The Vision, pp. 247-59<\/strong><\/p>\n You all know this is going to go great, right?<\/p>\n So here we are up on blueberry hill on the TLP compound, having the sort of communal cookout that comes with grilled food and volleyball and kids playing on playground equipment. And, remember from last week, that at this cookout, Omar and Tess, Magdalene, Bobbie Jo, and Cheyenne have a rather charged conversation about why Magdalene should definitely call her abusive father, and then they pray about her in a way that feels incredibly manipulative.<\/p>\n Reminds me of a million church camps, which always involved emotionally charged prayer sessions like this in amongst the hamburgers and volleyball. The only thing missing is a lake. Church camps always have a lake.<\/p>\n A Time to Spy; or, Cars That\u00a0Run on Water<\/strong><\/p>\n Once this prayer is over, Bobbie Jo takes Cheyenne into the woods and says:<\/p>\n \u201cWhile Tess was praying,\u201d she murmured, \u201cI heard Asher speaking to Malachi. I heard him say something about his brother, Levi. It sounded conspiratorial. Let\u2019s sneak up on them and hear what it\u2019s about.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I mean. You could just ask? But fine.<\/p>\n Malachi\u2019s quiet voice was muted by his full bird, but portions of his conversation came through. \u201cWhy does he want to move here in the middle of nowhere? There\u2019s not a synagogue anywhere in this area. It can\u2019t be his religion bringing him here. Is it to be close to you? Is he scared of Muslims and trying to find a safe place.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don\u2019t even know what<\/em> to say to all of that.<\/p>\n Asher\u2019s answer was reassuring. \u201cThe Muslims still have him worried. There has been some strange chatter. Israeli Mossad are puzzled because it is so different from their standard business of killing infidels.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don\u2019t feel like Asher should know this. This sounds confidential. Israeli Mossad must have terrible security. Anyway, Asher has more to say:<\/p>\n \u201cWith recent advances in fuel cell technology there may come a time soon when oil is no longer in high demand. Just look at what Ben\u2019s been doing while we\u2019ve been stuck here at TLP. Everyone\u2019s vehicle now runs partly on water, and even TLP\u2019s electrical power is operating independent of the utilities.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No.<\/p>\n I mean what is it operating\u00a0on?\u00a0<\/em>And don\u2019t say water. But TLP doesn\u2019t have solar panels and it doesn\u2019t have wind and there\u2019s no stream or river on it. The idea that a teenager with half an education who has never been out of the Tennessee backwoods could make a car\u00a0run on water\u00a0<\/em>beggars the imagination, but even beyond that, is the whole compound\u2019s utilities running on water?<\/p>\n I\u2019m not trying to be elitist here. There are lots<\/em> of teens without a conventional education who are a whiz with mechanics. It\u2019s just that if it were\u00a0this easy\u00a0<\/em>to make cars run on water\u00a0we\u2019d already be doing it.\u00a0<\/em>That kid in Malawi electrified his whole village<\/a>, yes, but he used wind power,<\/em> something we know works, and something that\u2019s within the realm of reasonable for someone to be able to set up.<\/p>\n Oh. Oh wait. Asher is not done talking.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout the money form oil, Muslim countries will quickly degenerate back to camel riding tribesmen, drinking mare\u2019s milk and warring over water holes and date palms.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Uh. Racism. I see racism.<\/p>\n Just \u2026 yikes.<\/p>\n Surviving the Volcano; or, Back to the Land<\/strong><\/p>\n So, what exactly does all of this have to do with Asher\u2019s brother Levi?<\/p>\n \u201cYellowstone is what\u2019s bringing him out here. Levi is a volcanologist who works for the government. He really thinks that a Yellowstone eruption is imminent.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This book has too many completely different bad guys.<\/p>\n \u201cHe thinks the large caves in this area would make a good survival spot if they were properly outfitted. Plus, eh knows form me that the folks in this area know how to grow food and maintain animals. He figures to establish a safe haven for a few select professionals as well as a few locals.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019m not sure this makes all that much sense, given that everything will change after the eruption, presumably. Knowing how to grow food normally doesn\u2019t necessarily translate into knowing how to grow food in caves while the soil acidity changes due to a volcanic eruption. I think I\u2019d rather get some scientists who spend their life working on this sort of thing on board.<\/p>\n Because that\u2019s what this is, right? An undermining of expertise outside of\u00a0the people on\u00a0the land.\u00a0<\/i>A sort of deification of pastoralism and herbal knowledge.<\/p>\n Wow, I am probably coming across as an elitist again. But, let me put it like this. I was once involved in a missions project that involved setting up an agricultural high school for local teens and young adults. This was in an area of South America where there was subsistence farming. The goal of the school was to provide local young people with tools to improve their farming practices, with an eye towards both sustainability and improved access to resources and better living standards.<\/p>\n I realize that there were aspects of this project that may have been rooted in elitism and possibly even imperialism. There also\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>times when local peoples\u2019 have knowledge that others don\u2019t. Many times. But there are also many cases where local farming practices\u2014perhaps combined with climate change or the loss of arable land\u2014can result in a stripping of minerals or ecological collapse.<\/p>\n This is a much bigger and more complicated subject than I have time to hash out. My point is simply that I see Debi engaging in a sort of deification of local pastoral practices and a rejection of scientific knowledge that is unsurprising given her position and general anti-intellectualism.<\/p>\n My Brother, A Jew<\/strong><\/p>\n At this moment, Yancey and Julie walk up, arm and arm, and Asher looks over and sees the whole group. He says he hadn\u2019t wanted to scare anyone with this talk. He summarizes:<\/p>\n \u201cWell, my brother Levi is thirty years old, and is, of course, a Jew. We haven\u2019t seen each other but once since I left home. He has maintained a distance from me since he heard that I had become a Christian. But recently, due to the bombing we have been back in contact. He\u2019s one of our nation\u2019s finest vulcanologists.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Okay\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cHe has been commissioned but he U.S. government for the last four years to study Yellowstone. This afternoon he phoned to inform me that he has sold everything he owns, even his stock portfolio, and has used the money to purchase the farms of James, Peterson, and Holly, as well as a huge tract behind them from a Japanese lumber company. This property would include that whole section of caves, and that entire ridge on the south side of the river, over 7,000 acres.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Is there a reason Asher is spilling all of his brother\u2019s personal business\u00a0to Yancey?<\/em><\/p>\n This is just weird.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s bringing in heavy duty fencing with electronic protective measures. There will be double fencing with a high speed road between them for security vehicles\u2014military level security, if it is needed. Picture the fence around Jurassic Park. Something like that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Uh. Sure.<\/p>\n Cheyenne asked how Asher\u2019s brother got Peterson to sell to him, given that Malachi has wanted to buy some land for a fishing launch from Peterson\u2019s property and Peterson had long refused.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, but I would not put it past Levi to do whatever it took. He\u2019s a very persuasive guy, quite the command man. Besides, we have several members of the family that are lawyers. They have a lot of influence and the ability to uncover a word of mistakes in one\u2019s business, taxes, and personal life\u2014if you get my drift.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Whoah.<\/p>\n Wait what.<\/p>\n I see anti-semitic tropes.<\/p>\n The Tennessee Herbalists and Israeli Mossad<\/strong><\/p>\n Next we get this:<\/p>\n \u201cHe even mentioned you, Cheyenne. He asked how many thousands of pounds of herbs, berries, and seeds you keep on hand and where they\u2019re stored, how you store them, how moisture affects them, how long they\u2019re viable, how they\u2019re used as seasonings or for added nutrition. He wanted to know how many non-genetically altered seeds you keep on hand and how long they\u2019ll stay viable. Plus, he wanted to know how much practical knowledge you have, how extensive your library of practical help books is, how skilled you are at applying the knowledge available for natural healing and nutrition\u2014should I go on?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n No, please don\u2019t. That\u2019s\u00a0creepy.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Also,\u00a0I\u2019m sorry,\u00a0<\/em>but he\u2019d be going to\u00a0actual scientists\u00a0<\/em>with these questions, not a small-time herbal distributer in Tennessee.\u00a0Actual\u00a0scientists\u00a0<\/i>study things like ideal nutrition content, what foods are most nutrient rich, etc. And no herb is a replacement for things like antibiotics.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, he was more interested in Hope, as she appears to be quite well known among his colleagues,\u201d and grinning his understanding, he added, \u201cfor some strange reason.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This appears to be a reference to an earlier monologue in which Hope talked about her herbal work and how it involved plants from Israel. She hinted that \u201cIsraeli scientists\u201d were probably aware of some of the miracle-working properties of these herbs, but were concealing these properties because they needed something up their sleeve in case things go bad. She never said anything about actual collaboration with Israeli scientists, however. It was very vague.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s a wider point: Levi is a volcanologist employed by the U.S. government. His colleagues are, presumably, other volcanologists ore scientists in related fields\u2014geology, seismology, etc.\u00a0Not Israeli Mossad,<\/i> and not Israeli scientists working in fields like chemistry, biology, or nutrition. The idea that Hope\u2019s work with herbs should be \u201cquite well known\u201d among Levis\u2019s \u201ccolleagues\u201d\u00a0makes absolutely no sense\u00a0<\/em>on multiple completely different levels.<\/p>\n I\u2019m pretty sure that the idea that Asher\u2019s brother would somehow just\u00a0have a line to the Mossad\u00a0<\/em>because he\u2019s, well, you know, Jewish,\u00a0<\/em>is also<\/em> anti-semitic.\u00a0Levi hasn\u2019t even ever lived in Israel. He was born and raised in the U.S., he\u2019s American. Completely American.<\/p>\n We learned earlier that Asher\u2019s brother was in-the know due to his roommate, so I checked\u2014and no, his roommate does not work for Mossad, he works for \u201cthe Feds.\u201d There hasn\u2019t been any explanation of how Levi knows the internal workings of the Israeli intelligence community.<\/p>\n The reason I think this is anti-semitic is twofold: first, there\u2019s an assumption that Jews are some sort of monolith, so of course a given Jewish person would be in tune with the Israeli intelligence system. But second, there\u2019s divided loyalties: Levi is an American scientist working for the U.S. government. There is absolutely no reason he should know what\u2019s going on with Israeli intelligence. The assumption that\u00a0he would\u00a0<\/em>suggests an assumption that all Jews maintain an allegiance to Israel.<\/p>\n The Muslim Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n Nope. It\u2019s not going to get any better.<\/p>\n \u201cAsher,\u201d Bobbie Jo asked, \u201cDoes your brother know about you being involved in reaching the Muslims with the gospel?\u201d<\/p>\n This time Asher looked up and smiled. \u201cYeah, he\u2019s really happy that we\u2019ve managed to help with what the Jewish people call the Muslim Problem\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know enough about how Israeli Jews talk about Muslims to say definitively that this isn\u2019t it. It\u2019s possible that some Israeli Jews use the term \u201cthe Muslim Problem\u201d to discuss Israeli relations with Muslim-majority nations and with individual Muslims. But given the historical use of the term \u201cthe Jewish problem<\/a>\u201d by anti-semites, I wouldn\u2019t take this as granted. This sounds more like Debi feeling like she heard this term\u00a0somewhere\u00a0<\/em>and getting it rather confused.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026although their perspective is quite different. Sadly, they rejoice that the inroads we have made in the Muslim populations have created internal discord, resulting in Muslims killing Muslims rather than killing Jews.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Debi is very efficient at not making Israeli Jews look at all good. And it\u2019s really unfortunate. To say the least. Which perhaps I should say more. Because this whole idea that Israeli Jews are just out for themselves (such as hiding special herbal healing formulas just for them), and that they rejoice in others\u2019 misfortunate,\u00a0is classic anti-semitism.\u00a0<\/em>Period and full stop.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has never been a time in the 1,300 years of Islam\u2019s history when they were so shaken by large numbers converting to another religion. It totally freaks Levi out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Their graphic novel Bible has resulted in wide-scale conversions, already? How do they know this? Is it on the news? This book is so weird. It\u2019s not like there have never been Chick Tracts in Arabic.<\/p>\n Alternative Histories<\/strong><\/p>\n Someone asks Asher why his brother\u2014an American volcanologist concerned about Yellowstone\u2014doesn\u2019t just move to Israel. He would definitely be safe from Yellowstone there, right?<\/p>\n \u201cAs to Israel, they believe there\u2019s a fault under Jerusalem which will cause the mountain on which it sits to split. They think a great river will flow from it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour brother\u2019s hit on something there,\u201d Omar interjected. \u201cThe Scripture teaches that very thing. it says the river will flow down and cleanse the Dead Sea.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n None of this is real.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last major super volcano, which around A.D. 537, seems to have usher in the Dark Ages. Without the sun\u2019s life-giving vitamin D, people\u2019s immune systems would not have been able to fight against disease. So within a year the Black Plague hit.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I\u2019m actually going to give Debi some points here, because it appears she did not just make this up.\u00a0According to Wikipedia, there was extreme weather in 535-536<\/a> that might have been caused by a volcanic eruption. Also according to Wikipedia, the first outbreak of Black Plague<\/a> was in 541-549.<\/p>\n