Call this a "short note" on our news site. And headline it, "Disorientation." For we are and have been witnessing precisely that. It's incredible. A man shoots a pregnant woman to death and is charged with two homicides -- hers and that of the unborn. Yet, we allow doctors to perform late-term abortions. Disorientation. Most recently, a young Texas man assaults his girlfriend in a way that kills her three-month-old unborn child, and is charged with murder. We are confused! Many abortions take place later than that! And any are wrong.

An offshore well begins spewing oil in the Gulf of Mexico, threatening that entire, vital system of water, and our response, once it is capped, after weeks of angst: more ocean drilling.

Disorientation.

Christians are slain by Muslims around the world. The upshot: Muslims are the persecuted.

Disorientation.

Many are against war and capital punishment but are pro-abortion. They consider themselves "humanitarians."

Disorientation.

(Or folks are okay with war and capital punishment, but oppose abortion.)

Meanwhile, to defend God's Creation is suddenly socialism?

We listen to commentators instead of the Gospels and the result is: confusion. The devil is the prince of this. Obfuscation. Aberrant sexual behavior and intravenous drug use cause a horrendous crisis that becomes known as AIDS; it threatens the entire populace. Innocent people who contract it from blood transfusions die. Drugs. Sodomy. One could be excused for pondering the idea of a "site-specific" chastisement. The response: to defend and legitimize that sexuality and declare those who oppose it (hating the sin, while loving the sinners) as intolerant.

As for drugs: legalize marijuana (even the staid New York Times now calls for this).

You are looking in a mirror. We are disoriented. The devil loves things backwards (look at the word "live"). Evil is good and good is evil.

In the 1980s there was also a stock market crash. It was caused because of an artificial financial structure that preyed on the rest of America: money created out of thin air and during that crash vanishing in the same thin air. Did it "reorient" us, did it lead us to a review of our economy and of the profligate bankers of Wall Street?

Bull markets followed. Banks grew yet larger. Disorientation. Anything was good as long as it "made" money.

Remember the old expression that money doesn't grow on trees? There was even a quick-loan company born in the 1980s (and still around) called the Moneytree. We had scoffed at a warning.

We had learned nothing.

Now comes September 11. The very symbol of the financial world, the World Trade Center, collapsed after an attack by radical Muslims. The seismic pulse even nearly caused a crack in the foundation of Federal Hall -- where the Bill of Rights was created and where George Washington was inaugurated. (Remember: New York was the first U.S. capital.) Meanwhile, the church where he went after that inauguration to consecrate our nation and implore protection for it, St. Paul's Episcopal, owned the surrounding property that later became -- yes, Ground Zero. The place where Washington, with the first Cabinet and Congress, went to pray became, in 2001, the place where a turning point occurred for America.

Again, instead of reviewing our way of finance, instead of wondering about our obsession with materialism, instead of looking at our morals, the mayor of that city called for New Yorkers to respond not by praying, not by donning sackcloth, not by searching inwardly, but by going out and shopping. Disorientation.

Our apologies, if this seems a bit strident. And love the sinner but hate the sin. Definitely. Anything but is not Christian.

But gosh: not only was the lesson on materialism lost, but then there was the issue of Islam. One would have thought that after Islamic militants destroyed two of the tallest structures in the history of mankind, not to mention killed 2,749 innocent people, and shut down our entire transportation infrastructure, permanently and very adversely affecting air travel, that the outcry would force Muslims to rethink their approach. Instead, the United States immediately embarked on a policy that made Muslims seem like the oppressed (allowing them to do what many others could not, such as what they wear at airport security).

Now, we respect all religions that believe in one true God, and obviously there are many good folks who are Islamic. They deserve our respect and love. There are many devout ones. But at best it made no sense: The contrition should have been with those who are Islamic (and who continue to persecute Christians, while it is virtually never that we hear of the opposite).

Homosexuals can marry. To oppose their lifestyle is a hate crime (while it is okay for them to mock religion by dressing as nuns in parades). Wall Street is bigger than ever. Record stock market. Utter military failure in Iraq (where we lost more Americans than in 9/11, and where Christianity is now all but eradicated).

There was the second financial "meltdown" of 2008. Remember, Lehman Brothers? Fannie Mae? Goldman? Freddie Mac? All that? Remember the scares and recession that followed?

Surely, we would finally take the hint.

We would finally rethink our financial structure -- our artificial monetary policies, our stock market.

But no: instead of taking a hint -- realizing a warning, a sign -- we respond to gaping wounds with band-aids and decide to simply borrow more and "buy" more time.

Disorientation. Sister Lucia dos Santos, the Fatima seer, called it a time of "diabolic disorientation."

It may be soon that there is no more time to borrow or buy.

--7/31/14

[Michael Brown's books]

[Note also: Michael Brown retreats: Connecticut! and Retreats in California]