Podcasts about Ottoman Turks

In 1453, the once grand and formidable city of Constantinople fell to the hands of the Ottoman Turks – bringing over a millennium of Byzantine rule to a dramatic close, and heralding the rise of the Ottoman empire. But what caused this seismic moment? And how did the attack play out? Together with Emily Briffett, Professor Jonathan Harris journeys back to the 15th century to unravel how the Byzantine capital was seized – recounting the action and exploring the ramifications up to the modern day. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Kumul Rebellion. In 1931, tensions in Kumul escalated after a Muslim girl spurned Han tax collector Chang Mu, leading to his violent death at a family dinner. Enraged, Uyghurs retaliated against Chinese officials, igniting a rebellion. Chaos ensued as rebels targeted Han settlers, ultimately capturing Kumul with little resistance. Amidst the unrest, Yulbars Khan sought support from military leader Ma Chongying, who planned to mobilize his forces to help the Uyghurs. What began as a local incident spiraled into an all-out revolt against oppressive rule. In 1931, young warlord Ma Chongying sought to establish a Muslim empire in Central Asia, leading a small force of Tungan cavalry. As his army attempted to besiege Kumul Old City, they faced fierce resistance from Chinese troops. Despite several assaults, the lack of heavy artillery hampered Ma's progress. Eventually, Ma faced defeat due to a serious injury. After his recuperation, his forces joined with Uyghur insurgents, sparking a guerrilla war against oppressive provincial troops, leading to increasing unrest and rebellion.   #133 Kumul Rebellion part 2: Uprisings in southern Xinjiang Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. So in the last episode we spoke about the beginning of the Kumul Rebellion. Now the Kumul Rebellion is actually a series of other rebellions all interlaced into this larger blanket known as the Xinjiang Wars. To be blunt, Xinjiang was the wild west from the 1930s until basically the formation of the PRC. We briefly went over the various groups that inhabit northwestern China, they all had their own interests. I want to start off by looking at the situation of southern Xinjiang. Back in June of 1924, Ma Fuxing, the T'ai of Kashgar was executed. His executioner was Ma Shaowu who had just received the post of Taoyin over the oasis city of Khotan. There was of course always tension, but southern Xinjiang was relatively peaceful in the 1920s. Then Governor Yang Zengxin was assassinated in July of 1928. During the last years of his rule, southern Xinjiang often referred to as Kashgaria, remained entrenched in the British sphere of influence after the collapse of Tsarist Russia and the subsequent closure of the Imperial Russian consulate-General at Kashgar.  Going further back in time, in August of 1918, Sir Geoerge Macartney, the long standing British Consul General to Kashar had retired. His successor was Colonel P. T Etherton, a hardcore anti-communist who actively was cooperating with anti-Soviet Basmachi guerillas in the western portion of Turkestan. One of his missions was to curb Soviet influence in southern Xinjiang. Yang Zengxin understood the British policy towards Xinjiang was to push the Soviets out via enabling the survival of his independent Han led regime. Thus Yang Zengxin was very friendly to the British and allowed them to exercise considerable political influence in Tien Shan. Despite this Soviet influence spread in Ili and Zungharia. This prompted Yang Zengxin to secretly cooperate with the British in Kashgar to counter the looming red growth north of his province. Now by 1924, through a combination of military necessities and the re-emergence of Soviet Russia as Xinjiang's largest trading partner, this forced Yang Zengxin to push away the British. Following the Sino-Soviet agreement of 1924 which effectively saw the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Beijing, the Soviet government at Omsk dispatched an envoy to Xinjiang to discuss mutual consular representation. Both sides reached an agreement on October 6th, providing for an exchange of consulate-generals between Tashkent and Urumqi and for Soviet consulates in Chuguchak, Kulja, Shara Sume and Kashgar. The new Soviet presence in Kashgar was quite upsetting for the British. It also allowed the Soviets direct access to the densely populated oases of Tarim Basin, the source of nearly all Xinjiang's revenue.  Shortly after the Soviet Consulate in Kashgar officially opened on October 10, 1925, a local power struggle emerged involving Max Doumpiss, the Soviet Consul, of Latvian origin, Major Gillan, the British Consul-General at that time, and the Taoyin of Kashgar. Sino-Soviet relations in southern Xinjiang took a troubled turn in November 1925 when large quantities of silver bullion were discovered hidden in thirty-four boxes labeled as Soviet 'diplomatic bags,' intended for the Kashgar consulate. The Kashgar Taoyin, who was reportedly offended by the 'subtle spread of Soviet propaganda' in the southern oases, retaliated by expelling several suspected Russian agents. In March 1926, significant riots erupted in Kashgar, which the Chinese authorities attributed to an interpreter at the Soviet Consulate named Akbar 'Ali. The unrest was quelled by a force of 400 local Tungan troops, and Akbar 'Ali was imprisoned; the Taoyin ignored subsequent Soviet demands for his release. The rapid increase in the number of European consular staff from around fifteen in 1925 to between thirty and forty by 1927 also alarmed Chinese officials. All these developments were likely reported to Governor Yang Tseng-hsin in Urumchi, who was likely dealing with similar situations at the newly established Soviet Consulates in Kulja, Chuguchak, and Shara Sume. It appears that, with discreet British support, Yang decided to take actions to curb the expansion of Soviet influence in Kashgar. The Kashgar Taoyin then took up a strong anti-soviet stance. Alongside this Yang Zengxin's nephew, the officer in command of Chinese troops along the Kashgar northern frontier, suddenly became a frequent visitor to the British consulate General at Chini Bagh. After the death of the old Taoyin in 1927, Ma Shaowu came over from Khotan to replace him and with this came heightened anti-soviet policies in southern Xinjiang. Ma Shaowu first began by imprisoning 60 alleged local communists and tightened Chinese control over Kashgars northern frontier. The freedom of the Soviet Consul team to travel within southern Xinjiang was tightened to the extreme and all Kashgar citizens suspected of pro-soviet sympathies became targets for confiscation of their property or deportation to other oases. Yang Zengxin backed Ma Shaowu's attempts to limit Soviet influence in Tarim Basin by imposing severe tax on Muslims leaving southern Xinjiang to go on Hajj via the USSR. Similarly, new legislative was unleashed requiring merchants going into the USSR to deposit large sums of money to the Chinese authorities in Kashgar who would forfeit if the depositor failed to return to Xinjiang within 60 days.  These policies did not completely insulate southern Xinjiang from Soviet influence; however, they did ensure that at the time of Yang Zengxin's assassination in 1928, the southern region of the province—especially Ma Shao-wu's domain around Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan—maintained a significant degree of independence from the Soviet Union. This stood in stark contrast to areas like the Ili Valley, Chuguchak, and Shara Sume, where Soviet influence became dominant shortly after 1925, and even to the provincial capital of Urumqi, where, by the spring of 1928, the Soviet Consul-General had considerable sway. It was likely due to Ma Shaowu's anti-Soviet position and the persistent dominance of British influence in southern Xinjiang during the final years of Yang Zengxin's administration that Kashgar emerged as a hub of conservative Muslim opposition to Chinese governance in the 1930s. Yang Zengxins intentional efforts to sever southern Xinjiang from Soviet influence resulted in the Uighurs and, to a lesser extent, the Kirghiz of the Tarim Basin being less influenced by the 'progressive' nationalist propaganda from Soviet-controlled Western Turkestan compared to the Turkic-speaking Muslims of the Ili Valley and Zungharia. This is not to imply that the socialist nationalism promoted by the Jadidists after 1917 was entirely ineffective south of the Tien Shan; however, Kashgar, situated outside the Soviet zone in northwestern Sinkiang, became a natural refuge for right-wing Turkic nationalists and Islamic traditionalists who opposed Chinese authority yet were even more fiercely against the encroachment of 'atheistic communism' and its Soviet supporters in Central Asia. Many of these right-wing Turkic-speaking nationalists were former Basmachi guerrillas, primarily of Uzbek, Kazakh, and Kirghiz descent, but also included several Ottoman Turks and, according to Caroe, "old men who had fought against the Chinese at Kashgar." Among the most notable Basmachi leaders who sought refuge in Kashgar was Janib Beg, a Kirghiz who would play a significant role in the politics of southern xinjiang during the early 1930s. Following Yang Zengxin's assassination in July 1928, Soviet influence in southern Xinjiang began to grow rapidly; nevertheless, at the onset of the Kumul Rebellion in 1931, reports of forced collectivization and the suppression of nomadic lifestyles in Western Turkestan led many Turkic Muslims in southern Xinjiang to be wary of Soviet intentions. If, during the late 1920s and early 1930's, the Turkic Muslims of southern Xinjiang were divided in their approach towards the Soviets and the newly formed Turkic-Tajik SSR's in western Turkestan, they all were united in their attitude towards their Tungan brethren to the east. Unlike the Turkic Muslim rebels of Kumul, the Uyghurs and Kirghiz of southern Xinjiang were far too distant from Gansu to appeal for assistance from the Tungan warlords, such as the 5 Ma Clique. Besides the Han Chinese officials, rule over the oases of Tarim Basin had long been held by Tungans. Ma Fuxing, the Titai of Kashgar had ruthlessly exploited his Turkic Muslim subjects between 1916-1924. He himself was a Hui Muslim from Yunnan, as was Ma Shaowu. The Turkic Muslims of southern Xinjiang therefore had zero illusions of any “muslim brotherhood” with their Tungan brethren. It was Tungan troops who intervened to suppress any demonstration against Chinese rule. The Tungans of Tarim Basin were allies to the Han Chinese administration and thus enemies to the Turkic Muslim peoples. The western rim of Tarim Basin was in a unique political situation during the later half of Yang Zengxins rule as a large part of its Turkic Muslim population looked neither to the progressive Muslim leadership of western Turkestan nor the Tungan warlords of Gansu. Instead they looked at the regimes in Turkey and Afghanistans, both quite conservative. Contacts in these places were sparse ever since the Qing reconquest of Xinjiang. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WW1, contact ceased to exist at all. Emotional links to what once was however lingerd, and the nationalist revolution of Ataturk sprang something of a Turkish renaissance inspiring Turkic peoples from Crimea to Kumul.  As for Afghanistan, there existed more concrete religious and political contacts with southern Xinjiang. In 1919, Amir Aman Allah, the last Muhammadzay ruler of Afghanistan had taken the throne after the death of his father. He became an impetuous ruler who brought forth his own downfall through a series of radical reforms that caused a revolution by 1928. Yet in his first years of rule he had widespread support of Muslim peoples in central asia, especially after he began the Third Afghan war against Britain, combined with a Jihad for Afghan independence. Because of this the British were forced to recognize Afghanistan's right to independent foreign policy. During this period, it is rumored Amir Aman Allah had toyed with the idea of forming an Islamic Confederacy which would have included Afghanistan, Bukhara, Khiva and Khokand. He would have also been interested in influence over Xinjiang where numerous Afghan merchants resided under British protection. Following Britains recognition of Afghanistan's right to independent foreign policy, with the 1919 treaty of Peshawar, British diplomatic protection for Afghan citizens in Xinjiang was lifted. Amir Aman Allah then established independent diplomatic links between Kabul and Urumqi, sending a delegation in 1922 led by Muhammad Sharif Khan. The Chinese officials regarded the Afghan mission as a trade delegation, but Muhammad Sharif Khan carried with him printed visiting cards styling himself as Afghanistan's Consul-General in Xinjiang. Alongside this he brought draft agreements demanding full extraterritorial rights and other privileges for Afghan subjects in Xinjiang and the right to import opium freely into the province. It is to no surprise Yang Zengxin refused to recognize the mission causing a dispute that would drag on for years. It became a long standing issue for th Turkic speaking Muslims of southern Xinjiang. There were many who looked to Afghanistan to help them against Chinese oppression. Now getting back to our timeline, with the initial outbreak of the Kumul Rebellion and the Tungan invasion, Jin Shujen had made every effort to prevent news of these events occurring mostly in the northeast from getting into the south. But of course one cannot stop the flow of information completely. Rumors and reports of the rebellious activities northeast flooded into the oases of Tarim Basin, invigorating anti-Chinese zeal, from peoples already suffering from increased taxation and inflation caused by unbacked paper currency paying for Jin's war efforts. Jin was well aware of the discontent south in his province, but he was emboldened by his victory of Ma Chongying as well as the recent delivery of 4000 rifles and 4 million rounds of ammunition from British held India. Thus he determined to maintain his current stance. It would prove to be a very fateful decision. The Kumul Rebellion was not crushed by any means. In fact the brutality following the relief of Kumul Old City caused outrage amongst the Turkic speaking peoples and sent refugees westwards towards Turfan. By May of 1932, Ma Chongying had dispatched a young Tungan Lt, Ma Shihming to take command over his Tungan forces remaining in Xinjiang. Ma Shihming quickly established his HQ in Turfan and began to cooperate with the Turkic speaking Muslim insurgents who owed their allegiance to Yulbars Khan and Khoja Niyas Haiji. It's also believed he made contact with Ma Fuming, a Tungan officer in command of the Xinjiang provincial forces at Turfan.  By mere coincidence, in May of 1932, Jin had also elected to seek revenge against Tsetsen Puntsag Gegeen, the Torgut Mongol regent inhabiting Tien Shan. That same guy he had asked for military aid from who simply took his army away. Tsetsen Puntsag Gegeen was invited to come back to Urumqi where he was to attend an investigation into the assassination plot laid against him. On May 21st, shortly after his arrival, he alongside two Torgut officers and the young Torgut Prince were all invited to an official banquet at Jin Shujens yamen. Now you might be thinking, who in their right mind would fall for that shit? Especially given the Yang Zengxin banquet story. Well according to R.P Watts, the British Vice Consul General at Kashgar who happened to be in Urumqi at the time. “While drinking the usual preliminary cup of tea the regent and the two military officers were led out into a courtyard and executed. According to Chinese custom in such matters proper observance was accorded to the high rank of regent even at the moment of execution. A red carpet was spread on the ground on which he was invited to seat himself. He was then killed by being shot through the head from behind by one of the governor's special executioners. His two companions being men of inferior rank were not given the privilege of a red carpet to sit on whilst being executed.”  The young Torgut prince was allowed to return to Kara Shahr, man that must have been an awkward desert. So Jin hoped the harsh action would terrify the young prince into submission. As you may have guessed, Jin actions were quite toxic for the Torgut Mongols. Might I add the Torgut Mongols were probably the only non Chinese group in Xinjiang that may have sided with Jin against the Turkic peoples? So to tally up things a bit here. Jin pissed off the Uyghurs and Tungans of Turfan, the Kirghiz of Tian Shan and now the Torguts.  In early 1932, Turkic Muslim opposition to forced collectivization and suppression of nomadism by Stalin in the Kazakh and Kirghiz regions of Soviet Central Asia, saw many spill over into Xinjiang. By March of 1932, large numbers of Kirghiz fled the border and were pursued by Soviet forces. A series of skirmishes and raids broke out in the border region. The Soviet Kirghiz naturally received aid from the Xinjiang Kirghiz and in June a Chinese official was killed by Kirghiz insurgents in Tien Shan. The Chinese were outraged, prompting Ma Shaowu to unleash 300 troops from Kashgar New City and 200 troops from Kashgar Old City to defend the frontier area. These units were soon joined by another 100 troops from Opal and 200 from Uch Turfan all under the leadership of Brigadier Yang, the nephew to the late Yang Zengxin. In July Yang's men began joint operations with the Soviets against the Kirghiz insurgents who were led by Id Mirab. The Chinese forces were said to quote “The Chinese forces had been suffering badly from want of opium', and reportedly behaved very badly towards Kirghiz, a number of whom were driven to take refuge in Russian territory”. To try a force the submission of the Kirghiz, Yang's forces took 70 hostages from Kirghiz families and brought them to imprisoned them the oases of Khotan, Keriya and Charchan. Thus Jin and Ma Shaowu had succeeded within a few months of Ma Chongyings withdrawal back into Gansu in both alienating the Turkic speaking and Mongol nomads of Tien Shan. The Sino-Soviet cooperation against the Kirghiz had also not gone unnoticed by other Muslim groups.  Meanwhile the Kumul Rebellion had spread westwards. By Autumn of 1932, months after the arrival of Ma Shihming to Turfan, Ma Fuming joined the rebels cause. Wu Aichen wrote it was his belief that Ma Fuming's decision was based on the continuing flow of Muslim refugees from Kumul to Turfan combined with reports of mass executions being carried out by Xing Fayu. But like I had mentioned, there is also strong evidence Ma Shihming probably negotiated an alliance with Ma Fuming. Wu Aichen wrote Ma Fumings first rebellious action was to send a telegram to Jin requesting he dispatch reinforcements while he also sent a letter to Xing Fayu over in Kumul to come quickly to Turfan. The reinforcements arrived at the oasis without suspecting a thing and were “shot down to the last man” by Ma Fumings forces as they passed the city gates. A few days later another detachment of 100 men led by Xing Fayu reached Turfan only to suffer the same fate. Xing Fayu was taken captive and “tortured to death in public with every refinement of cruelty and vileness of method”. Following Ma Fumings official defection, the Turfan Depression quickly emerged as the main center of Muslim rebellion in northeastern Xinjiang. Kumul which had been laid to ruin by Jin was abandoned to the Turkic Muslim insurgents and a handful of Tungan troops. A large portion of Tungan forces consisting of those following Ma Fuming and Ma Sushiming massed at Turfan preparing to march upon Urumqi, lying 100 miles northwest. The storm brewing in Turfan was followed up by a series of uncoordinated uprisings amongst the Turkic speaking Muslims of southern Xinjiang. The Uyghurs of Tarim Basin and Kirghiz of Tien Shan realized Jin's grip over the province was weakening and the presence of Tungan forces in Turfan effectively cut off the oases of the south from Urumqi and Jin's White Russian troops, whom otherwise may have scared them into submission. The White Russians and other provincial forces were hard pressed by Ma Fuming and Ma Shihming. Reports also spread that Ma Chongying would soon re-enter the fray in person and that Chang Peiyuan, the Military commander over at Ili had fallen out with Jin. Thus the Turkic speaking Muslims of southern Xinjiang knew the time was ripe to rebel against Chinese rule. In the winter uprising began at Pichan, just east of Turfan and at Kara Shahr about 175 miles southwest. Lack of Torgut support at Kara Shahr following the murder of Tsetsen Puntsag Gegeen basically sealed the fate of the Chinese forces within the city. The new Tungan leader, Ma Chanzeng emerged the commander of rebel forces in the region. Disregarding the increasingly intense conflict between Ma Shih-ming and the provincial forces along the Turfan-Urumqi road, Ma Chan-ts'ang moved westward, seizing Bugur in early February and progressing to Kucha. There, he formed a strategic alliance with Temiir, the local Uyghur leader, who was noted by Wu Aichen as "a capable individual who had managed the mule wagon service." After occupying Kucha without any resistance, the combined forces of Ma Chanzeng and Temiir continued their advance toward Aksu, capturing the small town of Bai along the way. Ma Shaowu was the Taoyin of Kashgar and second most powerful official in the provincial administration after Jin, thus found himself cut off from Urumqi by two separate armies of Muslim rebels each composed of Tungan and Turkic factions. One of these armies held a small but militarily competent Tungan force led by Ma Chanzeng with a large contingent of poorly armed Uyghur peasants owing their allegiance to Temur. This force advanced southwest towards Aksu, while the other army consisting of a loose coalition of competent Tungan troops under Ma Shihming and Ma Fuming with Turkic speaking Muslim peasants owing allegiance to Khoja Niyas Haiji and Yulbars Khan pressed their attack directly upon Urumqi. In February of 1933 to add further confusion in the south, the rebellion against the Chinese spread southwards across the Tarim Basin to its southern rim. Uprising against the Chinese administration broke out simultaneously amongst the gold miners of the southern oases who had long resented the provincial governments fixed rate for the purchase of gold in Xinjiang alongside brutal working conditions. The spiraling inflation from Jin's worthless currency which was used to pay for the gold only made things worse. By spring their patience had run out, the Uyghurs led by Ismail Khan Khoja seized control of Kara Kash killing a large number of Han Chinese. Meanwhile the Uyghurs at Keriya seized control over the Surghak mines and threatened to take control over the whole oasis. Prominent rebel demands included a fair price for gold and silver and prohibition of the purchase of precious metals with paper currency. More urgent demands were lowering taxes, ending government tyranny, introducing Shari a law and stationing Muslim troops in every city. Now these demands were very real, they were willing to stand down if they were met. One anonymous writer of the demand notices placed at Karakash was as follows “A friend for the sake of friendship will make known a friend's defects and save him from the consequences of his defects. You, who are supposed to rule, cannot even realize this, but try to seek out the supporter of Islam to kill him. Foolish infidels like you are not fit to rule ... How can an infidel, who cannot distinguish between a friend and a foe, be fit to rule? You infidels think that because you have rifles, guns ... and money, you can depend on them; but we depend upon God in whose hands are our lives. You infidels think that you will take our lives. If you do not send a reply to this notice we are ready. If we die we are martyrs. If we survive we are conquerors. We are living but long for death”. Ma Shaowu elected to first move against the Muslim insurgents threatening Aksu, most likely reasoning that if Ma Chanzeng and Temur were defeated the weaker rebel forces at KaraKash and Surghak would just crumble. There also was the fact Ma Shihmings men at Turfan had severed the telegraph line between Urumqi and Kashgar, and that line had been re-routed via Aksu, but if Aksu fell to the rebels, communications with the capital would only be possible via the USSR. At this point its estimated Brigadier Yang had a mixed army of 280 cavalry and 150 infantry as he set out for Aksu on February 6th. Ma Shaowu's position was not good. On February 9th, Jin Shujen's younger brother, Jin Shuqi the commander in chief at Kashgar New City suddenly died of illness. He was replaced with a Chinese officer called Liu who took command of his three detachments of cavalry, about 480 men and a single detachment of artillery, about 160 men. Ma Shaowu held control over two regiments of cavalry, 700 men and 3 detachments of infantry, around 300 men all stationed at Kashgar Old City. In mid february reports reached Kashgar that Brigadier Yang was heavily outnumbered by the rebels under Ma Chanzeng and Temur and had fallen back from Aksu to a defensive line at Maral Bashi. On the 23rd celebrations were held at Kashgar to mark Jin handing Ma Shadowu the new title of Special Commissioner for the Suppression of Bandits. During the celebration, salutes were fired at the yamen and KMT flags were flown from buildings throughout the city. Afterwards all of Liu's forces were sent to Maral Bashi to bolster Yang.  Now in a bid to suppress the uprisings at Surghak and KaraKash before a full scale uprising could develop on the southern road, 200 men led by Colonel Li were dispatched to Khotan, while another force under Colonel Chin was dispatched to Yarkland. Because of these movements of troops to Khotan and Maral Bashi, there was a serious depletion of defenders for Kashgar. Thus Ma Shaowu ordered a raising of Kirghiz levies and recalled some Chinese troops from the frontier districts west of Kashgar. Thus the Chinese garrison at Sarikol pulled out to Kashgar, leaving the region's Tajik population to their own devices. At Kashgar, troops posted on the walls of both cities had strict orders to close all gates at 7pm, with major curfew laws set into place.Despite all of this the provincial troops proved very inept at stemming the rebel advance along both the north and south roads into Kashgar. On the 25th, the rebels entered Aksu Old City, shooting up all its Chinese residents, seized their property, stormed the arsenal and looted the treasury. Later on Ma Changzeng and Temur led an estimated 4700 ill armed Uyghur irregular army to advance on Maral Bashi and Kashgar.  In the Keriya, the Chinese officials consented to convert to Islam and to surrender their possessions; however, on March 3, thirty-five Chinese individuals, including top officials, were executed, with their heads displayed in the marketplace. On February 28, the Old City of Khotan fell into the hands of rebels with little resistance, while the New City of Khotan was besieged before capitulating to the insurgents on March 16th. Following the rebel successes in Khotan, it was reported that 266 Han Chinese converted to Islam, and both the treasury and arsenal of the New City—containing "thousands of weapons and nearly a ton of gold"—were seized by the insurgents. Additionally, uprisings led by a Uighur named ‘Abd ai-Qadir took place in Chira, and in Shamba Bazaar, several Han Chinese and two Hindu moneylenders were killed. Further afield from Keriya, the town of Niya succumbed to the rebel forces from Khotan, while even farther east, at the isolated oases of Charchan and Charkhlik, reports indicate that peaceful insurrections occurred after a small Tungan contingent loyal to Ma Shih-ming entered the region via a little-used desert route connecting Kara Shahr and Lop. Meanwhile, to the west of Khotan, Uighur forces under Isma'il Khan Khoja obstructed the main route to Yarkand at the Tokhta Langar caravanserai, repelling all but two delegates sent from Kashgar by Ma Shao-wu, who aimed to negotiate with the rebel leaders in Khotan. No further news was received from the two Begs allowed to continue to Khotan, and with their diplomatic mission's failure, the entire southern route from the eastern outskirts of the Guma oasis to the distant Lop Nor fell out of Chinese control. To fortify their position against potential counterattacks from Kashgar, the rebel leaders in Khotan destroyed roadside wells in the desert east of Guma and began establishing a clearly Islamic governance in the areas they had liberated. By mid March, Ma Shaowu's control over southern Xinjiang was limited to just a wedge of territory around Kashgar, Maral Bashi and Yarkland. Moral was so low, Ma Shaowu asked the British Indian government for military assistance as it seemed apparent no help would come from Urumqi. Ma Shaowu had received 3 telegrams from Jin via the USSR lines; the first confirmed his position as Commander in Chief; the second relayed Jin's brothers death and the third directed Jin Kashgar representatives to remit a large sum of money to his personal bank account in Tientsin. That last signal must have been a banger to read. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Kumul Rebellion quicked off a storm of different groups' grievances and Jin Shujen did a banger job of pissing off…pretty much every single group. In the southern portions of Xinjiang massive uprisings began and it seemed a tidal wave would hit the entire province.  

The Byzantine Empire was on the verge of collapse. Surrounded by enemies, Emperor Manuel II faced the daunting task of saving Constantinople from the relentless advance of the Ottoman Turks. Sultan Bayezid "The Thunderbolt" had tightened his grip around the ancient city, and its fall seemed inevitable. Yet, when all hope seemed lost, an unexpected threat to the Ottomans arose, offering the Byzantine Empire a final, fleeting reprieve... Help support the show on Patreon! Sources and Attributions on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We trace Venice's remarkable flowering between the 1300s and 1500s, in which it astonished Europe as a center of commercial and imperial power, learning, and art, as well as its repeated struggles -- with the bubonic plague, the Ottoman Turks, the rival Italian states, and the Catholic Church -- that forced Venice to give up its empire, and to transform into a pleasure-ground of music, theater, sex, and revelry -- arguably becoming the world's first tourist attraction -- before finally losing its long-treasured independence and becoming a pawn of modern powers. Image: Painting by Canaletto, 1730s, showing the Sensa festival fleet and the Bucintoro returning to San Marco after the marriage to the sea ceremony. Thank you to Sarai Cole for permitting use of an exceprt of her rendition of Vivaldi's "Filiae Maestae Jerusalem" / "Sileant Zephyri" -- https://soundcloud.com/sarai-cole-freericks/sileant-zephyri-from-filiae-maestae-jerusalem-vivaldi Suggested further reading: Ferrarro, "Venice: History of the Floating City"; Madden, "Venice: A New History"; Morris, "The Venetian Empire: A Sea Voyage" Please sign up as a patron to help keep the pod coming, and to hear patron-only lectures, including the recent series on the Epic of Gilgamesh -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

In this episode, we dive into the turbulent final century of the Byzantine Empire through the eyes of one of its most fascinating figures: John VI Kantakouzenos. A reluctant emperor, John inherited a crumbling empire beset by internal strife and foreign threats. While others dreamed of restoring Rome's former glory, John envisioned a smaller, reformed state that could survive by diplomacy and pragmatism. His alliances with the rising Ottoman Turks, the Italian merchant republics, and the Serbian kingdom reveal the precarious balancing act required to hold the empire together. We also explore the destructive civil wars that fractured the ruling Palaiologos dynasty, the growing dominance of Venice and Genoa in Byzantine politics, and the meteoric rise of the Ottoman Turks—an alliance that would later become the empire's greatest enemy. By the end of this episode, you'll understand why the Byzantine Empire fell—and marvel at how it managed to survive as long as it did. Help support the show on Patreon! Sources and Attributions on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nathan Mongol Wells is a Dallas-based songwriter, singer for the garage rock band Ottoman Turks, and solo artist making outlaw country for the modern age. He joins the Club to talk about the great indie rock odyssey, 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields.

WATERLINE ARTICLE #8: Change Freaks People Out.Change is inevitable and chaos is bound to enter your arena, but change management will help you avoid fear-based reactions. By keeping yourself and your organization on a path to order, you help mitigate the amount of times chaos turns everything upside down. Join Scott this week as he discusses navigating the complexity and effects change has on us through these times of churn. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them.Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!     Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

Nathan Mongol Wells is a Dallas-based songwriter, singer for the garage rock band Ottoman Turks, and solo artist making outlaw country for the modern age. He joins the Club to talk about the great indie rock odyssey, 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields.

In this episode of History 102, In this episode of History 102, 'WhatIfAltHist' creator Rudyard Lynch and Erik Torenberg dive deep into the fascinating yet often overlooked realm of 17th century Eastern Europe. Join Rudyard and Erik as they bring this pivotal era to life: unravel the rise and fall of Poland-Lithuania, Russia's emergence as a great power, and Sweden's surprising dominance, and discover how Cossacks, Ottoman Turks, and visionary leaders shaped the region's destiny. With a blend of scholarly insight and engaging storytelling, Rudyard uncovers the absurdities, triumphs, and tragedies that defined this transformative century

WATERLINE ARTICLE #6: Scarcity Drives Behavior.Understanding that scarcity drives behavior will help you better see that change freaks people out. It puts people in a primal state and fear based behavior takes over. We as leaders have to recognize this and we need to learn how we are going to lead through that. Join Scott this week as he discusses the effects of scarcity on behavior in this time of Churn. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them. Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrencehere: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!    Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

WATERLINE ARTICLE #5: Pay Attention to Status. What drives behavior in this time of Churn? We're more distracted, disengaged, and distrustful than ever and we're operating in a time that is volatile, uncertain, crowded, complex, and ambiguous. So what is at the core, driving our behavior? The answer - status. At our most primal we are status beings that use social bonds to survive. Join Scott as he dives deep on the importance of being aware of status in the context of our modern world.  CONTEXT ON THIS SERIES In 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them. Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level.  You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!  Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthor Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthor LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadership Twitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeader Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

WATERLINE ARTICLE #4: When Sh*t Gets Tough, People Get Primal.Do you see examples of primal behavior all around you? In boardrooms? On school buses? In restaurants? That's the churn - our arena and human nature feed into this unprecedented reality. These factors have placed us into a trancelike state of fear-based and anger-based behavior where human connection and broader perspective are no longer an option. Join Scott this week as he explores this reality more deeply and how we can overcome it. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them. Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation! Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

WATERLINE ARTICLE #3: Get Below the Waterline.If human nature is an iceberg - modern world above the waterline and traditional, primal world below - then the reality is that 80% of our human nature exists below the waterline. We really haven't changed much since the Neanderthal days - we are merely ancient brains in a high tech world. But our traditional nature is often covered up by modern world of supply chain and transactions. At Rooftop, we believe that quality human engagements have to happen below the waterline and they have to revolve around the principles that speak to our human nature. Join Scott in this episode as he lifts the lid on how to get below the waterline in your engagements and why it is so important to do so. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them. Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation! Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

WATERLINE ARTICLE #2: Meet them where they are, not where you want them to be.  Rather than swaying people to be where you want them to be, we have to make it about the other party first. You can do this by focusing on their goals and dreams, learning their pain points that are blocking them from reaching those, and truly meet them where they are. This can be applied across life and business, so settle in and join Scott for this episode to learn more about the importance of meeting people where they are and how you can do so better.  CONTEXT ON THIS SERIES In 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them. Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level.  You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence  Join Rooftop Nation! Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthor Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthor LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadership Twitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeader Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

Redlines are lines that you're not willing to cross and past them, you are prepared to be coercive. On the battlefield, this looks like surgical lethality but in business, this can look like the willingness to let someone go or simply to make the hard decisions for the benefit of the collective. Join Scott for this episode to learn more about the importance of redlines and how they can make you more relevant and relatable to the people you lead. I'll see you on the Rooftop,Scott CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them. Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!    Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

When the Greeks fought for their independence from the Ottoman Turks in 1821, they began the war with a siege of the Acropolis - one of their most revered and historically significant sites. And when the Turks ran out of bullets, they started dismantling the blocks of the Parthenon to make more bullets. In an attempt to save the structure, the Greeks came up with a very unusual idea. In this episode, we talk about this Greek legend, and then speak with Nikki the Death Doula! Review this podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-says-it-s-true/id1530853589 Bonus episodes and content available at http://Patreon.com/MichaelKent For special discounts and links to our sponsors, visit http://theinternetsaysitstrue.com/deals

This recent Equal to the Apostles was born in Mega Dendron (Great Tree) in Aetolia. He became a monk on Mt Athos, where he lived and prayed for many years. But he was troubled by the ignorance of the Gospel that had fallen on many of the Orthodox people, living under the oppression of the Ottoman Turks. He went to Constantinople, where he studied the rhetorical arts and received the blessing of Patriarch Seraphim II to preach the Gospel. He travelled throughout Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Albania, preaching at every town he visited. Often not only Greeks but many Muslims would come to hear him, so great was his reputation for holiness. Though he always sought the blessing of the local bishop and the local Turkish governor before he preached in an area, his strong condemnations of dishonest business practices aroused the enmity of Orthodox Christian and Jewish merchants, who falsely accused him to the authorities. He was strangled by the Turks and thrown into a river in Albania, but his wonderworking relics were preserved. He reposed at the age of sixty-five.

Today, we talk with theologian and activist Jesse Wheeler about the rotten fruit of the West's theology in Palestine and the broader region. We get into:-        How everyday Christians can tell the difference between good and bad theology-        Examples of the fruit of bad Western theology in Palestine and the region of the Middle East/North Africa-        How we must acknowledge the horrible effects of the Zionism on both sides of the political aisle, even while rejecting Trump-        What the political witness of Christians should be with respect to how we handle power-        And after the interview, Sy and Jonathan discuss the Christian nationalism and bigotry in faith leaders' response to controversies at the OlympicsMentioned in the Episode-            Our anthology, Keeping the Faith-            Jesse's essay from the anthology, “Bad Theology Kills”-            Jesse's book, Serving a Crucified King-            Jesse's organization, Friends of Sabeel North America-            The new Institute for the Study of Christian ZionismCredits-            Follow KTF Press on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Subscribe to get our bonus episodes and other benefits at KTFPress.com.-        Follow host Jonathan Walton on Facebook Instagram, and Threads.-        Follow host Sy Hoekstra on Mastodon.-        Our theme song is “Citizens” by Jon Guerra – listen to the whole song on Spotify.-        Our podcast art is by Robyn Burgess – follow her and see her other work on Instagram.-        Editing by Multitude Productions-        Transcripts by Joyce Ambale and Sy Hoekstra.-        Production by Sy Hoekstra and our incredible subscribersTranscriptIntroduction[An acoustic guitar softly plays six notes in a major scale, the first three ascending and the last three descending, with a keyboard pad playing the tonic in the background. Both fade out as Jonathan Walton says “This is a KTF Press podcast.”]Jesse Wheeler: The Kingdom of God, or Christians, or those who would seek to be citizens of the kingdom, cannot live in such a way that emulates the kingdoms of this world. What that entails is, I call it the proper use of power. It's not like physical versus spiritual as sometimes we try to kind of get. It's like, no, it's actually how we understand power and why Jesus through going to the cross, he was basically saying, “Okay, empire, the forces of violence and hatred and exploitation, give me your all.” And he took it to the cross and took it on the cross, and he rejected the violent option.[The song “Citizens” by Jon Guerra fades in. Lyrics: “I need to know there is justice/ That it will roll in abundance/ And that you're building a city/ Where we arrive as immigrants/ And you call us citizens/ And you welcome us as children home.” The song fades out.]Sy Hoekstra: Welcome to Shake the Dust, seeking Jesus, confronting Injustice. I'm Sy Hoekstra.Jonathan Walton: And I'm Jonathan Walton. We have a great show for you today, including an interview with another one of our authors from our anthology on Christianity and politics in the era of Trump. This one's on how regular Christians can discern between good and bad theology, and how we can see bad theology playing out in the Middle East. Plus afterwards, hear our thoughts on the interview, and we'll be doing our segment, Which Tab is Still Open, diving deeper into one of the recommendations from our newsletter. This week it's all about the Olympic opening ceremony controversy, trans athletes at the games and the White Christian persecution complex.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs]. We should probably say non-trans athletes at the Olympic Games.Jonathan Walton: I was literally about to be like, “and not?” [laughs] but…Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, that's part of the persecution complex. But we will get to that folks, don't worry. You will hear the whole story on how ridiculous it is. Before we get there, a quick reminder, please, everybody consider going to KTFPress.com and becoming a paid subscriber. We will not be able to continue doing this work beyond this election season if we do not get a lot more paid subscribers. So if you want to see this work continue, please go there and sign up. That gets you all the bonus episodes of this show. It gets you access to our monthly Zoom subscriber chats and more community features. So please KTFPress.com, become a paid subscriber.If you already are a paid subscriber, consider upgrading to a founding member level and please share widely with your friends and family to anyone who you think might be interested in joining our community here. Thank you so much all. All right Jonathan, tell everybody about our guest this week.Jonathan Walton: Yes, we have the amazing Jesse Wheeler. For almost three years, Jesse has served as executive administrator and development director for Friends of Sabeel North America, an interdenominational Christian organization seeking justice and peace in the holy land through education, advocacy, and nonviolent action. Prior to that, he served just shy of seven years in Beirut, Lebanon as a project's manager for the Institute of Middle East Studies at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary. He also ran the Master of Religion in the Middle East and North African studies program, working also as support instructor for MENA history, politics and economics.He has served in Nazarene, evangelical free and Presbyterian churches, and he holds a PG certificate in baptistic histories and theologies from the University of Manchester, a master of divinity with an emphasis in Islamic studies from Fuller Theological Seminary and a BA in diplomatic in Middle Eastern history with a minor in political economics from the University of California Berkeley. Jesse's wife Heidi is Palestinian-American, and they have three amazing boys. Now, Jesse's essay in our anthology was called Bad Theology Kills: How We Justify Killing Arabs. We actually published that at one point on KTFPress.com, so we'll have the link in our show notes to that. And you can get the entire anthology with all 36 essays at Keepingthefaithbook.com. That link will also be in the show notes.Sy Hoekstra: So we did this interview like we did a lot of our interviews a few months ago, at this point [laughs]. We've been releasing these slowly. This one we did in April, which is relevant. I only say that now because we talk about Biden a decent amount, and when it comes to Palestine, which is what we're talking about when we mention Biden, there's not a lot of distance between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.Jonathan Walton: Nope.Sy Hoekstra: So [laughs], I just wanted to note that up top so that you know that effectively all the content, all the things that we actually say on the subject don't really change given the candidate switch. But that disclaimer behind us, here we go with the interview with Jesse Wheeler.[the intro piano music from “Citizens” by Jon Guerra plays briefly and then fades out.]Jonathan Walton: Jesse Wheeler, thank you so much for being with us today on Shake the Dust. We really, really appreciate it.Jesse Wheeler: Yeah, no, thank you so much for having me. I'm really happy to be with you guys.How Everyday Christians Can Tell Good Theology from Bad TheologyJonathan Walton: Yeah. We were privileged to publish your essay in our anthology, and you gave us a relatively simple and accessible test for judging the value of the theology that we hear from leaders. Could you talk a little bit about the fruit test?Jesse Wheeler: Yeah. The fruit test, basically, it's taken straight from the Sermon on the Mount. It's no secret that there are different theological systems that exist in the world, different schools of thought, different ways of thinking, and it can be overwhelming, actually. And I'm even thinking of either my own context back when I was in seminary and sort of some of the destabilizing aspects of it, or when I was working at a seminary and working with students who are introduced to new ideas. And it can be overwhelming even epistemologically overwhelming when they're getting ideas that sort of might butt up against core ideas that maybe they were grown up with that are core parts of their identity. It can be very destabilizing.And this question of is there a way to distinguish good theology quote, from bad theology quote- unquote, if, I mean, those are very reductionist [laughs] the terminology itself, of course. But I think it comes straight from the Sermon on the Mount actually. And Jesus in the concluding sections of Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, Jesus gives this, “By your fruit you will recognize them.” How to tell true prophets from false prophets on the basis of their fruit. He doesn't necessarily say, go get a doctorate in systematic, [laughs] in dogmatics to determine whether they are… He's like, look at the fruit of what is happening.Jonathan Walton: Right.Jesse Wheeler: And it's for normal people too. This is like normal people without massive theology to say, “Hey, look at this. I see that the fruit of this is leading to hurt and harm and destruction, or the fruit of this is leading to healing and health and flourishing.” It's not to denigrate or dismiss theology. I mean, the title of my chapter is Bad Theology Kills. I think Theology is important.Jonathan Walton: ExactlyJesse Wheeler: [laughs] It's a litmus test for assessing theology. And right there, Jesus chapters five, six, and the first part of seven, he gives a whole list of instructions of teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and then concludes with, “Therefore do to others what you would want others to do for you. This summarizes the law and the prophets,” which is of course, the scriptures. Basically saying, if you wanna know what the scriptures teach, what God is expecting of you, do for others. And even in other parts of the gospels, when people ask, “Oh, what's the greatest commandment?” And he comes back to, “Love the Lord your God,” it's the Shema.And then right on adds it, and your neighbor as yourself taking that from the Leviticus. And he's like, there you go. Basically says that and then immediately goes into this section on two roads, easy road and narrow road. And then right after that talks about the false prophets who will come, who might speak eloquently, lovely, and yet the fruit is rotten.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jesse Wheeler: The fruit is rotten.Sy Hoekstra: Absolutely.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: Out of the three of us, I feel like I am the one in the position to most appreciate your point, that you don't need a big theological education to apply this test [laughs]. Because for me and for a lot of the people listening, if you don't have a master's in divinity like Jesse, you haven't been doing ministry and Bible studies and everything for years and years like Jonathan, the more you learn about how little as kind of lay people we know about the whole wide world of theological academics and whatever, the more you realize, I don't feel equipped [laughs]. And so this is, I think, like Jonathan said, it's accessible. It's something that the average person can apply and have some success [laughs] according to Jesus, trying to figure out what's good and bad.Theologies that Have Born Rotten Fruit in the Middle East and North AfricaSy Hoekstra: And then I would like to hear from you, in your work doing work with advocacy in churches in the MENA, in the Middle East and North Africa, sometimes abbreviated MENA region, what have you seen bearing bad fruit? What kinds of theologies have you seen bearing bad fruit?Jesse Wheeler: So, I mean, I could start with the three I listed in my chapter, but I think I kind of want to say like, there is so, so much misunderstanding and prejudice and straight up bigotry that's filtered through a theological system that attempts to justify it.Colonialist PaternalismJesse Wheeler: But I'm going to start with the three I listed in my chapter, and the first one, colonialist paternalism.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Jesse Wheeler: It's a theology of colonial supremacy. Why one person gets to make the decisions for another person, gets to invade another country, gets to conquer, but it's couched in a paternalistic language, often. In a this is for your own good language.Jonathan Walton: Right.Jesse Wheeler: It's the, I'm not going to attempt to do the French, but the civilizing mission [laughs], hand in hand with the White man's burden from back in the 19th century of bringing our civilization, our Christianity, on one hand… I mean, sometimes it was the church and sometimes it was full on those modern secularists springing [laughs] their enlightened, was just, it was hand in hand with the colonial project too. And that's actually what muddies up the water sometimes in our discourses, especially on more left side of the aisle discourses [laughs].Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, absolutely.Jesse Wheeler: Because you go from there and you go into speaking right in the Middle East, right after World War I, when you had the three competing promises, you had deals, you had The Balfour Declaration on the one hand, you had Hussein McMahon promising the Arabs of the Hajj, the like the Hussein family, a state, an Arab state, if they would help fight against the Ottoman Turks. And then you had the Sykes-Picot which was basically France and Britain getting together and saying, “Okay, here's how we're going to divide up the spoils.” [laughs]Sy Hoekstra: And the Balfour Declaration was Britain's intent to make a Zionist state.Jonathan Walton: Right.Jesse Wheeler: Yeah. Basically a Zionist state in historic Palestine. And so, but you get into afterwards and you had the 14 points, and Wilson came in with, “Oh, we're gonna create a whole new world of peace and…”Sy Hoekstra: The League of Nations.Jesse Wheeler: The League of Nations, yeah. And the mandate system, like the fruit of 2that, where basically it's like Sykes-Picot. It's like Britain takes control, France takes control of Lebanon, Syria, Britain, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, and they had Egypt too. So it's just, but it's couched in this language of, it's for your own benefit. We are here to provide guidance to these native populations who need to be trained in the ways of democracy.Jonathan Walton: It's framed as benevolence. Like this is a good thing.Jesse Wheeler: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a good thing. It's like we are colonizing you for your good thing. Of course, land extraction, resource extraction [laughs], all of these marks of colonialism are part of this, right, but this is how it's justified, how it's sold, how it's…Sy Hoekstra: But the theology, like basically you're saying there were always churches and people propping up those colonialist ideas in the Middle East with basically the stamp of approval of the Bible or the church.Jesse Wheeler: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And it's not a total. I do need to make the point that sometimes the missionaries were very much… actually in the Middle East and in, or very much part of the colonial project, sometimes they actually would actually fight and counter the colonial project in certain ways, even though they were also facilitated by it. But yeah, these theologies, the colonialist paternalism. But to continue on, you have a theology of the Cold War developed almost of democracy and we'll bomb your entire country, but we will protect you from communism [laughs], you know.Jonathan Walton: Right.Jesse Wheeler: To very much part of my life, the war on terror. We're bringing democracy to the Middle East.Sy Hoekstra: Right. I was going to say that just sounds like George W. Bush, like everything that they were saying post World War I. It hasn't changed a lot.Jesse Wheeler: It has not. It has not. And so that's the first one.Henotheism: My Good God Will Defeat Your Bad GodJesse Wheeler: The second one in my book I describe as, I take this term from a scholar Joseph Cumming, he's a comparative theologian of Christianity and Islam, but he calls, he speaks of Henotheism.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jesse Wheeler: Which is sort of your tribal deity. I don't want… people push back on using tribal as a negative, but sort of the sense of like God is our God and we are the holy ones, and their God is a demon, and we will defeat them and destroy them. And so I even take this quote again from this, the war and terror era where a general speaking about fighting this warlord, whatever, in North Africa, talking about, “We have God on our side, and their god's a demon, and that's why we're gonna win and be victorious.” And this is so much in situations of conflict and situations, you very much have this sense of, “we are the good, our God is the good, they're the evil. And so because they're so evil, any violence is justified against them.”Sy Hoekstra: And that dates like straight back to the crusades.Jonathan Walton: Yep.Jesse Wheeler: Oh, yeah. This is crusades [laughs]. Exactly. Exactly. It's a crusader theology, but it's also when you really dig into it and you ask, well, these are supposed monotheists. And isn't the whole point of monotheism that there's actually one God for everybody, and thus it's to turn the God of the cosmos, the monotheistic God into a territorial idol.Settler Colonialism/ZionismJesse Wheeler: I'll move on to the third one, which I think is very relevant in that what I listed as manifest destiny. But it's the settler colonial theology, where it's different from the colonialist paternalism, because this is really, it's a theology that justifies why I deserve to go into a land, remove the indigenous people and take it for my own, basically.Sy Hoekstra: Which is the difference between settler colonialism and like metropolis, distant ruler colonialism.Jesse Wheeler: Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And Jim Wallace, once he wrote, the most controversial statement I ever wrote talking about something he previously wrote was how America was founded on the genocide of one people and the enslavement of another. There was a time in my life where hearing words like that would be so deeply, deeply disorienting for me. My identity, my understanding of who I am. I think part of that discomfort, which is very real, because that's part of my background, and is I think what drives people to someone like Trump. Less the logic behind it, but the emotional, the emotions of feeling safe to have this champion on my side. But that's the simple truth. I mean [laughs], there's this belief that we are god's, we have this divine mandate to come into this new territory. And so I'm talking here about America, but of course this happened all over the world, actually. France and Algeria.Jonathan Walton: Right.Jesse Wheeler: That was so utterly destructive of traditional Algerian society. And France would even talk about, “Algeria is fully France. We are one.” And so I don't understand why these people are rebelling because we've given them democracy and freedom, when it's like, no, you've completely disrupted their entire civilization and ruled, but how it affects the news, you have the whole Charlie Hebdo incidents and these attacks in France. And this was violent murderous acts, yes. And morally they should be condemned, but you have to see them in their historical context [laughs] of this, the Algerian conflict. But South Africa, this was a deeply theological Dutch Calvinist movement. Even Argentina was a settler colonial context as well.Sy Hoekstra: I mean, most things in the Western hemisphere are [laughter].Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Jesse Wheeler: Yeah. No, you're absolutely right. But in a way of the natives were cleared out more.Sy Hoekstra: Oh, yes. I see what you're saying. Right. In Argentina, yes.Jesse Wheeler: Compared to like Brazil, just to the north. And then of course, Zionism is right in there with that. I think it's a theology that justifies why one group gets to come in and displace another group. And those three are three big ones.The Rotten Fruit of Colonialism and Zionism is on Both Sides of the Political AisleJonathan Walton: Yeah. I think those three, if we could hold them together as we press into the conversation, all of them are relevant. As we kind of move from the anthology into the present day. So in 2020 you wrote, “If our task is to examine the fruit and avoid falling prey to seductive rhetoric, it is crucial to note that from the vantage point of the Middle East, Republican drones don't look or act much differently than Democrat drones. Biden's record on the Iraq War or Israel-Palestine, while not as appalling or destructive as that of the Republicans is nevertheless quite bad. He's the only viable choice put before us on election day, yet we must remain vigilant in holding a potential Biden administration to account in the weeks, months, years that follow.”Now, I don't think any of us knew when you wrote that [laughs], how relevant, prophetic and important that last sentence would be. Especially when we talk about the settler colonial ideas that you just talked about, and the deep enmeshment and entanglement with Christian Zionism and the colonial state that is Israel. So, can you… I don't know how to say this just in a simple way. Can you tell us a little bit about what you've been up to with the Friends of Sabeel over the past several months, since October 7th? And what are your thoughts about the two candidates? Because they're the same [laughter], as we look towards the election in the Middle East now. And I will also say our thoughts and prayers are with your friends and family in Palestine.Jesse Wheeler: Thank you.Jonathan Walton: And we've been praying that they would be safe in Jesus' name.Jesse Wheeler: Yeah. No, thank you. I'm trying to think of where do I start digging in? First, my wife is Palestinian. Her family, still a lot of family in Bethlehem. My kids therefore are Palestinian. So I have a deep personal connection. And so to your listeners, knowing that [laughs] who is this guy? I definitely have a deep and emotional pull and connection to what's happening right now. But to go back to what you were first saying is, as you were reading that quote, that passage, and you had wrote, Biden is the only viable [laughs] candidate, my heart sank [laughs]. I'm like, “Ugh.” I understand why I said it at the time, but the listeners need to understand the depth of feeling of the pain, the sense of betrayal, especially amongst the Arab and Palestinian-American community and even wider Muslim community. The utter hurt that they felt in these last six months by everything that has happened.And so, it's so hard because Trump, just to get into the politics of, it's like I don't even need to say it. From my perspective, from where I stand, Trump is bad [laughs]. I mean, it's like he's out there saying, re-implement the Muslim ban and all completely bigoted and horrible. His son-in-law's talking about, “Oh, yeah, and there will be prime real estate in Gaza,” and [laughs].Sy Hoekstra: Yes. Right.Jesse Wheeler: You know, back to settler colonialism. And yeah, it's terrifying. But the thing about Biden, and here's where I just have to say, he will in one breath talk about the importance of combating anti-Arab bigotry and Islamophobia, and in the next breath give billion more dollars of armed shipments to a country that the International Criminal Court is saying in their legal language, is very plausibly in the midst of an active genocide [laughs]. I'm not a lawyer. Sy, you're the lawyer [Sy laughs]. And it's just the duplicity is what hurts. So KTF shaped, you talk of Christian nationalism a lot and the dangers of Trump, and that largely the anthology was digging into that. And I remember writing the idolatrous fruit is rotten. I mean, that is like, the man thinks he's Jesus, I mean, or… [laughs] It's just horrifying.Sy Hoekstra: But it's still there with Biden.Jesse Wheeler: It's still there.Sy Hoekstra: Right.Jesse Wheeler: It's like when you are connected to the Middle East, either via family or study, or I lived in Lebanon for seven years, when you're paying attention, it's very hard to cheerlead one political party versus another when it comes to the American presence in the Middle East, which has been incredibly destructive.Sy Hoekstra: And we have come back to that point that you made in your essay. If you listen to a lot of episodes of this show, you will have heard Jesse's name and this point brought up before [laughs].What Should the Political Witness of Christians Be?Jonathan Walton: Mm-hmm. You explained in the essay and just now, drones do not own political parties. The bombs that are dropping are the same. The impact they have is the same, devastation is the same. So the idea of the cross to so many people around the world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, the MENA region is a symbol of hatred and violence when it's supposed to be like the ultimate expression of God's holy love. We are recording this just after Easter, contemplating the death and resurrection of Jesus. To you, what should the political witness be of people who carry the cross of Jesus?Self-Sacrifice and a Rejection of Imperial ViolenceJesse Wheeler: Self-Sacrificial love. Quite simply what the cross represents. But at the same time, to dig into it a little more, the cross is what? It's a instrument of imperial violence, that's what it is. There's a reason Jesus died on the cross. It is ultimately a rejection of the Imperial way. Theologically, we need to talk a lot of the kingdom of God and how the kingdom of God exists as a direct challenge to the kingdoms of Pharaoh, of Babylon, of Caesar. And one of the brilliant things of the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament is the fact that it's also the kings of Israel and Judah [laughs], who become the Babylonian leaders. So you have the prophets who rail against the injustices of the Assyrians, but also look back at their own kings.And when Jesus comes proclaiming the kingdom of God, and when he comes before Pilate and he's brought before Pilate, what does this show right now? And I'm just pulling straight from N. T. Wright, so don't [laughs] pretend I'm like some great Bible scholar here. No. But you have Jesus, who is the representative of the kingdom of God standing before Pilate, who is the full legal representative of Caesar, son of God as they were known and called. And it's just a straight back and forth. And what does Jesus say? He says, my kingdom, there's the quote that always gets misinterpreted. So if you're talking politics and faith, my people say, my kingdom is not of this world. Well, people tend to say, oh, well, Jesus is, it's a spiritual kingdom.So all we do is sit and pray, and then you just let the world live as what empire, as injustice, like do we have nothing to say? No, he says it's more like, my kingdom is not from this world. It's not in kind to those kingdoms of this world, but it's very much in and for this world. Why?Jonathan Walton: Amen.Jesse Wheeler: Otherwise, Jesus says, going back to the garden, we just came through holy week, otherwise what? My disciples would've fought. They would've picked up arms, they would've become revolutionaries, they would've fought my arrest. They would've holed up in the mountains. They would have… So you have the kingdom, but going full back to the cross, kingdom by way of cross. So the kingdom of God cannot, or Christians, or those who would seek to be citizens of the kingdom, cannot live in such a way that emulates the kingdoms of this world. What that entails is, I call it the proper use of power. It's not like physical versus spiritual as sometimes we try to kind of get… It's like, no, it's actually how we understand power and why Jesus, through non-violence, through going to the cross, he was basically saying, okay, empire, the forces of violence and hatred and exploitation, give me your all.And he took it to the cross and took it on the cross, and he rejected the violent option. He did not take up the swords and the arms. He just said, just previously, those who live by the sword will die by the sword. And so that is the witness of the cross. It's self-sacrificial love. It's not this assertion of like, “Hey, this is mine. This is my space, this is my territory.” This is why, back to America, this is why the Christian nationalism is so idolatrous.Sy Hoekstra: We just had a, our March bonus episode, you're like hitting a bunch of our points, actually [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yes. Keep going.Jesse Wheeler: Oh, no. Yeah. Thanks [laughs]. It's why it's so idolatrous, is because it's complete rejection of the way of Jesus. It's a complete rejection of what the cross is and what it's supposed to represent. I mean, scrolling through social media, I came across what this is like giant muscle Jesus breaking free from the cross. I'm like, no, that's the complete… no, the cross is the… Like Jesus says, you don't think… back in the garden, he says, you don't think I could call down angels? Call down [laughs] fire from heaven, and just like in an instant, make this all go away? He's like, “No, I'm going to the cross.” It's an example for us to follow.It Takes Faith in the Resurrection to Use Power Like JesusJesse Wheeler: And it's an article of faith. This is where people will come back and say, this is why it is hard for people, because it is a belief in the resurrection.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Jesse Wheeler: All the forces of death and all the things we do to avoid death. All the killing we do of others, the things we… all the hoarding of resources. All the things we do that we try to preserve ourselves and in the process hurt other people. And we build walls and we break them down. He's like, let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Go to the cross because the resurrection is happening. And it's hard for people because if you don't believe in resurrection, in a sense it's very difficult. But it is very much a faith stance and a faith position.The Roots of Sabeel in the Political Witness of Palestinian Liberation TheologyAnd going back to, you asked about Sabeel, you asked about where I work. So Sabeel is an organization founded by Palestinian-Christians out of the time of the first Intifada, the Palestinians uprising. Very much a movement, a spontaneous movement that didn't involve the PLO, which was largely external at the time, or the Palestine political leaders, and was a complete shock to many of the global leaders.And largely involved a lot of nonviolent direct-action, sort of creative actions, creative resistance and great violence actually was to try to throw it down in response. And yet, Naim Ateek, he was the founder of Sabeel, he wrote a book, published it 1989. It's called Justice and Only Justice, A Palestinian Theology of Liberation, basically started asking the question, how does our faith, our Christian faith, does it have anything to say to the situation, to us being under this violent, brutal occupation? And sort of the traditional, across the board, Orthodox Catholic, Protestant theologies weren't really saying much.So they started just, would preach there in St. George's Episcopal Church right in Jerusalem. And after the service, they'd kind of get together and start discussing. Like let's read a passage and let's think and just look. It's very much like you, if you think of the classic liberation theology in Latin America. The base communities just getting together. It's basically kind of got together and started thinking, but it grew from there to, so Naim Ateek sort of was the founder, but then it was really this core group that formed and they started inviting… because even back then, they're like, “We know the narrative imbalance that people are not hearing the Palestinian side of the story. Let's bring people and show them.”And they bring people, they show them, and immediately people are converted once they see the reality. People go on tours with the holy land all the time, they're highly curated and they don't go to those scary Palestinian areas. But the moment you enter Palestinian areas and are greeted with wonderful Arab hospitality and like [laughs]… But then here's what the reality of being under their military occupation is. And it is like, oh, I see it now. So people would go back and they founded, I work for Friends of Sabeel North America, but there's groups all over and it's been still going on. And then there's subsequent groups that have formed and other great partners too that we work with.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.Sy Hoekstra: Thank you so much for being here. I mean, you didn't just write for the book. You were an enormous help in actually getting it published. You did a ton of work for us, source checking and all kinds of other things. You were… and were not running around looking for credit for any of that. So you definitely had your head down and you were doing [laughs] what you needed to do to get the word out. And thank you so much for being here today to talk to us.Jesse Wheeler: Thank you for doing it. I mean, I was really proud to be.Jonathan Walton: Thank you so much, man.Jesse Wheeler: Thank you for having me. And thank you for your witness. I mean, Palestine is a wheat and chaff issue, and I feel like those who've really stood for the truth and stood for justice and stood for what's right in the face of so much that's wrong. And it's just been amazing to see the witness of you guys, and I just want to thank you for that. It's very, it means so much.Sy Hoekstra: No, thank you for everything you do as well. We so appreciate it, man.Jonathan Walton: Amen. Blessings on you and Friends of Sabeel. Amen.Jesse Wheeler: Thank you so much. Blessings to you guys.Jonathan Walton: Amen. Thanks.[the intro piano music from “Citizens” by Jon Guerra plays briefly and then fades out.]Jesse's Social Media and RecommendationsSy Hoekstra: You can find Jesse @intothenoisejsw on Instagram and Twitter. His organization, the Friends of Sabeel North America is at FOSNA.org, and those will both be in the show notes. And also, Jesse wanted us to mention another organization that just kind of had its grand opening over the summer after we recorded this interview. It's called the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism. It's a really cool new organization with a lot of people involved who you may recognize if you're familiar with kind of the field of that particular branch of theology [laughs]. And basically, they want to be a one-stop shop, a hub, a go-to resource for everything related to fighting the heresy, as they call it, of Christian Zionism.And so, that you can find that organization at Studychristianzionism.org. We'll also put that in the show notes, obviously.Jonathan's and Sy's Reactions to the InterviewSy Hoekstra: Okay, Jonathan. After that interview, what are your thoughts?Jonathan Walton: Bad theology kills people.Sy Hoekstra: Yes. Uh-huh. It's not a joke.How We Resist Institutions Built to Protect and Reinforce LiesJonathan Walton: [Laughs] I think we need to lean into that and say it over and over and over again. We cannot divorce what we believe from what we do. Can't. They are intertwined with each other. And it's baffling to me that particularly American Christians, and this like runs a gamut like Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, native, all the things, how strongly we cling to, I believe this, I believe this, I believe this, how deeply committed we are, how there are institutions, there are studies and conversations, there are all these different things that are built up around things that are just not true. Like just the level of intricacy of every apparatus to hold together a lie is mind-boggling to me.And it is so effective that we can get caught up in all the details and never think about the impact, which is what I feel has happened. Like, oh, all I do is read these books. All I do is write these articles. All I do is do these podcasts. All I do is give money to this organization. All I do is pray. All I do is watch these documentaries. All I do is host these little dinners at my house. Not knowing at all that it is undergirding the bombing of Palestinians and the rampant Islamophobia and the destruction of Palestinian Christian life. Don't even know it because it's just an encased system. So I think for me, I'm reminded of the power of the gospel transformation because the gospel and liberation is also a complete process, just like colonization is and settler colonialism is.So I'm challenged because the next time I think to myself, I'm going to change the world. I'll remember this conversation and realize only Jesus can [laughs] do that. And I need to have just as robust of a theology and apparatus built around me and participating as a follower of Jesus as the forces that are hell bent on destroying people's lives. That was just a thing I've been holding onto, particularly as we were talking about Easter, as we are reflecting on the reality of the resurrection, we need a theology of life, abundance and liberation that is just as robust, just as supported, just as active and engaged as the theology of destruction that we have now.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. The theology, specifically what he was talking about kind of toward the end about the use of power.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: I had that same thought basically that you just said. Like the way that we use power via sacrifice as opposed to using power via dominance. Like that needs to be as emphasized as anything else in our Christian discipleship.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: Because it is just, it's so absent. You cannot insist to so many Western Christians that that aspect of our faith is as important as the stuff that we'll get into a minute about arguing about like sexuality or whatever [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: We have just so deprioritized these things that were so central to Jesus when he said things like, my kingdom was not of this world. So there's that.We Emphasize the Importance of Theology for the Wrong ReasonsSy Hoekstra: The other thing that I was thinking about was also related to what you just said, which is, you say bad theology kills, and we need to understand how important our theology is in that sense. But we also need to understand the way that our theology is important because we actually do think theology is really important just in the wrong way.Jonathan Walton: Yeah. Right.We think theology is really important for defining who is in and out of Christianity or just for having proper orthodoxy and that sort of thing, just to tick all the boxes to make sure that your beliefs are correct.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: Which absolutely pales in comparison to the real reason that theology is important, which is it shapes our behavior, or it can shape our behavior [laughs]. Or it interacts with our behavior and they reinforce and shape each other in ways that create policies and government actions and whole social transformations and systems across the world [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: So yeah. That's what I am coming out of this thinking. We need to stay focused on. And I'm just so happy that there are people like Sabeel and others fighting in that way. And by the way, back on the point of how we exercise power and how important it is to exercise power in the way that Jesus did. Jesse actually wrote to us after the interview and said kind of, “Oh, shoot, there's a point that I forgot to make,” [laughs] that I wanted to bring up here, which is something that, so the founder of Sabeel, his name is Naim Ateek often raises, which is that, like Jesse said, Sabeel was founded after the first Intifada in 1987. But he says, there are two organizations that were founded out of that Intifada.One of them was Sabeel and the other was Hamas. And he said, basically just look at the two approaches [laughs]. There's armed insurrection and then there's non-violent direct action and education and advocacy and whatever. Like it is small what Sabeel is doing. It is certainly smaller than what Hamas is doing. And it is one of those things that probably to the rest of the world looks like it's less powerful, it's less effective. And like Jesse said, it is an article of faith to believe that that is actually the stronger way to go. You know what I mean? That is the more powerful road to take, even though it is the much more difficult one to take. And I just really wish that we could all have a faith like that.Jonathan Walton: Yes. Yes, and amen.Sy Hoekstra: Shall we get into Which Tab Is Still Open, Jonathan?Jonathan Walton: [laughs], all the tabs Sy. Let's go.Which Tab Is Still Open?: Christian Reactions to the OlympicsSy Hoekstra: All the tabs are still open. We're gonna talk about two stories that have to do with the Olympics, that also have to do with Western Christians [laughter], and how persecuted we feel.Jonathan Walton: Yeah.Sy Hoekstra: I'm just, let me quickly summarize what happened here. The details are very silly on the first one. You probably heard about this one, this is probably the more popular story. During the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, well, here's some background. The opening ceremonies to the Olympics are weird. They're always weird. They've always been weird [laughs]. I always come away from them thinking, “Wow, that was weird,” [laughter]. They usually include some kind of tribute to ancient Greece where the Olympics came from. And in this case, one of the things they did was a little tribute to the Festival of the Goddess Dionysus. Wait, goddess? Was Dionysus supposed to be a man or a woman?Jonathan Walton: A man. Dionysus is a man.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs] Okay.Jonathan Walton: No. Diana is a woman, but yeah.Sy Hoekstra: All right, fine [laughs]. So anyways, they had this staging of a feast, and the way it was staged with all of the people sitting at the table facing the audience and the cameras reminded a lot of Christians of the way that Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper is staged with Jesus and all the disciples facing the painter [laughs]. But all of the, or not all, but the most of the people sitting at the table were drag queens. And so Christians took this as a massive insult, that people must be mocking the Last Supper and our religion and our beliefs about conservative traditional sexuality and et cetera. The Olympic organizers came out and said, “This had nothing to do with Christianity, we apologize for the offense. This was about Dionysus, and that was kind of it. We weren't talking about Christianity, but we're sorry if we offended you.”And that was the end of it. But basically Christians said, “We're being mocked, we're being persecuted, they hate us,” et cetera. Second story, a female boxer by the name of Imane Khelif was in a fight with an Italian female boxer and hit her pretty hard a couple of times. And then the Italian boxer quit and said that Khelif is a man who is a trans woman fighting in the women's competition in the Olympics. The only reason that this was a viable thing for the Italian woman to say was because in the year before that, at the 2023 World Championships, the International Boxing Association disqualified Khelif from the competition saying that she had elevated testosterone levels and that she had XY chromosomes and was in fact a man. So she failed the gender eligibility test.The reason this is a ridiculous thing for them to have said [laughs], is that Khelif was born assigned female at birth. Her birth certificate says she's a woman. She has lived her entire life as a woman, she has never claimed to be trans in any way. And they never published the results of the test. And they only came out and said that she had failed these gender eligibility tests after she defeated a previously undefeated Russian boxer. Why does that matter? Well, the president of the International Boxing Association is Russian, has moved most of the IBA's operations to Russia, has made the state-run oil company the main sponsor of these boxing events, has close ties to Putin, et cetera [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Yep.Sy Hoekstra: It has become a Russian propaganda machine. The International Boxing Association, the International Olympic Committee has actually cut ties with them, is no longer letting them run the World Championships or the Olympic games boxing tournaments. They have suffered from corruption, from match fixing by referees, lack of transparency in finances, et cetera. It is a big old mess, and they never published the results of these gender eligibility tests. And it is pretty clear that they were made up in order to preserve the undefeated title of a Russian favorite boxer [laughter]. So it's absolute nonsense is what I'm saying.Jonathan Walton: Right.Sy Hoekstra: But that has not stopped anyone, including people like Elon Musk and JK Rowling from saying, “what we clearly saw here in the Olympics was a man punching a woman. And this is where you get when you follow the transgender agenda,” and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Obviously I just named, well, Rowling is a Christian, but lots of Christian leaders jumping on this same train. Jonathan, these were yours.Jonathan Walton: [exasperated exhale] These are mine.Sy Hoekstra: Why did you include these? You have been, I'll say you have been very focused on these, the Christian reaction to things going on in the Olympics has been on the brain for you. Why [laughs]?Fusing Faith with American PowerJonathan Walton: Because I think there's a couple things because bad theology kills people. Sy, we talked about this and like…Sy Hoekstra: Well, no, wait. How is this, explain the relation there, please.Jonathan Walton: Gladly. Gladly. So I think [laughs], I'm gonna read this quote by Andy Stanley who posted this after the Dionysus thing and then took it down because I think he realized the err of his ways. But I am grateful for the interwebs because somebody screenshot it. Here we go [Sy laughs]. “Dear France, the Normandy American Cemetery is the resting place of 9,238 Americans whose graves are marked by 9,238 crosses. American soldiers, who in most cases volunteered to come to your shores in your time of need. Their final prayers were to the God whose son you mocked in front of the entire world. It was during the very meal you went to such creative pains to denigrate, that Jesus instructed his followers to love one another and then define what he meant. Quote, greater love has no one than this, that one laid down his life for his friends, end quote. While you host the Olympic Games, remember your nation hosts 172.5 acre reminder of what love looks like. You don't just owe Christians an apology. You owe the West an apology.” End quote.Sy Hoekstra: It's so much Jonathan [laughs].Jonathan Walton: It is. That's a book. That is a book. It's called 12 Lies.Sy Hoekstra: That's your book, yeah [laughs].Jonathan Walton: And then it's an anthology that like [laughs] called Keeping the Faith, right? So that to me, and what's happened in this season of the Olympics has crystallized something for me that I think about. But these are such concrete, clear, succinct, edited examples of like, here is what happens when geopolitical power of the American apparatus is just completely inseparable, completely fused, completely joined together with the Jesus of empire.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: So much so that minutes after this ceremony was completed and broadcast, you have people with the language, you have people with the vocabulary, you have people with statistics. He's like, this is the number of crosses. That means he Googled something, he don't just know that.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah [laughs].Jonathan Walton: We are primed as… not me, because I'm not. But the White American church and folks affiliated and committed to White American folk religion, like this race-based, class-based, gender-based environmental hierarchy that dominates this false gospel of the merchant, the military and the missionary all coming together. Like that is just so frustrating to me. And it's not going to stop because the apparatus is in like, I feel like a full maturation right now because it is under threat and constantly being exposed. So what tab is still open for me is the reality that the people who are armed with a false gospel are finally being met online and in real life by people who are willing to challenge them.And so what was amazing to me was watching a Fox News segment where someone came on and said, “Hey, Imane Khelif was born a woman, is a woman. This is not a trans issue.” There are people willing to go on and say the things. There's an online presence of people willing to go online and say the things. And I think we have an articulation of faithful followers of Jesus who are willing not just to say this is wrong, but name the connection that when we have conversations about Christians being persecuted, boom, here's a picture of Christians actually being persecuted, Palestine. Right?Sy Hoekstra: Yeah.Jonathan Walton: When we have conversations, oh, we are being persecuted and violence is being committed against us. No, no, no. Violence is actually happening to trans people at a staggering level. And it correlates with when we have these nonsensical conversations that actually create environments that are more dangerous for them in the bathroom, in schools and wherever they go. And so, I can have a conversation with someone and say—this was a real conversation—we have the luxury of having this conversation as people who are not involved directly, but we do not have the luxury of as followers of Jesus is not then following up and saying, “I was wrong.”So I had conversations about Imane Khelif with Christians who said, “You know what? Oh, I didn't know that. Let me go back and post something different. Let me post an apology. You know what, I see what you're saying. I clicked on the links. Yeah, we shouldn't be doing that. I'm gonna go and have a conversation with these people.” That to me is hopeful, and at the same time, I know that this will not stop because my mama would say, “When the lights come on, the roaches run everywhere.” I fully suspect that there will be more examples like this leading up to and beyond the election.Sy Hoekstra: Oh, for sure.Jonathan Walton: …as there is more light on the sheer nonsense that Andy Stanley and these other people are propagating on a regular basis.Christians Demonstrated How Christian Nationalism is Common and Acceptable in White ChurchesSy Hoekstra: And people who jumped on this by the way, were like, Ed Stetzer and people who are kind of like in the middle politically in America and in American politics at least. They're not Trumpers. These are regular Christians [laughs].Jonathan Walton: Right. And that's the thing that we talked about a few episodes ago. This is the soft Christian nationalism, socially acceptable American exceptionalism. All these things are totally normal, totally fine in quote- unquote. that normal Christianity.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah. And actually, so one of the things I want to emphasize about that thing you, that someone screenshotted from Andy Stanley, was that his idea of love in that post is like, I'm gonna sacrifice myself for you and then in exchange I get control over your culture so that you will not insult me.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: Which is not the love of Jesus. The love of Jesus is laying down your life for your friends, period, end of story. Jesus laid down his life for people who have nothing to do with him. You know what I mean? Who can't stand him, who don't like him, whatever.Jonathan Walton: Who desired to kill him [laughs]. Right.Sy Hoekstra: Yeah, exactly. And did not demand then that they conform to his way. He let them go on their way.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: The quote unquote love that says, all these soldiers at Normandy sacrificed, therefore you cannot insult us, is not Christian. Has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus. And it does have everything to do with tying your faith to an empire that uses military might to demand conformity. That is colonizing faith, period.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Why White Christians Invent Enemies Where None ExistSy Hoekstra: That aspect of it then kind of plays into some of the stuff that I was thinking about it, which is that like if you are someone who has so fused your faith with dominance like that, then you are constantly looking for enemies who don't exist to come and defeat you because that's your way of living. You live by the sword. So it's almost like a subconscious, like you live by the sword, you expect to die by the sword. You live by cultural dominance, you expect people to culturally dominate you. So you're going to find insults against one European artist's rendering of a scene from the Bible where none exist. Just because they had drag queens you don't like.You are going to find trans women who don't exist [laughs] and argue that they are a sign of the things that are destroying the culture that you built in the West. And I just think that is so much more revealing of the people who say it than it is of anything that they were trying to reveal through what they said.Jonathan Walton: Absolutely. I wonder if there were followers of Jesus who when da Vinci painted what he painted, said, “This is not my savior.”Sy Hoekstra: I can think of one reason, but why would they have said that Jonathan?Jonathan Walton: [laughs] Because the Last Supper is a parody of an event in the scriptures. The reality is Jesus is not a Eurocentric figure sitting with flowing robes with people surrounding him. That's not how it happened. That's not how Passover looks[laughs]. So I mean, the reality of them being these American insurrectionist pastors who say, “You know what, we are going to get angry about a parody that isn't a parody, about a parody that we believe is actually sacred.”Sy Hoekstra: [laughs]. Well, okay. Calling the Last Supper parody I think is a little bit confusing.Jonathan Walton: No, the…Sy Hoekstra: Because I think da Vinci meant it the way that he… [laughs].Jonathan Walton: No, I'm sure da Vinci reflected his cultural reality on the scripture, which is something we all do.Sy Hoekstra: Right.Jonathan Walton: But to then baptize that image to be something that can be defiled and then demand capitulation because of our quote- unquote military might, those lines are bonkers to me. So I can be frustrated that I feel mocked, because that's a feeling, I feel mocked. But what should happen is we say, I feel mocked because I don't actually have cultural understanding and acuity to be able to differentiate my own emotional realities from the theology of the Bible when we don't have those skills. And actually we don't have that desire because we desire for them to be one and the same, like you said. I desire to feel affirmed and good and empowered all the time.And if that comes under any threat, then it's either the merchant, let's take money from you. Let's sanction you, let's get you out of the economic system so you cannot flourish in the way that we've defined flourishing to look. We will bring missionaries and people and set up institutions to devalue and debunk your own cultural narratives and spiritual things that you hold dear. And if that doesn't work, we'll just shoot you and make sure it does. Anyway, that's was more forceful than I expected it to be.Sy Hoekstra: [laughs] It wasn't for me because you keep putting these Olympics things in the newsletter and you keep telling me how frustrated you are about them, but it goes to stuff that is extremely important and I appreciate you bringing up and bringing us into this conversation.Outro and OuttakeSy Hoekstra: We have to go. You specifically have to leave in a couple minutes, so we're going to wrap things up here. Even though you and I could talk about this subject forever [Jonathan laughs]. Maybe Jonathan, maybe we'll talk about it more at the next monthly Zoom conversation.Jonathan Walton: Yes.Sy Hoekstra: …on August 27th that people can register for if they become paid subscribers at Ktfpress.com, which you all should please go do if you want to see this work continue beyond this election season, get access to all the bonus episodes of this show, the ability to comment, other community features like that. The anthology, again, is at Keepingthefaithbook.com, that's what Jesse wrote for and what 35 other authors wrote for trying to give us a faithful path forward as so much of the church idolizes Donald Trump and the power that he brings them in this particular political era. Our theme song is Citizens by Jon Guerra. Our podcast Art is by Robyn Burgess, transcripts by Joyce Ambale, editing by Multitude Productions. Thank you all so much for listening and we will see you in two weeks.Jonathan Walton: Bye.[The song “Citizens” by Jon Guerra fades in. Lyrics: “I need to know there is justice/ That it will roll in abundance/ And that you're building a city/ Where we arrive as immigrants/ And you call us citizens/ And you welcome us as children home.” The song fades out.]Jonathan Walton: The White Christian persecution complex. [Jonathan lets out a deep, croaky “Maaaaaaaah”].Sy Hoekstra: I really should have… what was that noise [laughter]?Jonathan Walton: I think it's appropriate [Sy laughs]. It was the exasperation of my soul. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ktfpress.com/subscribe

A veteran of the Dallas music scene, a killer solo artist and the frontman of the band Ottoman Turks. Nathan was kind enough to join me on the show to discuss many things including the 15 year anniversary of the Ottoman Turks. Be sure to check out their anniversary show at The Granada Theatre in Dallas, TX. I'M A FAN OF... Links: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/Imafanof YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@imafanof Substack: https://imafanof.substack.com/ Nathan Mongol Wells Links: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mongolwells IG: https://www.instagram.com/mongolwells/ Ottoman Turks Linktree: https://www.instagram.com/ottomanturks/

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/italian-studies

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/christian-studies

Shownotes and Transcript Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell joins Hearts of Oak to discuss Hungary's triumph over communism and the importance of nationalism in preserving sovereignty.   She draws parallels between Hungary's history and current US events, emphasizing faith's role in preserving societal values.  Dr. Shea discusses the conservative gap in foreign policy, her book, "Last Warning to the West," and the significance of faith in upholding principles.  She highlights Hungary's resistance against the EU's narrative, praises CPAC Hungary for conservative collaboration, and calls for a revival of faith to counter liberal agendas, stressing unity in upholding fundamental principles.  'Last Warning to the West: Hungary's Triumph Over Communism and the Woke Agenda' available in paperback and e-book on Amazon  https://amzn.eu/d/02lNB8Ma Shea Bradley-Farrell, PhD is President of Counterpoint Institute for Policy, Research, and Education (CIPRE) in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Shea is an expert in foreign policy and aid, national security, international development, and women's issues. She is the author of Last Warning to the West: Hungary's Triumph Over Communism and the Woke Agenda, published in December 2023.  Dr Shea worked directly with the Trump administration, including Sec. Mike Pompeo and Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump, on multiple issues while serving as the VP of International Affairs for Concerned Women for America. Most recently she was professor and subject matter expert for the Defense Security Cooperation University (DSCU) of the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Shea possesses an active U.S. security clearance. Dr. Shea publishes Op-eds in outlets such as RealClear Politics, Human Events,  NewsMax,  National Review,   Daily Signal,  The Washington Times, The European Conservative,  Daily Caller, The Hill, Washington Examiner,  the Federalist and many others.  She is a weekly contributor to SiriusXM Patriot Stacy on the Right (Wednesdays 10 p.m.), and a contributor to Victory News TV. She is a regular guest on multiple TV news and radio shows. Dr. Shea presents at conferences all over the world such the Wilson Center for International Scholars, U.S. Department of State, the Foreign Services Institute,  the Heritage Foundation, CPAC Hungary 2022 and 2023, and the Gulf Studies Symposium. Dr. Shea holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Tulane University, where she was Adjunct Lecturer in the International Development Studies Program in 2015. In 2014, she was Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for Gulf Studies at the American University of Kuwait.   She is a member of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Border Security Coalition and former Affiliated Faculty and Policy Fellow at George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government.  As an international development professional, Dr. Shea has traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America delivering capacity building and training assistance to international partners. She has hands-on experience with project design and management, budgeting, curriculum design and development, recruitment, and grants management. She is well-schooled in USAID programming and policies has worked with a variety of international donors including World Bank, Exxon, FedEx, and Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science. Connect with Dr Shea and Counterpoint Institute... X/TWITTER        x.com/DrShea_DC                            x.com/CounterpointDC WEBSITE           counterpointinstitute.org INSTAGRAM      instagram.com/counterpointinstitute Interview recorded  18.6.24 Connect with Hearts of Oak... X/TWITTER        x.com/HeartsofOakUK WEBSITE            heartsofoak.org/ PODCASTS        heartsofoak.podbean.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA  heartsofoak.org/connect/ SHOP                  heartsofoak.org/shop/ TRANSCRIPT (Hearts of Oak) I'm delighted to have Dr. Shea Bradley-Farrell with us. Shea, thank you so much for your time today. (Dr Shea Bradley-Farrell) It's an honor to be with you, Peter. Thanks for having me. Not at all. Lots to talk about. And of course, your book to start off with. Let me just, actually, let me ask you a little bit about yourself. And then we will bring up the book. And this last warning to the West, all the links are in the description. Hungary's Triumph Over Communism and the Woke Agenda. because you've got some phenomenal recommendations on the back that I read those and thought, actually, I'll just give the recommendations and then that's enough. That's literally enough. With Tucker, with Lou Dobbs, with Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and Congressman Paul Gosser so much. We will get into that in a couple of minutes. And don't forget, Kari Lake wrote the foreword. Trust me, we're getting to Kari Lake. She's not on the back, but she's on the front. We're getting to Kari Lake. I read that and thought, wow. But we'll get into the book. And the warning that is, I think, to the West, and I've been to Hungary many, many times. But, Shea, firstly, with you, you are, I mean, you're an expert in so many areas. In the foreign policy and aid, international development, you work directly with the Trump administration. You're regularly in the media with video appearances and lots of op-eds. And you've been instrumental, I think, in setting up CPAC Hungary, which is so needed. And of course, you head up Counterpoint Institute for Policy Research and Education. We'll get into all of those. The links are there @drshea__dc is your Twitter handle and counterpointinstitute.org is the website for the work you do. And our US audience, Shea, will know who you are from your many media appearances. Our UK side probably don't. So could I ask you to take a moment and introduce yourself, especially to our UK audience? Yeah, absolutely. You know, I actually, my background is as an international development professional. You mentioned that and a professor, an academic, traveled throughout the Middle East, Africa. Some in South America, doing development work, mainly focused on helping women better their businesses, whether it was a very small business of maybe harvesting salt, you know, once waters receded in Africa to a very big multi-million dollar companies because economic development is the best, in my opinion, the best form of foreign aid because then people really learn how to take care of themselves. And it builds great relationships between our country and other countries. So anyway, when I came to D.C., that's what I was doing. But being here just for a very short time is when I finally figured out that if I did not get myself into this real battle for our freedom, that I was going to eventually lose my country and lose my freedom. So the story kind of goes on from there. But yes, I worked with an organization called Concerned Women for America. It's the largest public policy organization run by women in the US. And I built an international affairs department there. And I worked alongside, as you said, the Trump administration in that position, working with Secretary Pompeo and Ivanka Trump on different issues having to do with economic development and human rights. And it was a great learning place for me and continued with policy. And I decided to start my own organization, Counterpoint Institute, because there are so few conservatives in the foreign policy realm. I only know one other development professional who is a conservative, which is very interesting. But there was a real hole there in our policy, in our country, in the guidance and leadership of our country. And so I have focused on myself on foreign policy and national security as is my background. And we're doing quite well, Peter. So thanks for having me on again. We want to get on the book. And at the beginning, your image was mirrored. We're not going to stop it because I know your time is short, Shea. You're in very big demand because of all the work you're and especially the book. And you mentioned Kari Lake did the foreword. Let me bring up... And this is an image of the book, Last Warning to the West, Hungary's Triumph over Communism and the Woke Agenda. As I said, you've got Tucker Carlson on the back. You've got Lou Dobbs, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and Congressman Paul Gosser, all household names recommending what you're putting in as a call, as a warning call to the West on what Hungary has been in over its thousand year history. And, of course, you mentioned Kari Lake has written the foreword. Maybe you begin the book talking about your trip to Hungary. You were there 2019. You talk about the first time and your experiences. I was actually, because I worked in Bulgaria for two and a half years, and I actually was in Hungary for the first time in 1998 and many times since. And I shared the experiences you mentioned of driving through the suburbs, seen that communism blocks and think, wow, in Bulgaria, I got that 10 times to that degree. But you've traveled extensively. Why has your heart settled on Hungary? Well, you know, the Hungarians have a real will to survive and I'm a survivalist also, a survivor. And so I take great pride in that, in them. I think that they've, they're amazing. They became a Christian country over a thousand years ago, and since then they've had the Ottoman Turks in, the Mongols, the Habsburgs, you know, the Nazis occupied them, the Soviet Union, and still they retain their very unique Hungarian identity. I mean, that is even reflected in the fact that no other country in the world, no other people in the world speak Hungarian. But Hungarians, right? It's very interesting. And I think that they're a real example of holding on to their true nationalism. And nationalism in the purest sense of the word means just pride in your own country. It's a collection of people who come together and agree on the same sort of laws and economic systems and the way we're going to do our society. That's what nationalism is. And it's been perverted, of course, by Nazis, for one. But the sense of nationalistic pride in its purest form is not a bad thing. It's a good thing because it strengthens a country. And that's a real reflection of what Hungary is and the people. And they have fought for their survival for so long. And I'm sure you know, to reference somebody probably that you know well, Peter, is Sir Roger Scruton, who is well-loved in Hungary. Because during the Soviet occupation, you know, he worked in the underground bringing information and books to people in those Soviet satellites. He was arrested, actually, also during that time. He helped bring networks together of communication. And anyway, I quote him in my book, and I can't remember the quote. Maybe I could pull it around and read it to you. But it pointedly says, you know, this is a big paraphrase, Hungary went through occupation, and then the wall came down after 46 years of the Soviet Union being in there telling them what to do, being that authoritarian power, right? Well, what he says in this quote is, you know, just because the wall came down, it doesn't make it any less true if the EU is doing the same thing to Hungary. This top-down decision-making, telling them that they must accept this radical gender theory nonsense and teach it to their children, telling them that they must accept mass influx of immigration into their country. They must enter, you know, in their way of thinking, giving money to the Ukraine war to weapons is entering the war. And there are many reasons they don't want to do that. And the EU has sanctioned Hungary for all of those, all of those things, keeping money, billions of dollars away from them because of their sovereignty and what they believe is right for their own country. And we can talk about that and explain it. But the point is, is that the EU has become, you know, what it was never meant to be. It wasn't meant to be a decision making body over the sovereignty of other countries in the EU. And Hungary has fought back against that. And I think that they're a real example to the United States. And that's where the book ended up coming from. Oh, last point. This is what kicked it off. I was over there doing research about the national identity and the survival of the Hungarians, not really knowing where the book was going to go. And people kept saying to me, Shea, you understand that the rhetoric coming out of the United States reminds us of our Soviet era, right? I mean, what a gut punch. No, really. And walking that back, and I'd love to talk more about this, but I'm going to shut up and pause for a minute, Peter. But walking that back, you know, for the past hundred years, the Marxism coming out after the Bolshevik Revolution, the communism that the U.S. was fighting in the 50s. Everything is very much parallel to what's going on in the United States today. And so that's why the book became a warning, the last warning to the West, and written specifically for Americans, really, and others from Western nations that are dealing with the same things we are. Right. There are so many threads to pick up from there. Let me start with, I mean, Hungary should be an insignificant country. It's just got 10 million people, and I love your mug. (Shea shows her British Union Flag drinking mug) It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Mine is a spitfire, so I go… This was actually not on purpose, but I'm hoping it gets me a few points. Oh, it does. You don't need any more, trust me. But I mean, Hungary should be insignificant. Small country, 10 million people on the edge of the Balkans in Eastern Europe, yet everyone knows who Victor Orban is. It's taken a position which is much larger than it actually should have. I mean, as an American, how do you see that as actually happened? You know, and I started the book out talking about that, because who, really, Americans are so isolated. Most of them had no idea where Hungary was, right, or anything about them. And all of a sudden, they're on the world stage. Victor Orban is a friend of Trump. Trump is shaking his hand and inviting him to have meetings. And it's really because of, really the bullying of the EU, I believe, is where it started, because there were so many articles and news stories written that maligned Hungary and these sanctions. And Hungary stood up and fought back. I mean, Orban was part of the movement that pushed the Soviets out of Hungary. He started the Fidesz party back then, before the Soviets ever left. He was actually a youth alliance at that time, a youth party, a party of the youth that was anti-communist. So he is a real fighter and he has a lot of people in his administration who are real fighters and they don't want the woke agenda. They feel like, hey, we just got our freedom back in 1991. Stop telling us what to do. So I think it has a lot to do with the press maligning them and then Trump hugging them, embracing Orbán and looking at Hungary as an ally in this fight against Marxist nonsense. This woke Marxist cultural nonsense. And that has increased because our own administration now under the Biden administration. Our ambassador in Hungary is very antagonistic against Hungary. So I just think their will and their will to do what they believe is right for their own people. And on all three of those issues I mentioned earlier, they've done a citizen referendum. Do you want to be involved in the war? Do you want mass immigration? Do you want radical gender theory in your schools? And the overwhelming majority of people voted no. So in my way of thinking, that is real sovereignty, respecting the sovereignty of your people, of your country, if the EU would stop this. But the Biden administration continues this antagonizing, I call it, because it truly is. And I think that's had a lot to do with it. We'll touch on your ambassador and it kind of shows where America currently sits. But you mentioned the EU and Orban's stand, I think, against cultural Marxism and the woke agenda has made him an absolute enemy of the EU, like no other figure I've seen within the EU. And I think he's now getting fined so much per day because of the stand against mass migration. And he's a target of the Western media and of all the organs of the deep state. And you see them working across. I mean, tell us how you view that. This is one man, small country, standing up against the EU. 10 million people in Hungary, half a billion in the EU. And everything that Orbán stands for is different than the entity of the European Union. I think that's a lesson for Americans to learn to be very careful who you actually place yourself under. Yeah, that's exactly Exactly right. And, you know, it really goes back to something that you mentioned, you know, this guy Daniel Frund, I believe is how you say his last name, in the EU. I mean, he's taken it on himself. It's made... He's made it his business to post things on his social media that are clearly very discriminatory against Hungary. And he's made it, he's an example, I think, of the anger that many on the liberal left, the radical left get simply because you don't do what they want you to do, simply because you don't believe what they believe. And Hungary was perfectly fine with not trying to change them, but they're trying to change Hungary. And as I said before, they've had the Ottoman Turks, the Habsburgs, the Nazis, the Soviets. They want to protect their beliefs. Like I said, they respect God. They're a Christian country. They respect the family. They actually put in their constitution a few years ago that the woman is the mother and the father and the man is the father, you know, against this gender nonsense. And it made the EU extremely angry. And that's been part of the problem. And yeah, so a lot of this comes from anger. But I will touch on something else you said that I worked a lot against, during the Trump administration, trying to unravel the Obama years on this. The United States got way out of line on foreign aid. And what we've ended up doing, I believe it started under Obama. I don't know that it went a lot further back, but we've begun pushing our own progressive social agenda through our foreign aid with things called like being LGBT in Asia, being LGBT and whatever. And so, I wrote an article a couple months ago and it was in Peru, that's where it was, that we are funding transgender ballroom dancing in Peru. I mean, this kind of nonsense instead of real help, real development help, humanitarian help. We are pushing our social progressiveness, I always do this because it's actually backwardsness, onto other countries. And in my job, you know, for years now, I've had people come from Africa, from the Middle East, from Eastern Europe, from South America, come and say to me, can you help us? Because your country has told us we can't have this money unless we do this, which is against our religion, whether it's something that's promoting abortion, promoting homosexuality. It's not what our people want to do. But your country is pushing this. And it's a real problem. And we're doing it again under the Biden administration. And that's what's going on in Hungary and other countries, for sure, all over the world. And I'm sorry, I apologize. Well, actually, that fits into what the EU and the UK are doing, that we tie a lot of our aid, especially to abortion being healthcare, and you need to abort as much as you can, and the whole LGBT agenda, especially in the education and media. So we are doing exactly the same. But you mentioned the ambassador, and you talk about him being a big advocate and representative of LGBT community. And that must be a slap in the face to a country that is a conservative Christian country. And the left put that in place, obviously Biden put them in place purposefully, knowing that we are going to push our agenda as America and it's irrelevant to what you think. But we have exactly the same issues in the EU and UK, pushing that agenda on developing countries. Yeah. And it's stepping out of line. It's stepping over the sovereignty of other countries, over their religious freedom, over their scientific freedom when you get down to the transgender stuff. Our ambassador, David Pressman is his name. Evidently, there was a small story about it. It was part of Obama's LGBT. Obama promised to spend millions and billions on promoting ideology. And I, can I make this clear? Because this is something I've worked on as well. Obama and Biden are spreading an ideology, teaching children in some of these programs, you know, here's the color purple, we're celebrating transgender stuff. It's ideology they're pushing. What they should be doing is looking and seeing in the countries, if homosexuals, if whatever, are being imprisoned or persecuted for some, you know, in some way. That should be addressed as a human rights issue. You know, ISIS beheading homosexual men. This is where the U.S. should be involved, not in spreading an ideology. And I was going to tell you something else, Peter, but I've gotten off on that tangent. What was.. It's like the Matt Walsh documentary, What is a woman, talking to people in Africa and they're saying, what do you mean a man can be a woman, it's madness, It's madness, yes and I had a friend who spoke at the UN from Africa who grew up in this village, you know, where, here was her point at the UN, we need roads so I can get my children to the doctor, we need hospitals. We need water where we live. We don't need abortion. That's not development. Going back to our ambassador. So first of all. He helped Obama with this. Second of all, in his confirmation hearing, he was already calling Hungary a democratic backsliding country, aligning them with China and Russia. And if you look at his social media, most of this is because of the LGBT thing. And he promotes that agenda far more than anything else on his social media. He's militant about it. He's hung up and obsessed on it. He is married to a man. He has two little boys, I believe, with this man. Now, I've spent lots and lots of time in Hungary, been there many times at this point. I've seen homosexuals walking around. Nobody cares if that's what you want to do. But he was put in there as an antagonizing aspect for his beliefs alone and, you know, his obsessive promotion of it. And the real thing that clinches this is that he uses that to say that Hungary is backsliding in democratic values, that Hungary is a human rights abuser. There is no put your finger on anything that Hungary has done to abuse human rights. In fact, you know, ironically, I think this was on the Human Rights Council Committee, whatever the name of the organization website, this uprising of LGBT people in Hungary. So, oh, it's terrible because Hungary is oppressing them because here's this uprising. Well, the point, you know, that I was trying to make during this time was these people have the freedom to uprise and say we don't like things. That's a democratic society. So what's happening is the Biden administration wants everybody to agree with them. You know, that's the real issue. If you don't agree with them, then you're a human rights abuser. And that's wrong. It's deceptive and it's taking the focus off of real needs, you know, around the world that the U.S. could be focused on. I know, exactly. A key part of, if you go go through Hungary's history from its establishment in the 9th century, so you've got 1,000 years of history, all the way up to the Ottoman Empire, 1800s, you go up to communism in the 1900s and how Hungary was able to overthrow that, along with the rest of Eastern Europe. And that's 1,000-year history. It's, I mean, four times longer than the US has been there, and they fought for their national identity over that time. It does seem as though Hungary is a kind of roadmap for successfully preserving your national identity. Is that what you've seen in your time looking at Hungary? Yeah, I believe so, Peter. And, you know, I did interviews for the Bucs, some with senior government officials and some with just regular people out in the country. And there was an older gentleman I talked to in his late 80s that had been there during the Soviet siege of Budapest, where they fought against the Nazis and pushed the Nazis out. He was just a little boy at the time. And he and his family were in one of the basements there where the castle is, now where the castle is in Hungary. And, you know, he recounts some really terrible things like the soldiers raping women just as a matter of method even to keep the people pressed down. But, you know, I asked him, in fact, he had this great attitude and he had lived most of his life up until 1991 under Soviet occupation. And I asked him, how is it that Hungarians are still so positive? How is it that they hold so fast to their family because the Russians, the communist ideology, was to divide people from family, to divide people from religion, to divide people from their national identity. They took Hungarians' holidays away from them, their national holidays. They told them they had to take crosses down off the walls and put the communist leader pictures up there. These are are just some small examples, but they tried to recreate Hungarian history and identity according to what the communists wanted it to be. And I said, how are you guys still so Hungarian, so family oriented, so focused on God and your country? And he said it really went back to Christianity and their families, that when he was a little boy, his mother, you know, would teach them in the house about their religion, about their faith, about right and wrong, freedom and liberty. And then they would go to school and under the eyes of the communists, they would act a different way. But always at home, it was still being imparted to them, you know, the national identity of the Hungarians, their freedom, the importance of their sovereignty. And I had some other gentlemen that were older say pretty much the same thing. So I think it's something, I think it's that, and I think it's this will to survive. They've been through it for centuries, and they keep having to do it. And as somebody said to me, a few people said to me, is that America doesn't remember what it's like not to be free. We've been around like you said a lot less time than Hungarians have and they were dealing with this until recent history in 1991. So there are many people still alive that remember what it was like under the sovereignty of the Soviet Union. You talked about faith, and I think the position of God is quite central. And of course, the EU have rejected God, and whenever they wrote the Constitution, they specifically and purposely removed any references to Christian history in Europe and any reference to God. And that puts it at odds with Hungary. I mean, there are many nations in Europe that are still very strongly, devoutly Christian. You've got Malta, Finland, Austria, Bulgaria, where I lived, and the Orthodox Church there is very strong. Italy, well known for their strong faith. Slovakia, you go to Greece, and the Orthodox Church is so strong, Greece. But sadly, I guess none of those countries have an Orban. But how do you look on it as an American where Christianity is still a central part? I know times are changing. How do you look on it in not only Hungary, but many of those countries across Europe where faith, where your relationship with God is quite central in culture, not necessarily in politics? I mean, how did you see that as an American, as a Christian? In relating it to Hungary, you mean, or in Europe? Yeah, just generally your time there and how you as a Christian, as a conservative, and your parts of Hungary and Europe that are traditionally Christian, and yet the leadership doesn't necessarily represent that. But Hungary does seem to be different. You know, they say that they're a Christian nation. I mean, even the government will say that. It's not, you know, it's not like a theocracy or anything like that, but they're very proud of the fact that a thousand years ago, King Istvan made them the easternmost western country of the empire, a Holy Roman Empire, and they took on Christianity. He thought it would be good for the alliances and the economic prosperity of Hungary, and they've continued to hold on to that. You know, my experience going through Europe is sometimes I'm very surprised at how there are many people there that still have a real relationship as Christians with Jesus Christ. They have a real relationship as Jews with God, and they're really holding fast those principles. In other places that I've been, I think I've been a little bit disappointed that the religion has has turned in sort of this secular kind of religion. Like this is what our morals are based on, yet we're not really practicing any sort of religion where we are saying there is a power that's more important than we are. And while I still think that it's good that some societies are still based on this moral approach, understanding of Christianity or Judaism, I'm concerned that generations will go by if people are not actually practicing that religion, reading their Bibles, praying, that generations will go by and even that moral foundation will slip away. Am I explaining that right? No, you are. You're right. There is a disconnect between the history and people's personal relationship with Jesus. And you see the church, especially in the Nordic countries, in Germany, and many parts, have become woke and have abandoned that clarion call they should have. But yet many parts of Eastern Europe still hold on to that. And Christianity, whether that's a personal relationship with Christ, part of it is cultural Christianity, but that is still embedded in the culture, where in many other parts of Europe that's been rejected. That's exactly right. But what I'm concerned about is that in those places where it's still based on Christianity, if people still are not praying and reading their Bibles and learning what their religion is and what it should mean to them in their lives, that eventually that moral fabric will leave. And I think that is what is happening in America, is so few people are going to church now as generations ago. So few people think about praying when they have a problem, you know, before they go off and do whatever it is. And we've gotten to the point where cutting children's body parts off is okay. That is moral depravity. So that's what I'm concerned about, Peter. I've seen it happen here. And I actually, I was talking to, I think it was an official, a government official, yes, about this. Like, are you concerned that the secular, because this person even said to me, it's more of a secular religion, secular Christianity. It's like a foundation of it. That was just his point of view. There are other people that were practicing. But I said, you know, aren't you concerned that eventually this moral fabric will be broken up? And he didn't seem to be too concerned about it, but I am. I agree. Whenever the church begins to promote and advocate abortion and sexualization of children, you know that we are in a difficult, dangerous pit. And I get that. We need a huge revival. Tell me how it's been welcomed in America, this book, because there are many books about, you know, Republicans, Red Wave, MAGA. You've got thousands and thousands of them. This book is quite different. It's looking outside, which maybe is different from the traditional conservative books that are available in the US. Tell me how it's been received and some of the conversations you've had with people as you've gone around and promoted the book. It's actually been received very well. I've been on tons of media for it. People reaching out to me such as yourself that wanted to hear more about it. I think because they're fascinated by the fact that I'm showing the parallels of Hungary under communist control. And actually, I want to go go back to that in just a second. But even like C-SPAN, C-SPAN came and recorded my, I had a book launch in New York and a book launch in DC in February. The New York one was December, 2023. But in February at the Hungarian embassy, C-SPAN came and recorded it and put it on, you know, their book TV, their Washington journal, and even on their radio. Because I think that, I'm an academic, I'm a researcher. So some people find the book a little daunting, a little heavy because of all the sources and citations and documentation that I use in it. But that's what I do. There are many people that appeal to a different crowd, I think, in America that just say, they're more like someone who impart a message that people need to hear. But I'm trying to say, look at the history, look at the history, and you know that we're in trouble. I put in the book, Peter, the 11 points of communist psychological warfare, which were written, published by our Department of Defense in 1959, so that our professionals would recognize communist psychological warfare and combat it, 1959. I put these in the book because every point is parallel to the United States today. And I wanted to show that, you know, the fact that the Hungarians were saying that we are, the rhetoric coming out of the U.S. reminds them of the Soviet days. If you even just walk that back to the Bolshevik revolution and the Marxism during that time, even I did not know that they were pushing abortion at that time as health care. This is not anything new, that that was coming out of their division between, parents and their children, was coming out of that, the Marxism at that time, between people and religion. But looking, just let me give you a couple of points from the communist psychological warfare points. Like I said, they're all in my book, and then I put up just a little brief description underneath of how it relates to the United States. One of the points is using a crisis to gain control. And we saw during the COVID pandemic, vaccine mandates where thousands of people lost their jobs because they wouldn't put an unknown substance into their body, their own body. Vaccine mandates, lockdowns all over the world, actually. The detention camps in Australia were the ones that really freaked me out. But other examples, the government gaining control of propaganda bodies, that was actually one of the first steps of Sovietization that the Soviet Union would do in satellite countries. But it's also one of those points where the government will control the information going out. And certainly in the United States, the mainstream media is led and influenced by our administration. It is so far left. It is so, in my lifetime, it's never been so un-journalistic. But even farther than that, you know, the Biden administration is going through litigation right now because it's been accused of suppressing entire bodies of ideas of Americans on social media, collaborating with with Facebook and X or Twitter at the time, and other platforms to suppress people's views on the 2020 election, COVID-19, on Hunter Biden's laptop. And we find out just a couple of weeks ago that they're doing it again. So I'll stop there. Those are just two examples of the points. But it's really concerning. I find it actually is an easy read. It is 350 pages, but you've got a thousand years of history to touch on. So you go through, I think, marvellously well. And it is available. I read it as an e-book. It is available as a paperback. Let me just... That is Last Warning to the West, Hungary's Triumph over Communism and The Woke Agenda, with a foreword by Kari Lake, as you mentioned. Just very last point on CPAC Hungary, because it's been fascinating your involvement with that, and I think that brings what is, it's a fascinating connection between Hungary and the US, because it's the first time CPAC has launched in Europe. I think Hungary is a fantastic country to start that in. And maybe just to end off, just mentioning that, because that brings up to the current present tense and also shows that bridge between Hungary and America, which I think can be key whenever, whenever Trump regains the White House. Yeah, I think it's a good point. So CPAC Hungary started three years ago. I spoke the first two years. I wasn't able to go this year. But the organization that started CPAC Hungary is the same organization that published my book, the Center for Fundamental Rights. They're a conservative think tank there in Hungary. And I was a fellow for them for about a year and a half, senior fellow. And it was a great experience. And they have done a fantastic job with CPAC Hungary. Strange that there's no other CPAC in Europe. But they really set out to build collaboration between countries and certain aspects of the countries that were conservative. And they've done a fantastic job with that because, you know, they've also built relationships in Spain, in Italy with different conservative organizations. And we see that all over the world now. In fact, we go back a couple of weeks ago. It seemed that the EU in the elections for the European Parliament went a bit to the right. So I do believe that things going on like CPAC Hungary help influence that. And, you know, I have conservative friends now down in Argentina and in Italy. And like I said, Spain and Hungary and all these different places. And we collaborate together, help each other, support each other. And I believe, this is my theory, that in many countries, the majority of the people are still wanting to support family, are still respecting their religion, still love their homeland. And I think the liberal left in the form of the European Union and the Biden administration and the media all over the world is announcing to the world that they don't matter. The political and media elites of the left have the power, the control. So it makes it seem like the whole world is that way. And we do have a lot to fight against on legislation and crazy things that are going on in the EU and in my own capital where I am here. But I just believe that people all over the world need to know there are sane people out there working for these foundational principles, because Europe was also founded on Christian principles. And the United States most certainly was, you know, like you said, the EU is voting this constitution to take that out. But that's not what the original fathers of the EU were doing. So I'm sure you know more about that than I do. And I talk about that some in my book. But it's this real change from, you know, humility before a higher power in your lives, to thinking that you can do it all yourself. You know, you're giving yourself your rights now, these rights that God have given us, he didn't give them to us. In fact, we had a commentator in the United States about a month or so ago say that, that Christian nationalists, Christians who love their country, were crazy because we thought that our rights were God-given, and how silly that was. And we're like, well, lady, it's actually in our founding documents. So anyway, it's this real reliance on self, Peter, And that's dangerous. And there are those of us that are fighting for the right kind of principles like you, like yourself. And it's good that outlets such as you are getting that word out there. I think it encourages people is what I'm trying to say with a lot of words. Well, 100%. We'll bring it last warning to the West. Fantastic read and counterpoint institute I encourage your viewers listeners to make sure and click on that and follow and sign up to all you're doing and I just saw that Hungary take over the commission, EU commission and their tagline is Make Europe Great Again so you're going to have MEGA and MAGA together, MEGA MAGA for the second half of this year, but Dr Shea thank you so much for coming on and sharing about your experiences, your work with Counterpoint Institute. It's fascinating. So thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, Peter. And if your listeners would like to follow our work, just sign up for our newsletter on counterpoint.institute.org. It only comes out a couple of times a month, but it just gives the basics on all these issues that you and I have talked about in the work we're doing. So thank you so much for having me. Not at all. Sign up counterpointinstitute.org make sure and sign up to that newsletter Shea thank you so much for your time Thanks Peter.

In this episode of The Austin Young Show, we are joined by the incredibly talented Shane Rendon. Shane, an East Texan singer-songwriter and exceptional live audio engineer, opens up about his latest songs and the deeply personal journey of sobriety that has shaped his music. He also shares the challenges and triumphs of having to relearn how to play music.In addition to Shane's inspiring story, we bring you exclusive recordings from the Ottoman Turks, captured live at the Deep Ellum First Fridays events. We reminisce about old friends and dive into a discussion about common mistakes local musicians make when performing live. Tune in for an episode filled with heartfelt stories, valuable insights, and fantastic music.Follow Shane Rendon:InstagramFollow The Austin Young Show:www.austinyoungshow.comMusic By:Shane Rendon - Old Sins, Nowhere Else and Radio Diva Make-Believa.Ottoman Turks - Leaked Deep Ellum First Fridays Recording *DISCLAIMER: I hereby declare that I do not own the rights to this music/song. All rights belong to the owner. No Copyright Infringement Intended. All bands have given permission to use their music.*

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration. Helen J. Nicholson's book Women and the Crusades (Oxford UP, 2023) surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570, when the last crusader state, Cyprus, was captured by the Ottoman Turks. It considers women's actions not only on crusade battlefields but also in recruiting crusaders, supporting crusades through patronage, propaganda, and prayer, and as both defenders and aggressors. It argues that medieval women were deeply involved in the crusades but the roles that they could play and how their contemporaries recorded their deeds were dictated by social convention and cultural expectations. Although its main focus is the women of Latin Christendom, it also looks at the impact of the crusades and crusaders on the Jews of western Europe and the Muslims of the Middle East, and compares relations between Latin Christians and Muslims with relations between Muslims and other Christian groups. Helen J. Nicholson is Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University, UK. She has published extensively on the crusades, the military orders, and various related subjects, including a translation of a chronicle of the Third Crusade and an edition of the Templar trial proceedings in Britain and Ireland. She has just completed a history of Queen Sybil of Jerusalem (1186-1190). Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration. Helen J. Nicholson's book Women and the Crusades (Oxford UP, 2023) surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570, when the last crusader state, Cyprus, was captured by the Ottoman Turks. It considers women's actions not only on crusade battlefields but also in recruiting crusaders, supporting crusades through patronage, propaganda, and prayer, and as both defenders and aggressors. It argues that medieval women were deeply involved in the crusades but the roles that they could play and how their contemporaries recorded their deeds were dictated by social convention and cultural expectations. Although its main focus is the women of Latin Christendom, it also looks at the impact of the crusades and crusaders on the Jews of western Europe and the Muslims of the Middle East, and compares relations between Latin Christians and Muslims with relations between Muslims and other Christian groups. Helen J. Nicholson is Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University, UK. She has published extensively on the crusades, the military orders, and various related subjects, including a translation of a chronicle of the Third Crusade and an edition of the Templar trial proceedings in Britain and Ireland. She has just completed a history of Queen Sybil of Jerusalem (1186-1190). Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration. Helen J. Nicholson's book Women and the Crusades (Oxford UP, 2023) surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570, when the last crusader state, Cyprus, was captured by the Ottoman Turks. It considers women's actions not only on crusade battlefields but also in recruiting crusaders, supporting crusades through patronage, propaganda, and prayer, and as both defenders and aggressors. It argues that medieval women were deeply involved in the crusades but the roles that they could play and how their contemporaries recorded their deeds were dictated by social convention and cultural expectations. Although its main focus is the women of Latin Christendom, it also looks at the impact of the crusades and crusaders on the Jews of western Europe and the Muslims of the Middle East, and compares relations between Latin Christians and Muslims with relations between Muslims and other Christian groups. Helen J. Nicholson is Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University, UK. She has published extensively on the crusades, the military orders, and various related subjects, including a translation of a chronicle of the Third Crusade and an edition of the Templar trial proceedings in Britain and Ireland. She has just completed a history of Queen Sybil of Jerusalem (1186-1190). Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration. Helen J. Nicholson's book Women and the Crusades (Oxford UP, 2023) surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570, when the last crusader state, Cyprus, was captured by the Ottoman Turks. It considers women's actions not only on crusade battlefields but also in recruiting crusaders, supporting crusades through patronage, propaganda, and prayer, and as both defenders and aggressors. It argues that medieval women were deeply involved in the crusades but the roles that they could play and how their contemporaries recorded their deeds were dictated by social convention and cultural expectations. Although its main focus is the women of Latin Christendom, it also looks at the impact of the crusades and crusaders on the Jews of western Europe and the Muslims of the Middle East, and compares relations between Latin Christians and Muslims with relations between Muslims and other Christian groups. Helen J. Nicholson is Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University, UK. She has published extensively on the crusades, the military orders, and various related subjects, including a translation of a chronicle of the Third Crusade and an edition of the Templar trial proceedings in Britain and Ireland. She has just completed a history of Queen Sybil of Jerusalem (1186-1190). Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

The crusade movement needed women: their money, their prayer support, their active participation, and their inspiration. Helen J. Nicholson's book Women and the Crusades (Oxford UP, 2023) surveys women's involvement in medieval crusading between the second half of the eleventh century, when Pope Gregory VII first proposed a penitential military expedition to help the Christians of the East, and 1570, when the last crusader state, Cyprus, was captured by the Ottoman Turks. It considers women's actions not only on crusade battlefields but also in recruiting crusaders, supporting crusades through patronage, propaganda, and prayer, and as both defenders and aggressors. It argues that medieval women were deeply involved in the crusades but the roles that they could play and how their contemporaries recorded their deeds were dictated by social convention and cultural expectations. Although its main focus is the women of Latin Christendom, it also looks at the impact of the crusades and crusaders on the Jews of western Europe and the Muslims of the Middle East, and compares relations between Latin Christians and Muslims with relations between Muslims and other Christian groups. Helen J. Nicholson is Professor of Medieval History at Cardiff University, UK. She has published extensively on the crusades, the military orders, and various related subjects, including a translation of a chronicle of the Third Crusade and an edition of the Templar trial proceedings in Britain and Ireland. She has just completed a history of Queen Sybil of Jerusalem (1186-1190). Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube channel. Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bailey and the Bad Habits are a Red Dirt Country/ Southern Rock band from Waxahachie, TX. Formed in 2020 with influences that span all genres and decades, they have found a sound that borders on the edge of country, blues and rock.  The music is written by frontman, Derek Bailey who uses his life experience to write authentic songs about  Love and War. Lead Guitarist,  Brett Barr, brings  a bluesy rock tone to the band that ties the sound together with emotional,  improvised guitar. The beat comes from energetic drummer, Matt Brodeur, who is sure to make each performance lively. The heartbeat of the band is a thumping bassline played by Andrew Whitely. All aspects together deliver a sound and feeling that will fill venues of all sizes.   Bailey and the Bad Habits have a very wide range of influence, including Whiskey Myers,  Cross Canadian Ragweed, Blackberry Smoke, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Hank Williams Jr. Pat Green, John Anderson and many, many more. Cover songs will often include some of those listed. Follow Bailey and the Bad Habits:https://baileyandthebadhabits.comFollow The Austin Young Show:https://austinyoungshow.comMusic By:Bailey and the Bad Habits - Haunted, Lessons Learned and Stepping Stone.Ottoman Turks - 35 to Life *DISCLAIMER: I hereby declare that I do not own the rights to this music/song. All rights belong to the owner. No Copyright Infringement Intended. All bands have given permission to use their music.*

After leaving the Papal States with Cesare Borgia waiting for us, we head into the Republic of Florence to look at the struggle with the other Italian powers over Pisa and also stop to talk a little about the man who named America, the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci.After that it's over to the Duchy of Milan where duchess Beatrice d'Este dies in 1497 and the threat of French invasion becomes very real when Luis XII takes the throne.The last stop takes us to Venice and yet another clash with Ottoman Turks at the battle of Zonchio, a.k.a. the first battle of Lepanto.Thanks once again to our partner for the episode: Exlore Worldwide

If you have any interest at all in Byzantium or in the Roman Empire generally I think you should really enjoy this episode. Professor Kaldellis is one of the leading scholars on Byzantium (East Rome?) and his book The New Roman Empire - A History of Byzantium takes you all the way from the founding of Constantinople to its fall to the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century, more than a thousand years later. The book is a tour de force and despite the scale of the story it is extremely readable and I enjoyed the dry wit throughout. And he made an absolutely fascinating guest. So if you love stories of the Roman Empire do give it a listen. We couldn't cover everything but we covered a lot!We recorded it in one go but we reached a natural break point so I have split it into two parts.

This episode will help you accelerate trust while others seem to throw it away at every turn. If you have trouble with vulnerability, substitute relatability. People follow leaders they can relate to. This comes from the invisible truth that we are all creatures of struggle. It comes down to psychological safety, connection, and shared vision. When seeking vulnerability, ask yourself, “Am I relatable to my employees right now?” Often, we find our greatest relatability to the other party in our struggles and authentic stories that help them relate to your perspective. Or better yet, our questions that help them see themselves as the hero in the story. this is the secret sauce to connecting in low-trust times. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIES In 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them. Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level.  You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!     Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

We're going to dive into some serious tactics that work in business boardrooms and community centers as well as they work in tribal villages. The power and impact of getting below the waterline and restoring relationships give you a competitive edge. Leaders who can assess trust gaps and restore relationships quickly are always going to be sought after. It won't be easy, but it'll be worth it in the end.  CONTEXT ON THIS SERIES In 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them. Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level.  You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!     Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Dr. Anthony Kaldellis is Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago. His previous books include A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities; Streams of gold, Rivers of Blood; Romanland, and, as translator and editor, Prokopios' The Secret History. In 2019, he began hosting the podcast “Byzantium & Friends.” Evan Zarkadas (MA) is an independent scholar of European and Medieval history and an educator. He received his master's in history from the University of Maine focusing on Medieval Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, medieval identity, and ethnicity during the late Middle Ages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Dr. Anthony Kaldellis is Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago. His previous books include A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities; Streams of gold, Rivers of Blood; Romanland, and, as translator and editor, Prokopios' The Secret History. In 2019, he began hosting the podcast “Byzantium & Friends.” Evan Zarkadas (MA) is an independent scholar of European and Medieval history and an educator. He received his master's in history from the University of Maine focusing on Medieval Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, medieval identity, and ethnicity during the late Middle Ages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In recent decades, the study of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as Byzantium, has been revolutionized by new approaches and more sophisticated models for how its society and state operated. No longer looked upon as a pale facsimile of classical Rome, Byzantium is now considered a vigorous state of its own, inheritor of many of Rome's features, and a vital node in the first truly globalized world. The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (Oxford UP, 2024) is the first full, single-author history of the eastern Roman empire to appear in over a generation. Covering political and military history as well as all the major changes in religion, society, demography, and economy, Anthony Kaldellis's volume is divided into ten chronological sections which begin with the foundation of Constantinople in 324 AD and end with the fall of the empire to the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century. The book incorporates new findings, explains recent interpretive models, and presents well-known historical characters and events in a new light. Dr. Anthony Kaldellis is Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago. His previous books include A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities; Streams of gold, Rivers of Blood; Romanland, and, as translator and editor, Prokopios' The Secret History. In 2019, he began hosting the podcast “Byzantium & Friends.” Evan Zarkadas (MA) is an independent scholar of European and Medieval history and an educator. He received his master's in history from the University of Maine focusing on Medieval Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, medieval identity, and ethnicity during the late Middle Ages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we've modernized as a society, we have forgotten this principle - we've put transactions before relationships. But, relationships are your most important book of business. As Rooftop Leaders continuing to navigate the churn, it is more important than ever that we put the relationship first. By creating that strong foundation, you will become and stay relevant and relatable in the eyes of the other person. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them.Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!     Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

Continuing our Waterline Article Series, this episode will show you an approach to organizational relationship management that most groups and teams just don't do…but if you do, you'll have a competitive edge…for years. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them.Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!     Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

This waterline article is a mindset - we need to move away from the transactional driven approach and start thinking about relationships as the asset. When you go for the short-term transaction, you leave so much on the table. When you focus on the relationship, you not only create and build a new one but investing that time, in the beginning, gives you the opportunity to leverage it in the future. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them.Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!    Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

Humans are the most meaning seeking creatures on the planet - we seek and assign meaning to everything we are confronted with. As Rooftop Leaders, it is crucial that you seek to find your own purpose and the purpose of the people you lead. It will not only help you become relatable to them but you will also become more relevant in their eyes. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them.Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!    Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them.Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence Join Rooftop Nation!    Website: https://www.rooftopleadership.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScottMannAuthorInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmannauthorLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rooftop-leadershipTwitter: https://twitter.com/RooftopLeaderYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYOQ7CDJ6uSaGvmfxYC_skQ

Have you ever thought of what you need to help you perform at the highest level in times of churn? There are things – Coyle's Big Three: psychological safety, a sense of connection, and a shared future. These things have to be in place for any high performing collective and need to happen in order. Creating psychological safety is speaking truth to power which leads to a sense of connection. Join Scott this week to learn how you can create the biggest impact and lead at the highest level in times of churn. CONTEXT ON THIS SERIESIn 1917, T.E. Lawrence, who you might know as Lawrence of Arabia overthrew the Ottoman Turks in WWI in modern-day Iraq and Syria, using strategic human connections at the local level. He did so by going into tribal environments and creating a level of trust that unified various tribes around one thing that they could all agree on through storytelling of ‘what could be.' He wanted to help others who followed behind him do the same so he wrote The 27 Articles to share with them. Scott has taken these Lawrencian skills and adapted them to the Rooftop Leadership methodology and in this series will share the 27 Waterline Articles for the Rooftop Leader with you so that you are better equipped to lead through the disengagement, distrust, and distraction brought on by prolonged isolation, low trust, and uncertainty. If you'll lean into these and integrate them into your life and business, you will be more attuned to the people you lead and be able to look at human behavior in a new way that allows you to lead at a higher level. You can read the original 27 Articles by T.E. Lawrence here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_27_Articles_of_T.E._Lawrence

The year is 1453 and the Ottomans are at the gates of the great city of Constantinople. For centuries, they have been laying siege to this city; for centuries their efforts have failed. But this time, everything is going to be different. Constantinople is going to fall.How did history lead them there, though? And how exactly are the events of the siege going to play out? Olivia and Aran wrap up their magnificent two-part overview of Constantinople with an exploration of how the Ottoman Turks came to be the most powerful force in Anatolia and how they finally managed to claim Constantinople for themselves. Also discussed are the Wild East, Scottish things, and the simple pleasures of a flaked almond.For more on some of what we discuss, check out:This biography of Mehmed the Conqueror by Franz Babinger https://archive.org/details/mehmedconqueror00fran/mode/2upNicolo Barbaro's first-hand account of the siege of Constantinople https://deremilitari.org/2016/08/the-siege-of-constantinople-in-1453-according-to-nicolo-barbaro/The music used in the intro and outro of this episode is a public domain recording of the Ottoman march Ceddin Deden.https://archive.org/details/lp_turkey-a-musical-journey-traditional-son_various/disc1/02.07.+Mehter+Music.mp3Additional music used throughout is a public domain recording of a Turkish folk song called "Girl from Kermen" https://archive.org/details/lp_songs-and-dances-of-turkey_various/disc1/01.05.+Girl+From+Kermen+(Love+Song+From+Central+Turkey).mp3