Of Censors and Demons
In my last post, I talked about how we all have filters that we see the world through. It’s important to realize we have multiple filters that vary in levels of deception. In some areas, we may see reality clearly and in others be totally deceived, at the same time.
And here’s a key truth, we all have an accusing enemy (and his minions) who wants us to adopt and defend false filters so we will do evil, be utterly damned and destroy others. So which filters we have, and how we view them, is an eternal issue.
The first, most important step in improving our filters is communing with God. “Search me O God and see if there be any wicked way in me.” And then being humble enough to listen.
Second, realize that our enemy is a master at corrupting good. So focus your attention on what you see as ‘good’ and see if you’ve been led in to believing false things about doing that good. For instance many, many people who think caring for the poor is the highest Kingdom value and ultimate expression of Christ’s love, are fully on board with using the power of government to take resources from those they see as rich and given to those they see as poor. They totally dismiss the evil done to people in the process, both ‘rich’ and ‘poor’, and the evil it allows to be perpetrated.
Third, seek out the best sources of information you can. Some people’s filters are so strong, they will not give way even under the most extreme consequences of being detached from reality. However, many people will change their views if exposed to enough objective truth. Which is why censorship is so evil. And bluntly speaking, demonic.
Here’s a lesson from history. In Tsarist Russia, the Bolsheviks seized power promising to usher in a utopia “for the poor” based on the ideas of Marx. Stalin seized power in 1924. Farmers called Kulaks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak resisted his efforts because they were relatively well off and he wanted to seize their land and grain. He, and the entire Soviet power structure, massacred, deported and/or imprisoned vast numbers of these farmers. Massive famines resulted. Literally millions died. A vast evil by any definition.
A reporter from the New York Times name Walter Duranty was stationed in Moscow. He saw the famine and said privately as many 10 million Ukrainians could die. Yet in all his stories, he praised Stalin and the Soviets. Called the famine “partial crop failures” and wrote “But—to put it brutally—you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs…” about those killed. For his efforts, the powers that be, namely the Pulitzer Prize board, gave him journalism’s highest award. And even today won’t revoke it and the New York Times won’t return it.
Not only that, many so called ‘intellectuals' also deceived. George Bernard Shaw wrote he didn’t see a single malnourished person on his visits to the USSR. A lot more info is here https://education.holodomor.ca/teaching-materials/holodomor-denial-silences. African-American ‘intellectuals’ like Langston Hughes also supported and praised the Bolshevik revolution. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/langston-hughes-visit-soviet-union-1932-1933
But there were also many courageous reporters who honestly wrote about what they saw. Gareth Jones was one and his story was made in to a movie. https://westendfilms.com/screeners/mr_jones.html Yet their work was buried by the same power structure that elevated Duranty’s. Because it was aligned with their goals.
So if you lived then, you were being actively lied to by the media; both entertainment and news. All to get you to believe that the atheistic, communist world view led to utopia rather than to death. And if your filter was “workers are oppressed”, you bought it hook line and sinker. And you might even have called yourself a Christian.
Does any of that sound familiar?