A hidden life in the era of social media can still change history, as the story of Jesus shows; The Guardian, December 14, 2025

Justine Toh, The Guardian ; A hidden life in the era of social media can still change history, as the story of Jesus shows

[Kip Currier: Resonant brief piece by Justine Toh, sharing the insights of 19th century Victorian writer George Eliot (nee Mary Ann Evans). As Toh observes:

...the spotlight needn’t be on you for you to live an influential life. A life might be “hidden” – a heresy in the social media era, where everything exists to be shared – yet still well lived. You can shape the course of history, even if you leave little trace on it.

So relevant -- and a welcome antidote -- to this social media era that demands and amplifies "attention", "likes", "notice", and "influence".]

[Excerpt]

"Do you want to be influential?

So do 57% of gen Zs in the US who aspire to be influencers, presumably lured by money and fame. But say you also want to make the world a better place. In that case, maybe the spiritual instruction you need emerges in the famous final lines of George Eliot’s 1871 novel Middlemarch:

“… the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

Eliot offers a bracing reality check: the spotlight needn’t be on you for you to live an influential life. A life might be “hidden” – a heresy in the social media era, where everything exists to be shared – yet still well lived. You can shape the course of history, even if you leave little trace on it.

This strange idea takes on added significance for me at Christmas. The story of Jesus’s birth is nothing if not “unhistoric” – in the sense of being ignored – even if today we live in the wake of his influence...

Eliot gives us a place to start renewing our attention – by recognising that “the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts”.

If nothing else, the line doubles as a fitting description of Christianity’s lasting effect. That it was penned by a woman who shed her Christian faith, but largely retained its ethics, is even more ironic. Whatever you believe, Eliot’s is excellent advice: keep adding to the world’s growing good by small acts. Unhistoric on their own, perhaps, but that still prove generative, spawning possibilities long after."

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Addresses General and Flag Officers at Quantico, Virginia; U.S. Department of War, September 30, 2025

[Transcript] U.S. Department of War, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Addresses General and Flag Officers at Quantico, Virginia

[Kip Currier: Pete Hegseth repeatedly denigrated our brave military enlisted members and officers with shameful insults, and then invoked the language of God, Jesus, and the Biblical Gospels to try to legitimize his statements and actions by intentionally situating his derogatory rhetoric within the framework of the Golden Rule. It's a transparent attempt to use scripture as a shield for reprehensible conduct.

It's also wholly inappropriate, disrespectful, and unnecessary to talk to and about our military members in this way.

Moreover, the actions and teachings of the Jesus of the New Testament are in direct opposition to the kinds of derisive and divisive put-downs and slurs that Hegseth utters in this speech.

Thank you to all those serving and who have served in our military branches.]

[Excerpt]

"This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction or gender delusions. No more debris.

As I've said before and will say again, we are done with that shit. I've made it my mission to uproot the obvious distractions that made us less capable and less lethal. That said, the War Department requires the next step.

Underneath the woke garbage is a deeper problem and a more important problem that we are fixing and fixing fast. Common sense is back at the White House, so making the necessary changes is actually pretty straightforward. President Trump expects it. And the litmus test for these changes is pretty simple.

Would I want my eldest son, who is 15 years old, eventually joining the types of formations that we are currently wielding? If in any way the answer to that is no, or even yes but, then we're doing something wrong, because my son is no more important than any other American citizen who dons the cloth of our nation. He is no more important than your son, all precious souls made in the image and likeness of God.

Every parent deserves to know that their son or their daughter that joins our ranks is entering exactly the kind of unit that the secretary of war would want his son to join. Think of it as the Golden Rule test. Jesus said do unto others that which you would have done unto yourself. It's the ultimate simplifying test of truth.

The new War Department golden rule is this: do unto your unit as you would have done unto your own child's unit. Would you want him serving with fat or unfit or under trained troops or alongside people who can't meet basic standards, or in a unit where standards were lowered so certain types of troops could make it in, in a unit where leaders were promoted for reasons other than merit, performance and warfighting? The answer is not just no, it's hell no."

Full Text of Pope Leo XIV’s Homily From Inauguration Mass: ‘This Is the Hour for Love’; National Catholic Register, May 18, 2025

 

National Catholic Register, Full Text of Pope Leo XIV’s Homily From Inauguration Mass: ‘This Is the Hour for Love’

"Brothers and sisters, this is the hour for love! The heart of the Gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters."

“Moral Sewage”: Trump Is The Opposite Of Christianity; Huffington Post, 8/12/16

Mike Lux, Huffington Post; “Moral Sewage”: Trump Is The Opposite Of Christianity:

"It wasn’t me who called Donald Trump’s campaign “reality television moral sewage.” The person who said that was none other than Russell Moore, the very conservative president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. And it isn’t just things like calling women fat pigs, commenting on women based on how they look, or talking about the size of his penis in a nationally televised debate. Donald Trump’s entire philosophy of life is predicated on the Ayn Randian notion of the ‘virtue of selfishness,’ the belief that power and wealth are the zenith of what is important and good in the world — not more old-fashioned values like basic human decency. Is there a clearer antithesis to what Jesus preached in the gospels?"...

Hillary firmly believes in the Methodist social gospel, exemplified in that quote from the Methodist Church’s founder, John Wesley, that she mentioned in her convention speech: “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”"