The Prayer of the Modern Crusader

We don't need prayers we need bombers.

Posted by Fat Man at August 20, 2014 7:11 PM

Even the bombers prayed for swift and accurate justice, and that their efforts would end their wars. You can bet on that.

Posted by Jewel at August 20, 2014 7:29 PM

I'll believe it when I see it.

Posted by Scott M at August 20, 2014 11:52 PM

God is not a micro-manager.

No matter the lofty prayers and heart-felt supplications, after all is said and done we still have to put our hands on the oars and row.

Boots and steel.

Posted by chasmatic at August 21, 2014 6:23 AM

No matter the lofty prayers and heart-felt supplications, after all is said and done we still have to put our hands on the oars and row.

Amen, and Amen.

Posted by John Venlet at August 21, 2014 8:19 AM

With due respects to the author of the Crusader Prayer, it is so embarrassingly filled with errors, from the confusion of You and Yours with Thee and Thou to the awful mashup of "St. John of Campostella, the Hammer of the Moor."

First, it is St. James Compostela, in Spanish, Santiago, who was an Apostle of Christ and therefore predated the moslems. The author must have intended St. John of Capistrano (San Juan Capistrano), but he was not called the Hammer of the Moors. That would be Charles Martel, referred to as Charles the Hammer, Martel, for his brilliant victory over superior moslem forces, routing them from Tours.

There are several more errors in the Crusader Prayer but that's about all I will tax your patience with.

The only reason these criticisms are offered is so that someone forwarding this Crusader Prayer will not be embarrassed.

Thank you for hearing me out.

Posted by cymbeline at August 21, 2014 9:13 AM

Thanks for those helpful notes, Cymbeline. If the author says it is okay I'll work them in.

Posted by vanderleun at August 21, 2014 10:22 AM

I, for one, get the author's gist. Ergo, I'm confident my Lord, who sees and knows all that is in our earthly hearts, gets it also. Fine prayer!

Posted by Mike Allen at August 21, 2014 11:21 AM

I have no patience with this. The nature of Islam is unchanged, is unchangeable. It is we who have changed. Let prayers be directed toward our own moral character and spine, for only then Islam will crawl back under it's rock.

Mallock-
Upon this Empire, as upon that of Rome, calamity has at last fallen. A host of intellectual barbarians has burst in upon it, and has occupied by force the length and breath of it. The result has been astounding. Had the invaders been barbarians only, they might have been repelled easily; but they were barbarians armed with the most powerful weapons of civilisation. They were a phenomenon new to history: they showed us real knowledge in the hands of real ignorance; and the work of the combination thus far has been ruin, not reorganization. Few great movements at the beginning have been conscious of their own true tendency; but no great movement has mistaken it like modern Positivism. Seeing just too well to have the true instinct of blindness, and too ill to have the proper guidance from sight, it has tightened its grip on the world of thought, only to impart to it its own confusion.

Posted by james wilson at August 21, 2014 11:56 AM

Cymbeline is right on all counts. I was seething when I wrote that, and I failed to pay attention to detail. Please feel free to correct my errors as indicated.

I thank thee for the lesson.

Posted by Shibes Meadow at August 21, 2014 1:49 PM

PS -- Saint James' remains were translated to Compostela in Spain, where they became (and still are) the destination of one of Christendom's major pilgrimages. Since then, mysterious "stars" have appeared over his shrine from time to time, which is why the site was named Compostela ( from campo de Stella, "field of stars" ).

Saint James was the patron of the Reconquista, and is said to have appeared at the head of the Catholic armies of Spain as they rode out to battle the Muslims. For this reasons he was and is called Santiago Matamoros, "Saint James the Moorslayer" -- i.e. " the Hammer of the Moor".

Saint John of Capistrano was observed on many occasions flying (a la Superman) by the power of God. For this reason he is celebrated as the patron saint of astronauts.

Posted by Shibes Meadow at August 21, 2014 2:02 PM

Dear Mr. Vanderleun,

Thanks for your kind attention to this matter. If you will, please change the text "St. John of Capistrano. And the spirit of Charles Martel, Charles the Hammer" to "Saint James of Compostela, and the spirit of Charles Martel, the Hammer".

(Saint John of Capistrano, while a worthy saint, is the patron of astronauts.)

Thank you.

S.M.

Posted by Shibes Meadow at August 21, 2014 3:43 PM

@ S.M. — we need to get more of the Old Testament values worked in there somehow.
The judges of Israel come to mind: http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/charts/Chart%20of%20Judges%20of%20Israel.htm
They prepared for war and marched against their enemies; in some cases, "four and forty thousand were slain". That's the scope and commitment to war against the Muslims that is necessary to achieve victory. Small units going about it in secret and failing half the time does not get it.
We must prepare for war like we did in WWII, with much fanfare and thousands of everything put into the battle.
Collateral damage? Really, collateral damage? How many heads must roll (literally) before we mount a campaign to eradicate the pestilent Muslims? If other nations want to join in, fine. If not they should get out of our way.

This fantasy has as much chance of coming true as that of our nation uniting on anything. We'll see Muslims and drug cartels and militant Blacks uniting soon enough.
White people will be shot on sight, the lucky ones. The unlucky ones will suffer* first.

*You supply your own details.

Posted by chasmatic at August 21, 2014 10:46 PM

we need to get more of the Old Testament values worked in there somehow

We must prepare for war like we did in WWII

Dear chasmatic,

I recognize and respect what you are trying to say here. The problem with these statements, however, is that there is no "we". The United States is no longer "us". It is now "them". Old Glory is no longer "our" flag. It is "their" flag. The Federal Entity is Washington D.C. no longer represents our interests.

Whose interests does it represent? I leave that question to you.

Whatever the answer might be, the important thing is to recognize that "they" are not "us". The next time somebody tells you that "we" ought to do something about ISIS, or that "our" government ought to do this or that, or that banksters, corporate bigshots, and/or Hollywood should do right by "us", remind yourself of this fact: the United States as a country, the Federal Entity that controls it, and the established power structures at all levels of government, law enforcement, academia, business, and the "news" and "entertainment" media exist to destroy "us", and everything we hold dear.

The Lord tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. To do that, we must necessarily love ourselves. And to do that, we must know what we mean by the term "ourselves".

Before "we" can do anything, "we" have to identify ourselves. Each of us must precisely define what it is that makes "us" us, and "them" them. We can't fight for "our side" unless we know who is a member of "our side", and what it is that makes them so.

And in the final analysis, the only way to do this is to answer for oneself the question "for whom am I willing to kill?" -- which is just another form of the question "to whom am I loyal? To who do I pledge my allegiance?"

For my own part, the answer can only be: I pledge allegiance to God; then to His Church; then to my wife, my children, my extended family, my ethnic group, my race, my friends, my proximate neighbors, my community, my state government, and finally to the invisible community of men of good will around the world. There are no entities outside of these to which I feel loyal. It is for these entities, in the order listed above, that I would fight and die.

And fighting is something that comes naturally to me and mine. We are a military family. All my ancestors, as far back as I can recall, were fighting men. I myself served in the United States Navy, and I once held out a fond hope that my own son would wear the colors of that establishment.

But that dream is over. My son will never receive my blessing to become a member of the Navy, the Army, the Air Force, the Marine Corps, or the Coast Guard, because those forces no longer fight for people like us.

The people that run this country -- the media/academic/governmental/ideological/corporate Power Clique -- do not represent people who look like me, who speak my language, who share the culture, customs, and religious creed in which I was raised. On the contrary: its members hate people who speak my language, and who share the culture, customs, and religious creed in which I was raised.

Until that changes, or until an entity that does act on behalf of people who look like me, who who speak my language, and who share the culture, customs, and religious creed in which I was raised, I must consider myself foreign to and an enemy of that selfsame Power Clique.

And, in my opinion, so should you.

In closing, I remind you of the lyrics of that funny old song:
The Lone Ranger and Tonto
Were riding down the Navajo Trail
When a band of Indians found 'em,
Proceeded to surround 'em, and
The Lone Ranger turned kinda pale

"Tonto, our lives are in danger
We got to get away if we can!"
Tonto just looked at Lone Ranger:
"What you mean,
we, white man?"

Posted by Shibes Meadow at August 22, 2014 3:47 AM

Yeah, lets do it.

But this time can we not fight them with one hand tied behind our backs and by throwing gold bars at them?

(Phiss! We're broke, try to remember!)

Posted by John the River at August 22, 2014 8:15 AM

By the way, I stole this...thanks!

Posted by John the River at August 22, 2014 9:53 AM

I'm guessing everyone has seen the image of the mugwump holding the sign "ISIS is here" at the Ferguson Hope n' Change fest. This squares up with what Farrakhan said a while back. Those who are slack-jawed that the shadow returned to the golf course after the beheading need to focus.

Posted by Will at August 22, 2014 11:19 AM

Shibes,

"... And, in my opinion, so should you ..."

I do. My perimeter is only as large as I can maintain. I avoid crowds, have formed alliances with neighbors and friends and Church members and Lodge Brothers.
I have no allusions about any "we" except as written, "We the people" so forth. It is a moral meme, not an objective statement.
The dynamics necessary for survival will promote small groups and anything larger will get corrupted.

Fidarsi è bene ma non fidarsi è meglio.
To trust is good but not to trust is better.

Posted by chasmatic at August 22, 2014 11:53 PM