"O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.
But if not, even if he does not preserve us, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the false images you have set up and commanded us to worship."
Daniel 3:16-18
"Take a stand for that which is right, and the world may misunderstand you and criticize you, but you never go alone. Wherever you are going this morning, my friends, tell the world that you're going with truth. You're going with justice, you're going with goodness, and you will have an eternal companionship. And the world will look at you and they won't understand you, for your fiery furnace will be around you, but you'll go on anyhow.
But if not, I will not bow, and God grant that we will never bow before the gods of evil."
Martin Luther King,
But If Not, Atlanta, Georgia, November, 1967
"We may boast that we are the chosen people; we may even thank God that we are not like other men. But after all it will be but flattery, and the delusion, the self deceit of the Pharisee."
John Adams,
Letter to John Taylor, 29 July 1814
"Time and again we hope for better leaders, but all too often those hopes are dashed. The reason is that power causes people to lose the kindness and modesty that got them elected, or they never possessed those sterling qualities in the first place. They have the ultimate secret weapon to defeat their competition. They’re shameless.”
Rutger Bregman,
Humankind: A Hopeful History
"Greed is not good. Greed is a disease, an aberration of simple honest ambition and necessary provision taken to excess. And yet this generation would make a god of it. Greed is contagious, and attacks the very contentment of society at its heart, turning it towards oligarchy and oppression.
Jesse,
Greed Is Not Good, 19 December 2010
“Hear now, O Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just? When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it; for the injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, when a wicked person turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he shall save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die."
Ezekiel 18:25-28
No, they seem to never learn. Because the dark forces of fear and greed, of lust for possessions and power that they have taken into their hearts do not want to leave, but in their bitterness remain to destroy and devour.
And if you tell them, they will hate you, and silence and abuse you.
But you will tell them anyhow. Because that is what is demanded by love.
Stocks popped and flopped today.
VIX continued to fall towards an oddly displaced disregard for the world.
The Dollar was flat.
Gold and silver rallied and the miners recovered after their recent flogging.
The gold inventories in Hong Kong are scraping the bottom of the barrel. Time for a recharge.
Wash - rinse - repeat.
God's justice will not remain silent for much longer.
Have a pleasant weekend.
