a brief summary of God’s intentions for civil authorities according to the thought of infant, pristine Christianity. See:

    Against Heresies (Book V, Chapter 24)

    An excerpt:

    For since man, by departing from God, reached such a pitch of fury as even to look upon his brother as his enemy, and engaged without fear in every kind of restless conduct, and murder, and avarice; God imposed upon mankind the fear of man, as they did not acknowledge the fear of God, in order that, being subjected to the authority of men, and kept under restraint by their laws, they might attain to some degree of justice, and exercise mutual forbearance through dread of the sword suspended full in their view, as the apostle says: “For he bears not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, the avenger for wrath upon him who does evil.” [Romans 13:4] And for this reason too, magistrates themselves, having laws as a clothing of righteousness whenever they act in a just and legitimate manner, shall not be called in question for their conduct, nor be liable to punishment. But whatsoever they do to the subversion of justice, iniquitously, and impiously, and illegally, and tyrannically, in these things shall they also perish; for the just judgment of God comes equally upon all, and in no case is defective. Earthly rule, therefore, has been appointed by God for the benefit of nations, and not by the devil, who is never at rest at all, nay, who does not love to see even nations conducting themselves after a quiet manner, so that under the fear of human rule, men may not eat each other up like fishes; but that, by means of the establishment of laws, they may keep down an excess of wickedness among the nations. And considered from this point of view, those who exact tribute from us are “God’s ministers, serving for this very purpose.” [Romans 13:6]

    The contemporary, militantly atheistic, radically secularized state has returned humanity to eating “each other up like fishes.” According to Dr. Brian Clowes, director of education and research at Human Life International, there had been, as of April, 2013, 1.72 billion “legal” abortions worldwide in the last 40 years. That is roughly the same number of people as the entire human population of planet Earth at the beginning of the 20th century.

    Today’s religious leaders, who are anxious to accommodate the worldly thinking that has led to atheism’s crimes against humanity, would do well to consider that if whatsoever civil authorities do “to the subversion of justice, iniquitously, and impiously, and illegally, and tyrannically, in these things shall they also perish; for the just judgment of God comes equally upon all, and in no case is defective” — then God’s just judgment will surely fall upon them as well. Judgment starts in the House of God.

  2. Kalb concludes with a remark from Confucius plus a comment, “’you may rob the Three Armies of their commander-in-chief, but you cannot deprive the humblest peasant of his opinion.’ That’s no longer true. After a few years of modern electronic propaganda the peasant will be spouting transgender talking points.”

    With the young in mind, and politics, and opposable-thumb smartphone indoctrination, a poignant example is found in a recent event at the Seattle Museum of History and Industry. On the second floor and under glass one finds an enlarged press release for the State of Washington in 1970 when it became the first state to approve abortion by popular vote (the dominance of Referendum 20 over the “Voice for the Unborn”) still three years before the Supreme Court fatwa, Roe v Wade.

    For museum balance, and immediately to the right of the first display, is a second. This one reports that in 1994 the Seattle firm Advanced Technology Life (ATL) became the manufacturer of ultrasound developed at the University of Washington. The text reports that this invention has “saved countless lives,” and an ultrasound image (sonogram) of a real child in a real womb is depicted.

    Junior high school students breeze past the first display and then pause at the second before hurrying along NO LONGER PERCEIVING THE CONTRADICTION: “That’s cool, really neat!”

    Beginning with the programmed younger generations, the peasants are already well in step “spouting transgender talking points” ETC.

  3. The stark reality is that our political system is slouching toward an oligarchy form of government. Polarization, constitutional failure to perform administration oversight, failure by the president to challenge dictators and failure to protect our schools from gun violence.

    I recall Fox News damning Mr. Hogg for failing to get a college entrance. The woman anchor had to admit her mistake when Hogg was accepted at Harvard. I call that shooting from the ultra right hip! Polarization at its’ worst.

    It seems that ISIS is on the war path in America. Sen. Graham says “we had better fight ISIS on their soil and not ours”. I hate to inform the Senator that with all the turmoil, they may be here already.

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