For English, see below.

На днях в интернете появилось следующее видео. Это якобы репортаж российского телеканала, жалующегося на Библии Гедеона, которые были доставлены в зону конфликта между Россией и Украиной. В ней «Гидеон Интернэшнл» описывается так, как будто они являются частью того, что американские правительства делают для подрыва морального духа среди российских солдат, из-за страниц «помощи» в начале, которые предлагают Священные Писания, к которым можно обратиться во времена страха, тревоги и т. д. «Почему они предполагают, что наши солдаты должны чувствовать тревогу? Разве они не пытаются подорвать их моральный дух?», — таков лейтмотив видео.

Я хотел бы дать свой личный ответ на это видео и содержащиеся в нем обвинения.

Я должен заявить, что я даю свою личную реакцию, а не реакцию «Гидеонс Интернэшнл». Так получилось, что я являюсь членом правления Польской Ассоциации, а это значит, что я, вероятно, знаю по этой теме больше, чем может знать человек, не являющийся ее членом, однако это также не является официальным мнением польского отделения Гидеонс Интернэшнл.

С этой оговоркой я хотел бы отметить следующее:

• Насколько мне известно, наша Ассоциация не связана с каким-либо государственным ведомством и не подчиняется ему.  Мы являемся миссионерским подразделением Церкви, финансируемым отдельными членами, отдельными христианами и церквями, дающими дары. У нас нет никаких оснований для того, чтобы выполнять какие-либо указания или проводить политику, установленную каким-либо правительством, но только по воле Божьей, изложенной в Библии. Мы не гонимся за государственными средствами и поэтому можем быть полностью независимыми.
  
  
• Члены Гедеонов состоят из членов различных евангелических церквей, но большинство этих церквей и, следовательно, большинство наших членов являются приверженцами идеи отделения церкви от государства. Политика также исключена из вопросов, которые могут обсуждаться на собраниях лагеря Гидеона.
  
  
• Мы работаем с большим количеством церквей и стараемся не отдавать предпочтения какой-либо конкретной церкви или деноминации в каком-либо месте, и поэтому рекомендации относительно того, какую церковь посещать, не включены в наши издания Священных Писаний. Мы заботимся о том, чтобы свести к минимуму то, что включено, и только то, с чем мы все можем согласиться, является необходимым или полезным, чтобы ни одна из Церквей, с которыми мы работаем, не могла быть отчуждена содержанием, или чтобы содержание указывало в каком-либо другом направлении, кроме самого Слова Божьего.  и, в частности, к личности и делу нашего Господа и Спасителя Иисуса Христа.
  
  
• Некоторые люди, получающие один из наших печатных Новых Заветов, могут взять в руки отрывок из Библии в первый раз или в первый раз после долгого перерыва. Конечно, можно начать с самого начала и прочитать до конца, или начать с любого случайного места. Тем не менее, было также признано полезным добавить на страницы стихи, на которые может быть полезно медитировать, когда вы находитесь в разном состоянии ума. Состояние ума и приводимые Священные Писания в целом совпадают с теми, которые используются всевозможными христианскими организациями по всему миру, и до сих пор не рассматривались нашими критиками как спорные.

• Эти страницы были включены в Новый Завет Гедеона в течение долгого времени. Например, в экземпляре, который я получил в школе 38 лет назад в Англии, они тоже есть. Они не рассматривались как попытка подорвать наш моральный дух, наш директор в то время даже поощрял нас использовать их в качестве отправной точки при чтении Нового Завета. Насколько мне известно, нет никакой разницы между тем, что включено в версии Нового Завета и Псалмами, которые показаны на видео, и тем, что в западных странах. Я использую тот же, который вы показываете в видео в моем отеле для русскоговорящих гостей, будь то из России, Украины, Беларуси, Молдовы или других стран.
  
  
  
• По моим личным наблюдениям, за последние тридцать с лишним лет верующие евангелисты, как правило, были более открытыми по отношению к российскому режиму, чем среднестатистический человек в их странах. Это связано с тем, что мы были свидетелями широкомасштабных гонений на различные Церкви в советский период, а в постсоветский период этого не было.  Лично я знаю, что мы все молились, и я, конечно, молился за эту свободу вероисповедания в бывшем Советском Союзе в советский период. Это было главное, чего мы хотели от России, и на самом деле единственная критика, которую мы имеем в адрес России. По моим наблюдениям, многие евангельские христиане отмечают упадок свобод на Западе, а некоторые отваживаются высказать мнение, что Россия стала во многих отношениях более дружественной к христианам, чем наши страны.  Я надеюсь, что это будет продолжаться, а не то, что это видео свидетельствует о желании вернуться к тому, что было при советской власти.

• Мы посылаем Слово Божье в зону конфликта не потому, что у нас есть какая-то политическая заинтересованность в конфликте, а потому, что это может быть последним шансом для многих участников встретиться с Евангелием Иисуса Христа, которое может спасти их души. Люди гибнут в вооруженных конфликтах с обеих сторон, и Царство Божие для нас важнее любого земного царства или страны. Мы считаем, что для душ мужчин и женщин очень важно прийти к познанию Иисуса Христа из Его собственных слов, пока у них еще есть такая возможность, и поэтому мы просим Вас не препятствовать свободному распространению наших изданий Священных Писаний в зоне конфликта.
  
  Больше о содружестве можете читать на www.gideons.ru

In recent days the following video has emerged onto the internet. It purports to be a report from a Russian TV channel complaining about the Gideons bibles which have been shipped into the conflict zone between Russia and the Ukraine. In it, the Gideons International are described as if they are part of what the American governments are doing to undermine moral among Russian troops, because of the “helps” pages at the beginning which suggest scriptures to look at in times of fear, anxiety, etc. “Why do they suggest our soldiers should be feeling anxious? Are they not trying to undermine their morale?” seems to be the tenet of the video.

(Video in Russian shown in Russian original above).

I wanted to give my personal response to this video and the accusations included in it.

I must state that I am giving my own personal reaction and not the reaction of The Gideons International. I happen to be on the Board of the Polish Association, which means that I probably know more on the topic than a non-member might know, however ths is not the official opinion of the Polish chapter of The Gideons International either.

With this proviso, I would like to make the following points:

• To the best of my knowledge, our Association is not associated with nor beholden to any government department. We are a mission arm of the Church, funded by individual members, by individual Christians and by Churches giving gifts. We have no basis on which to need to carry out any instructions or pursue any policies set by any government, but only to the will of God as set out in the Bible. We do not pursue public funds and therefore are able to be completely independent.
  
  
• The membership of the Gideons consists of members of various Evangelical churches, but most of these Churches and therefore most of our members are adherents of the idea of separation of Church and State. Politics is also excluded from matters that may be discussed at Gideons Camp Meetings.
  
  
• We work with a large number Churches and are careful not to give preference to any particular Church or denomination in any place, and recommendations as to which Church to attend are therefore not included in our scripture editions. We take care to keep what is included to a bare minimum and only that which we could all agree on is necessary or helpful so that none of the Churches we work with could possibly be alienated by the content, or that the content should point in any direction other than the Word of God itself, and most specifically to the person and work of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
  
  
• Some people receiving one of our printed New Testaments may hold in his or her hand a portion of the Bible for the first time, or for the first time after a long lapse. It is of course possible to begin at the start and read through, or to begin from any random point. However, it has also been found to be worthwhile to add in the pages showing verses that can be good to meditate on when in various frames of mind. The states of mind and the scriptures given are broadly the same as those used by all manner of Christian organisations around the world and have not been regarded as controversial by our critics to date.

• These pages have been included in the Gideons New Testaments have been going on for a long time. For example the copy I received at school 38 years ago in England also has them. They were not seen as attempting to undermine our morale, our headmaster at the time even encouraged us to use these as a starting point in our reading of the New Testament. Neither is there as far as I know any difference between what is included in the versions of the New Testament and Psalms which are shown on the video with the ones in western countries. I use the same one you show in the video in my hotel for Russian-speaking guests whether they are from Russia, or Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova or other countries.
  
  
  
• On an individual level, Evangelical believers have tended to be more open-minded towards the Russian regime over the last thirty odd years than the average person in their countries, in my personal observation. This is because we witnessed the large-scale persecution of the various Churches during the Soviet period and in the post-Soviet period this has not been the case. On a personal note I know that we all prayed and I certainly prayed for this religious liberty in the former Soviet Union during the Soviet period. This was the main thing we wanted from Russia and really the only criticism we have of Russia. Many Evangelicals by my observation have noted a decline of freedoms in the West and some have ventured the opinion that Russia has become in many ways more Christian-friendly than our own countries.  I hope that this will continue and not that this video is indicative of a desire to return to the way things were under Soviet rule.

• We are sending the Word of God into a conflict zone not because we have any political interest in the conflict but because this may be the last chance for many participants to encounter the Gospel of Jesus Christ which can save their souls. People do die in armed conflicts, on both sides, and the Kingdom of God is for us a greater matter than any earthly kingdom or country. We see it as essential to the souls of men and women to come to know Jesus Christ from His own words while they yet have the chance to do so, and therefore we ask you not to set yourselves against the free passage of our scripture editions in the conflict zone.
  
  

Inflation is really just part of the same coin as the Great Resignation.

When you have a load of folk who can afford not to work, and want to sit back and live off what they accumulated to that point, then the economy experiences a slight “vacuum” in that these people’s work was there, the other molecules of the economy were used to them and the space or volume was available for them.

Nature, and the economy, abhor vacuums. So what happens? Less producers means less “stuff”, to use the terminology of the article, there’s more money than stuff, and so the stuff is the scarce resource and its price goes up.

This then means that those who have resigned from the workforce expecting their savings to carry them receive an inflationary challenge. The current players in the workforce have first dibs (usually, not always) at getting their salaries increased in some response (usually less, sometines even more) than inflation, as the employer is like “can’t lose Fred, he’s all we have left” and there may be reticence at killing the fatted calf for prodigals returning to the workplace, as the employer is not exactly the Father in Luke 15.

The Great Resigners then start to find their ranks withering as some rather sheepishly go back into employment with holes in their CVs and a learning curve ahead of them to recover and catch up their unutilised skills. Production is then able to recover, the economy rebalances. Everyone remembers when a pint of beer cost half what it does then, but they also remember earning half what they do at that future time.

Fossil fuels and other things are continually getting more scarce, we move towards peak this and peak that, but also the 8 billion people we are about to hit later this year might also prove to be peak human. Everything in the end comes back into balance.

Flexibility and keeping at it are the core of resilience. Great Resigning is neither the one nor the other.

Nie Z Tej Bajki” in Warsaw established 2 years ago the first vocational school for autistic young people in Poland. We plan to a training apartment to the School from next September. We have been granted a favorable lease right near the School. However, renovating this will require a large financial commitment.

The parents alone can’t do it without your help. Please use the bank details in the letter and kindly help. The information will enable you to help from Poland or from abroad.

Many thanks in anticipation of your support.

Prosba o wsparcie osób z autyzmem Nie z tej bajki- mieszkanie

Let us do a small thought experiment.

Let’s imagine that the meat and dairy industries are cancelled, that everyone is convinced of the vegan arguments. Which of the following scenarios is then more likely?

a) the fields where the pastures for cattle were are allowed to continue as pastures full of natural biodiversity, with cover for birds and butterflies and wild flowers of all sorts have their haven there, grazed by cattle who now live until they are 22 years old, and die natral deaths, unbothered by humans. The original aurochs gradually reappears because the races of cattle interbreed and these majestic buffalo like beasts are viewed in huge herds at a distance by our great grandchildren. Occasionally we grow a field of crops on a field naturally fertilised by their natural grazing activities.

or

b) since we cannot use the cattle we don’t keep them and cattle as well as other farm animals with the possible exception of ducks and geese are threatened with extinction. We use the pasture land which has no sense without animals on it for crops (food or energy) and since these are monocultures it stresses to extinction several species of bird, many plants and insects which only survived till now because we had pasture for meat and dairy industries. Organic farming has no sense as there are no animals to provide the dung, so we keep on using agrochemicals and reach peak phosphorus and peak potassium faster. There is then a massive famine during which two to three billions simply starve to death, and a further several million from diseases aggravated by malnutrition, or food wars.

I you answered A, I may say you’re a dreamer, and by far and away not the only one. And that, for now, is a very big problem.

Certainly Bible prophecy shows a vegan or at least vegetarian heaven – Jesus ate fish after the resurrection so probably that is still going to take place – but we are not equipped for that now any more than we can run and not be weary, or walk through locked doors, or fly up into the sky by our own mere volition. These things go hand in hand and we need to wait for them, if we are looking for them as believing Christians.

For now the task is to use the animals but to treat them as well as we can, to increase the standard of care for each species, to take te reforms made in this direction over the last 25 years as a good start, and build on them.

We are also going to have to address the population issue, as there is not any answer to the issue of agriculture and the limit on yields other than the control of population.

The “solution” of taking animals out is not a solution when they are on land not classed as arable. We cannot eat wild grasses or scrub. A goat eats the scrub, we milk the goat. That’s how we do it.

The nineteenth century was all about obtaining more and more farmed land. In the twentieth century we had to slow that process right down as a limit was reached on how much forest we can take and still have a future.

The twentieth century was all about mechanisation, innovation, agrochemicals, management methods, new varities like Borlaug’s dwarf wheat or cattle with hyperplasia.

Welcome to the C21st, where we are now relatively out of ideas, out of somewhere to go to keep food production ahead of the curve in population. So the only thing left to do is to work on the popuation. And with that comes a lot of Government intervention, probably very unwelcome Government intervention.