It's not surprising now to meet people, even in the Christian camp, who despite debates. Not surprising because the West educates the heresy of "judge not" vehemently since the 90s.
They are not without justification of course, debates often end badly, destroying relationships, vain glorification, building pride, and often time, nothing edifying.
However, the alternative they suggested is not any good either. It looks good for a short time. Instead of being judgy, give praise, vain flatteries aren't too bad either. It gets boring. It becomes fake. It inevitably repels smarter folks of all camps. So it's not surprising for some who cares, to inject some spicy challenges in the midst of this boring flattery and vain praises, to rattle the cage, to reveal and isolate the wolves, pretending to play the peaceful game, in sheep's clothing.
It's either that or let people keep getting drunk in their religious opium.
From this video the major take I get is the part on suffering and sanctification. Here's Gemini's feedback, introducing terms like Hedonic Treadmill, fatherly chastisement, PTG:
Hedonic Treadmill, which Tucker explicitly mentions. It explains the tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events [45:39]
Reformed Perspective: Tucker’s claim that "you can't grow without suffering" echoes the Reformed view of Sanctification. The Westminster Shorter Catechism and various Reformed theologians argue that trials are "fatherly chastisements" or tools used by God to conform believers to the image of Christ [29:25].
External Source: This is consistent with the psychological concept of Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG), which suggests that individuals can experience positive psychological change as a result of struggling with highly challenging life circumstances.
Tucker’s "caveman" analogy for the amygdala’s fight-or-flight response is a standard model in Neuropsychology. It explains how the brain's limbic system can hijack the prefrontal cortex (the logic center), a theme Tucker uses to explain why people choose "safety" over "logic" in politics [21:26].
This one is so good I would have to do a comment on it.
When French brought up a horse-shoe diagram about the ultimately same camp where extreme left and extreme right land together, it is so similar to my circle chart, which I presented later to David Tong on a Facebook comment. I did a full circle instead of half or horseshoe because the bottom curve needs to show that being neutral or not left or right leaning can ALSO be a bad thing, in fact, it's the highest IQ or the lowest. Someone who avoid getting involve, seek to bury the truth (usually in the name of some perverted peace or love) is actually worst than the extreme left or extreme right, because he is claiming that he has no position while his inevitable position is actually opposing everyone from left to right such that only his position is the winner, he just doesn't admit what he's doing, which makes him worst.
But this is about the debate between Allie and David, so I shall explore with the summary of this video:
Good point by Kaitlyn Schiess against Allie's Toxic Empathy being focusing only on the emotion of empathy, while missing toxic anger and disgust being emotions as well that is frequently used to justify righteous empathy or, as Phil Vischer puts it, "masculine" empathy, as good empathy, "feminine" empathy as toxic empathy.
Update 6/3/2026:
Skye Jethani and Bri Stensrud could be stereotyping a little bit, but they do have a point against Allie Beth's book: Toxic Empathy, in such that one camp would pick and choose what they considered empathy if it aligns with their own self-believed righteous agenda; And where they don't align with their political ideals, it's toxic empathy:
Took me a while, but this is where I note down the come backs I would have/should have/have given when facing real life challenges, particularly in churches.
I was asked one time at Jireh Church (Marlboro township) by some member: You must have a lot of time from your job, that you can talk about/study theology?
Answer (should have been): Because America is a country full of Christian cults, we really should make time for theology! Making sure that we don't go to fake churches or for fake beliefs.
From a Crossroads Men's meeting (on challenging questions, i.e. can spy lie? etc.). When I took one of the given question list by the host and asked my group: So what do you think of this Israel challenges, do we support Israel, what is Israel to Christians? And I got the response from a black guy: It is a distraction from Christian love.
Answer (should have been): Ok, let me ask another question then, should Christian have debates? How would you sort out differences? Do we seek the truth or bury it?
Just came across this program called GauntletAI, highly selective bootcamp, but once selected, you go through a FREE 10 week program (3 weeks remote, and you will be flown into Austin, Texas for free, free hotel, free food, for 7 weeks) and after that your alleged starting salary is $200k, building AI projects for companies that partnered with GauntletAI for hiring. GauntletAI is supposedly paid by the hiring partners in some sort of commission. Gauntlet's founder is Austen Allred, also CEO of the for profit bootcamp Bloom Institute of Technology (formerly known as Lambda School) which has faced criticism for its claims, so it's still hard to tell if GauntletAI is all it's claiming to be, despite the fact that it says this is not for everyone by design, highly competitive (if you fail the projects you may be put and some sort of probation and then kicked out), and some has apparently benefited from it.
I note this down as a reference to AI Bootcamps. It seems to me that these AI (or developer) bootcamps are quite serious about the claim of their results. Folks gone in, they get good paying jobs after that. But I think I still need more convincing, and Bootcamps like Gauntlet seems to require me to quite my job to bet on the 10 week program, despite everything from transport to room being free.
Sore muscles for last two days, because wife made me do pushups (I think 30+) for out of anger yelling at her (I was sick of her not placing fragile things on the floor but not specifying where when I was moving them on top of a newspaper on the dining table, except for waiting for me to place it there and complained about it, so I exploded: "Stop it!" at her, which I apologized after a shower).
4/15/2026 Wednesday
The Pope and J.D. Vance (and Trump) are now in a theological feud on Just War theory, as the Pope called Trump's Iran war (EPIC FURY) as unjust. I am alerted by BBC on this news when Vance's previous brawl with the same Pope on issue of migrants was mentioned, with Vance calling attention to Ordo Amoris (order of charity/love) where one needs to focus on his own citizens (family) rather instead of immigrants (Pope's view). I do find myself leaning to the Pope's position, though not entirely due to anthropocentric elements. Ordo amoris makes sense only when we talk about responsibility to the family (or fellow citizens if you really want to go there). Responsibility really has nothing to do with love or charity, because it is beyond the kind of love one may put in the order. Rome/the Pope could rebut this easily with the good Samaritan parable. As for Just War theory, I would say Trump's administration really need to answer the bombing of girl school in Iran, deliberately or not is beside the point. And if U.S. is responsible, then what is the repercussion that is other than saying: "oops, it was a mistake, it's terrible that people die."
On that note, I'm surprised (in this case I consider high praise, superficially, higher than Alex's) that Alex's mom would like my comment: "When cultural Christianity becomes Christian Nationalism." on his post regarding Trump's latest debacle on the now removed post of him looking like a divine "healer" of the country with civilians praying as if to him. Makes me reflect more on what I said.
4/14/2026 Tuesday
With Gemini's help, some interesting points and reminders from Rev. Dr. Henry Ongkowijoyo:
Anthropomorphism and God's Nature: Dr. Henry argues that emotions like anger, jealousy, or regret in God are real, he warns against seeing God as a "static" or "mechanical" being, emphasizing that He is dynamic and personal [11:11].
Apostasy and Perseverance (Hebrews 6:4-6): Addressing whether the elect can fall away, he references 1 John 2:19 to explain that those who "apostatize" were never truly part of the elect; they appeared to be Christian but did not possess genuine faith [17:25].
Imams/Priests before Sinai: Exodus 19:22, he suggests that "priestly" functions (offering sacrifices) existed through heads of households or elders before the formal Levite priesthood was established [23:42].
4/13/2026 Monday
Allie Beth Stuckey's take on the Therapy Culture:
With the help of Gemini, this is my response:
Here's the summary from Stuckey's perspective: Stuckey breaks it into 3 parts: Inner Child Theory (comfort the inner child in you) which is against 1 Corinthians 13:11 - put away childish ways, Shadow Work (integrating with the dark side of you) which is against Colossians 3:5 - mortification of sin, Somatic Therapy (the body keeps the score so medicalize the mind - Stuckey claims that body doesn't make you sin nor heal you from sin, the soul does). This is an example two extremes, Stuckey brings the extreme examples against Biblical values out to judge from her own extreme takes. So there's some strawman, some shallow take on psychology.
One can refute Stuckey (and also the opposite extremes that she's attacking, of course) by refocusing the "inner child theory" as a metaphor for processing wounded memories, finding Christ's rule in these memories, rather than self-re-parenting.
On Shadow Work: Stuckey is not wrong but shallow here that the heart is desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). So instead of integrating dark shadow, repentance and killing of sin are key. However, since this is counseling, Stuckey fail to go deeper into dark faults. Christians should focus on bringing hidden works of darkness into the light (Ephesians 5:11-13), this is an important deep self-reflection to identify hidden idols or sins to be mortified in God's grace.
On Somatic Therapy: This is a kind of paradox I would say that Stuckey fail at. The body can become a stumbling block to the soul and emotion, rather than just "providing the context for our struggles". Our body is cursed, hence it needs to be put to death, this is where Stuckey and I think many Christian Fundamentalists today don't get, that we are cursed due to the FALL. Though finding physical relieve is not the solution to sin, having a cursed body can certainly influence us, already fallen (that means Christ is an exception), to sin.
When it comes to counseling, or Christian counseling, you don't want Stuckey as your counselor. However, that the people whom Stuckey finds to interview, could be a different story, because Stuckey definitely has shown to have an eye for interviewing the right guests for the job.
A informative chart showing that Strait of Malacca is the busiest Strait, not Strait of Hormuz. Though they are pretty close together as the world largest transits in Million Barrels per day (Mn B/D).
If China's Xi Jinping's meet up with Taiwan KMT's Cheng Li-wen was just reading scripts to each other, then I wonder why bother meeting?
4/6/2026 Monday
From time to time I do appreciate interviews done by Allie Beth Stuckey. A few with former porn stars, etc. This one is Brittni De La Mora, with ministry called: https://www.jesuslovespornstars.org/. Allie is wise enough to not take issue with "female" pastors in this case. It's also interesting that these kind of testimonies usually involve pimps who are some sort of backsliding Christians, demon possessions, drugs, and the pride of having money in the porn industry. Once nick named Jenna Presley, Brittni was convinced by the verse: Revelation 2:20-23 and repented.
Refuting the Quran, same way Sye Ten Bruggencate did in another entry I had: This is Pastor David Hentschel's Quranic verses that refute itself (If we have the word of God, Islam is false, if we don't have it, Islam is still false, the Islamic Dilemma) which I believe he credited to David Wood @1:34:42:
Surah 3:4 Allah revealed the Quran and before that he revealed the Torah as guidance for mankind. Surah 18:27 says no one can change Allah's words. Surah 7:157 says Jews and Christians who read about Muhammad and we find him mentioned in the Torah and the Gospels that have been written down to us. Surah 2:85 if you don't believe in all your book, he says I will send you to hell. Surah 5:43 Jews come to Muhammad to settle a dispute and Allah says why are they coming to you if they have the Torah? And Muhammad actually says bring me a Torah. He gets up from his cushion, he puts the Torah on the cushion and says let the Torah be your judge. Surah 5:48 says Allah sent Muhammad as a guardian of the previous scriptures. Surah 5:68 he says you have no ground to stand upon unless you stand fast on the Torah and the Gospel. Surah 10:94 Allah said Muhammad, if you're in doubt, ask those who are reading the book before you, make sure your revelation lines up with theirs.
On the side note, good for MBC to grow to a point that they are announcing two services in April, just like Crossroads in March.
David Bahnsen is sympathetic to Doug Wilson's Christian Nationalism cause. It's not surprising when someone offered you (not too surprising also if your father was a famous figure) prayers or was involved in raising you when you were young: ...in the thirty years of my adult life since my father died, I could count on one hand how many times a Pastor has offered to pray for me and pray with me... and that your father's been accused similarly as Wilson. He's only following the already public critics of Wilson (Serrated Edge-colorful language only for non-Christians but not fellow Christians, women should not vote, slavery, etc.) and couldn't go deeper perhaps for fear of ruining their relationship. Not impressed. What Wilson truly lacks, is a Gospel centered life, while masking himself in the comfort of American (not divine) heritage and blessings.
3/29/2026 Sunday
One thing wrong with churches with their modern music in order to appease younger generation is that they do not cite their sources. So I am going to just use a recorder to figure out whose songs they are singing. Today it's Chris Tomlin's Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone):
Eleni's going to like this one: CityAlight - Ancient of Days:
Keith & Kristyn Getty's Christ Our Hope in Life and Death:
Another song that Crossroads love to sing but not today is Matt Maher - Lord, I Need You (Official Lyric Video):
Password spraying, NTLM Brute Force Attack are all too common for anyone running RDP service.
Event ID 4776 logs the authentication attempts in Event Viewer (Windows Logs > Security). Using "microsoft_authentication_package_v1_0". You may find out what the source Network Address (IP) is. Sometimes IPs do not show but only the Source Workstation Name which is often spoofed (fake). You get Audit Failures more than once logged per second quite often when this happens.
Then further investigation is needed by preparing for NTLM auditing. Which is to enable Event ID 8004 logging (Group Policy Management > Forest > Domains > Domain Controllers > right click Default Domain Controllers Policy to Edit...
Then Group Policy Management Editor will open, from there go to Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options:
Network security: Restrict NTLM: Audit Incoming Traffic = Enable auditing for all accounts
Network security: Restrict NTLM: Audit NTLM authentication in this domain = Enable all
Network security: Restrict NTLM: Outgoing NTLM traffic to remote servers = Audit all
Then run in command prompt: gpupdate /force
And go to Event Viewer will log 8004 in Application and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > NTLM > Operational (right click to select Properties and change log size to 20032 (20MB). Now you can see the log. This log shows you the real device (workstation on the network) that's being targeted. From there, next step investigation can be done: i.e. look for IPs on that victim device that need to be blocked, etc.
As Christian, I would say yes to pro-life. However, I do not align with most pro-lifers in America especially when they are on the right wing. Abortion is a no. IVF is leaning yes.
I do not align with American right wing pro-lifers in such that when I say I'm pro-life, I'm overall pro-life, meaning that I should feel as strongly as when U.S. bombed Iranian girl school killing non-militant girls and the right wing Christians just call it a sad tragedy of collateral damage while they fought teeth and nails for the killing of adorable little cute babies. Because two can play that game: That the left could call killing of babies is merely sad, but the murder of Renee Good is evil!
So yes, I do suspect many Ring Wing Christian prolife activists are really just finding adorable things should not be killed, rather than preventing murder of those carrying the image of God. It's no wonder many of their children grow up vegan or left-wing animal activists. Because animals are cute, as their parents have taught them to love cute things. But any human life murdered beyond this context, is just followed by their mantra "it's tragic" and very quickly back to loving little things only they find adorable.
As for IVF, now the Catholics and many American Right folks like Charlie Kirk (who's still not comfortable with his own view on this) and Allie Beth Stuckey, etc. would call a human is created at the moment of conception either within or without a womb. I think this is problematic. I can agree with realization of pregnancy in the womb, because there is human care under divine providence. The womb is crucial for the divine providence. IVF however, is a more fully realization of human control over any divine providence. Divine creation of a human being would has no meaning if we call IVF conceptions, which is pure human act, all at once in a dish, before entering a womb, a creation of human being. This is not to say IVF babies aren't humans, because they have been birthed from a womb, which is the process of traditionally understood divine providence.
The Catholics' flaw in this is understandable, for they are pantheists by their doctrine. It's a shame that some protestants on the right would fall for similar pantheistic switch. As if God and man are on the same level of creatorship. The divine command to be fruitful, must always be directed by a full reliance on God, not on mere science. There is no full reliance on God in IVF until incubation. So, IVF is an OK for me. It is not murder of hundreds of wasted "human conceptions" for the sake of one human conception. I may go as far as "to call IVF murder of many" as unbiblical, for these "many" aren't incubated (Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 1:5).
On IVF ethics, this is of an interest note: Lila Rose and Allie Beth Stuckey critique the story of NBA player Carlos Boozer’s twins, who were conceived via IVF to serve as a bone marrow match for an older sibling [59:17]. I do not have an ethical take on this yet. Although I wouldn't agree with these two ladies that the process involved destroying multiple other "unique human lives[I've already explained above what truly constitutes human lives]" (embryos), which they label as "barbaric" [01:01:05].
Update 4/17/2026:
Prolife and Pro-immigration parallelism - They do seem parallel and thus balanced the Right wing with the Left wing in some interesting manner in American politics:
Prolife folks cherish life of the unborn but they may not care too much for immigrants (or immigration policies that welcome immigrants)
Pro-immigrant folks cherish the life of immigrants but may not care too much for the unborn.
The reason for the lack of care has more to do with a selfish heart than a murderous/discriminatory heart. Prolife folks who are not pro-immigration tend to think that the immigrants are in their way ("stealing" their jobs, houses, lands, opportunities); Pro-immigrant folks who are not prolife see that the unborn are in their way (affecting their social way of life).
Update 5/14/2026:
In terms of political policy on this, some would argue that Trump's administration isn't helping much compared to Biden's era: Bri Stensrud, director of Women of Welcome:
