Green Movement - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – November 18, 2022

Mark Armstrong — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 22:00:26 +0000

Greetings from Tyler,

We’re seeing some astonishing photos of protests in Brazil, and there is some question as to how things work out going forward. An AP story says the photos being circulated are from years ago, and the protests are not nearly that big. Nevertheless, there is some question about the legality of the exercise, and the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro is refusing to concede that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won fairly. We wish that were the worst thing going on.

There are concerns about the way recent elections were handled in some states (most notably Arizona) where no concessions are being made. It didn’t turn out as advertised, and it comes as a disappointment. Still, it looks like Congress has changed hands and the investigations and hearings we expect are going to happen after all.

Some pretty serious allegations are floating around saying the first family got incredibly wealthy providing access to some shady characters. Some are saying the U. S. has been sold out. Isn’t that what they’ve been trying to hang on somebody else?

It turns out the infamous raid on the home of the former president has had whatever effect. All the brave pundits have disappeared. You probably won’t hear it on the news, but quiet admissions have been made. That stuff about classified documents and an intent to commit treason apparently was for pre-midterm consumption.

Meanwhile the world’s leaders are pursuing panic over their plans to save the planet. They’ve attended conferences that no longer question the theory. It’s time for action! (/s) They now want nations to implement their “climate change goals,” and it’s being couched as human rights. But that’s not all. They want to blend it with all the other catchwords, and some of them make the most abhorrent of behavior sound like a “human right.”

We should also know that all the big banking institutions are participating in an experiment to see how they do with a digital currency. Hopefully it fails. If they control the money and what we do with it based on their own strategy for saving the planet and promoting perversion, we’re not going to like it. If there’s some way to opt out, we’ll do that.

This is one time we hope to be wrong. But the big players in Europe are saying that GLOBAL rules that check all their boxes must be established. We’d hate to see their regulatory agenda. The pretender is in such trouble, who knows what will serve as a distraction. World War III? That might do it. Turn policy decisions over to European institutions? We’re going to have trouble with anything like that. It sounds way too much like something the Bible warns against.

It’s pretty plain to see. Our national leaders are trying to force all manner of sin upon the nation, even changing their symbols to provoke. It’s in sports, it’s in news, it’s in government and it’s being crammed down everybody’s throats. We have to stand against it, reject it and make sure we don’t compromise for the sake of getting along. There are some things with which you just don’t compromise.

Mark Armstrong

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – November 18, 2022 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury joins first climate repentance ceremony

Christian Today — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 23:14:26 +0000

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, was among religious leaders from around the world who took part in a climate repentance ceremony on Sunday.

The multi-faith ceremony saw faith leaders seek forgiveness for climate sins, and call for humility and action from world leaders as they seek to address climate change during Cop27.

The latest UN climate change conference of world leaders started last week in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and runs until 18 November.

Climate finance and compensation, pledges to curb greenhouse gases, and water scarcity are some of the topics on the agenda of the talks.

The climate repentance ceremony brought together leaders from Egypt, the US, Israel, India, Spain and the UK.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.christiantoday.com/article/former.archbishop.of.canterbury.joins.first.climate.repentance.ceremony/139466.htm

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Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – November 11, 2022

Mark Armstrong — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 22:37:00 +0000

Greetings from Tyler,

It seems we may have been a little optimistic. Is it really possible that half of the people in the United States are bought in to all the foolishness? Are we to believe that the constant brainwashing has worked on the general population?

Our blessings have become political issues. We’re supposed to banish God’s blessings on account of some prognosticators who’ve been wrong about nearly everything for all these years? Maybe if world leaders attend more conferences they can coordinate the destruction of God’s blessings. Government has stuck its nose where it has no business. It’s a global movement with no front man. There’s no one to question. It’s a consensus!

It’s all UN commissions and university findings, sometimes financed by large grants. The system seems compromised. What are they supposed to do? Tell their benefactors that their theory holds no water? Even if it did, the premise that man or government is going to control the weather is preposterous. Don’t these people believe in God?

If we thought a big change was in the offing, we still don’t know. Watching the supervisor explain wasn’t very satisfying. The “goalposts might move?” We just want to know which direction the country is going. Is that too much to ask? Arizona and Nevada must be embarrassed to have every other state in the union wrapped up and they’re still working on it? Is it just a perception, or does the delayed outcome provide more opportunity for shenanigans? We may be in limbo as to the future direction of our governance, but it doesn’t look good.

Meanwhile, Europe isn’t doing so well. They’re well ahead of the United States in attempting to go green. Now they’re in recession and facing what might turn out to be a brutal Winter. You’ve probably heard, the crypto currencies just lost big. It’s amazing how much wealth has just evaporated out of the market. We hope your money wasn’t in crypto.

All the threats the world is facing are real. The international powers know there will probably never be a better time to take what they want. It is our fervent hope that the United States doesn’t stumble into a destructive war. But you have to wonder if that’s not what’s going to happen with these geniuses at the helm. They clearly don’t represent people who believe in God.

Mark

P. S. Please remember Mr. Terry Gooch of Springfield, Missouri in your prayers.

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – November 11, 2022 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Is Iran on the verge of another revolution?

Saeid Golkar — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 05:40:53 +0000

And will it be a ‘Kaveh’ or an ‘Alexander the Great’ who leads it?

Iranian protesters flash victory signs during a protest after Friday prayers at a university in Tehran on July 17, 2009 [File: Reuters]

This week, amid the fallout of tough US sanctions and growing political uncertainty, many Iranians are marking the 10th anniversary of the Green Movement. Ten years ago, mass protests erupted after suspicions arose that the general elections had been rigged in favor of the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reformist candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi rejected the results and their supporters took to the streets to express their anger at what they saw as the trampling of democratic procedures in Iran.

Today, 10 years later, many are wondering whether Iran is on the eve of another Green Movement or even a revolution. Indeed, some scholars have pointed out that there are many socioeconomic and political factors that could make mass unrest in the short term highly likely. Others, however, have been arguing Iran is not on the verge of fundamental change at all. So which one is true? Will Iran see another wave of unrest and revolution or will the status quo prevail as the Islamic Republic resists foreign pressure?

In its long history, Iran has witnessed many revolutionary movements and upheavals, perhaps more than many of its neighbors in the Middle East. Today, four decades after the Iranian revolution of 1979, the country retains its revolutionary spirit, maintained by a vibrant civil society and a strong and rebellious intelligentsia.

Iran also has a very young and educated population; nearly 10 million out of its 81 million inhabitants have university degrees and currently, some four million are studying at institutions of higher education. Historically, Iranian university campuses have always been politicized, while students have been at the forefront of protests, alongside clerics, workers, and the merchant class.

Iranian society is also quite tech-savvy and well-connected to the outside world; some 64 percent of Iranians are internet users, while mobile penetration has reached more than 110 percent (that is, some Iranians have more than one phone).

At the same time, large parts of the population have become increasingly frustrated with the Islamic Republic and its failure to deliver on the political, social and economic fronts. Many have completely lost hope that change can be ushered in through reforms, especially after President Hassan Rouhani, who has been seen as moderate, failed to live up to his electorate’s expectations and bring about political and social liberalization along with economic prosperity.

The regime’s economic mismanagement and massive corruption, as well as continuing political and social suppression have convinced many Iranians that there is no way out except through fundamental social and political change – that is, “regime change”. In the face of growing political, social, and economic crises, the Islamic Republic is struggling with maintaining its legitimacy.

In this sense, the situation in Iran is ripe for another wave of unrest. Already last year, protests erupted across the country and even reached areas that had been until then relatively quiet. It is quite likely that the country will witness massive upheaval that would affect various layers of Iranian society, including both the urban and rural population.

But like forecasting an earthquake, it is difficult to say when this would happen and how long it would last. What is clear, however, is that popular mobilization is unlikely to result in a massive change or indeed the toppling of the current regime.

As American sociologist James DeFronzo has theorized, there are five critical factors that guarantee the success of any revolutionary movement: public frustration, dissident elites, unifying motivation, political crises, and a receptive international community. While some of these conditions exist in Iran today, others are absent.

Although there is indeed massive public dissatisfaction with the status quo, this sentiment is hardly “unified”. The Islamic Republic has successfully atomized Iranian society and suppressed any online and offline channels or networks which could lead to mass mobilization. The opposition, which mostly lives in exile, is split along ideological lines and does not have a social base inside the country. While social media platforms help break the regime’s monopoly over information, they have also been used to spread misinformation and identify and suppress activists.

At the same time, while there may be some disagreements within the regime, both reformists and hardliners are committed to the wellbeing of the Islamic Republic. They also agree on the necessity to use the repressive apparatus to ensure the survival of the regime. Thanks to substantial investment in equipment and human capital, the Islamic Republic has developed multilayered and ideologically committed security forces, which are trained to and willing to suppress any form of civil disobedience.

At the same time, despite the growing pressure from the US-Saudi-Israeli axis, the international context is not necessarily conducive to a successful revolution in Iran. It is in the interest of both Russia and China that the Islamic Republic survives the ongoing crisis and they would not hesitate to back it, should it face any existential threats; the same is true for its regional allies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, and other Shia militia groups in the Middle East.

Many Iranians are aware of this situation and live in despair, while actively trying to emigrate. The number of people who would like to move out of the country is dramatically increasing. Even official statistics reflect this trend; according to a recent study, some 30 percent of Iranians would rather live in any other country but their own.

Others have reached the point where they would welcome any US military intervention and see it as the only way to get rid of the clerical regime. Talking to people back in Iran, I have heard this sentiment quite often; it reminds me of 2003 when many Iraqis welcomed the invading US army as a “liberating force”.

Unable or unwilling to calculate the devastating consequences of a military conflict, one of my interlocutors repeated a poem from the Iranian poet Mehdi Akhavan-Sales written a few years after the CIA-sponsored 1953 coup triggered a wave of repression by the Pahlavi regime: “No Kaveh will be found, Omid! I wish an Alexander would be found.” Kaveh is a mythical Iranian hero who liberates the country from a foreign despot; Alexander is the ruler of Macedon, who effectively put an end to the Persian Achaemenid dynasty 2,300 years ago.

The man who recited the point, like its author, had succumbed to such despair that he saw no hope for a Kaveh appearing – for Iranians setting themselves free; instead, he wished for a foreign invader, an Alexander, to come and topple the Islamic Republic.

But that hope, too, is in vain. Despite all the US posturing, a foreign force is unlikely to invade Iran. While the country may witness another wave of unrest, it is unlikely to loosen the regime’s grip on power. Indeed, Iran will continue to sink deeper into a political and economic crisis, as the Islamic Republic fights for its survival.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Saeid Golkar

Saeid Golkar is a lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/iran-verge-revolution-190613194741940.html

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