The Mind Renewed : Thinking Christianly in a New World Order

For the 11th of our TMR Movie Roundtables we welcome back our good friends Mark Campbell, Frank Johnson and Antony Rotunno for a four-way discussion on the 1973 eco-dystopian thriller movie Soylent Green, starring Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young and Edward G Robinson, directed by Richard Fleischer. By 2022, the processes of industrialisation and consumerism have depleted the world's natural respources and led to extreme global warming, overpopulation and severe food shortages. To meet demand, the Soylent Corporation—a massive, government-connected enterprise supplying countless millions—has developed subsistence foodstuffs in the form of highly processed wafers known as Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow. But now, the inhabitants of New York City (numbering around 40,000,000) can look forward to a new product: Soylent Green, a highly nutritious wafer ostensibly made from plankton. But not all is as it seems, as detective Richard Thorn (Charlton Heston) and his researcher Sol Roth (Edward G Robinson) discover as they investigate the assassination of an influential board member of the Corporation. Soylent Green, it turns out, isn't quite as advertised. "Soylent Green is ******!" (Just in case you haven't seen it yet). Joins us as we discuss the film's production and storyline and consider some of its messages in relation to the real world of 2022. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

"They are not really in control. We have an illusion of democracy in this country. If you think Boris is the one making the decisions, if you think that Liz Truss is going to be the one making the decisions for this country, then I'm afraid you're completely out of touch with reality."—Matt Le Tissier We welcome to the programme the football legend Matt Le Tissier, who joins us to talk about his experience of speaking out against aspects of the UK government's response to the so-called "pandemic" during the last two and a half years, and to share with us about his ongoing efforts to persuade footballing authorities to investigate the cause(s) of—what he believes to be—the worrying rise in cardiac-related events among fellow footballers. We also chat about his remarkabale career, the reasons why he has earned the affectionate nickname "Le God", and I get schooled in some of the basics about The Beautiful Game. Throughout his professional club career Matt Le Tissier played for Southampton Football Club. Affectionately dubbed "Le God" and a footballing "geniius" by adoring Southampton fans for his creative and techincal brilliance as an attacking midfielder, Le Tissier became the first footballer to score one hundred goals in the Premier League, won eight "caps" for England, and is listed by UEFA as one of the top penalty scorers of all time. After retiring from the game, Le Tissier turned to broadcasting, and for fifteen years he regularly appeared on the Sky Sports programme "Soccer Saturday" until August 2020. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

We welcome back our good friend Antony Rotunno—host of Life and Life Only podcast— for a conversation on the BBC's recent self-styled "documentary" entitled "Unvaccinated". The programme was billed as an "eye-opening investigation" hosted by mathematician and British TV personality Professor Hannah Fry, the aim of which (according to the BBC) was to understand why a significant proportion of the UK population has decided to remain "unvaccinated against covid-19". "To fully explore" (sic) the "complex and deeply divisive debate" (again, according to the BBC), Hannah Fry (or the BBC) invited seven covid-19-injection-free participants to share a house with her for several days (or part days?) in order to "unpack long-held opinions, beliefs and fears", "meet leading experts", "confront the latest science and statistics" and "dissect how misinformation spreads on social media"—all in anticipation of a final question: Would they change their minds and "take up the vaccine"? Instead we were treated to a tendentious and patronising piece of establishment propaganda that -- while it could have been a lot worse, and was admittedly entertaining and engaging -- was essentially aimed at reinforcing the collapsing covid narrative. Join us as we discuss the "documentary" and dissect its subtle—though, more often, not so subtle—use of propaganda techniques. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

"He closed your church, and you've fallen asleep the moment you've returned."—Steve Buckley We welcome to the programme Pastor Stephen Buckley, leader of My King Church in Greater Manchester UK, for an interview as part of the ongoing conversation here at TMR called: "Following Christ in the New Old Normal." In the first conversation, with Rev Phill Sacre, we discussed the importance of "awakeness" rather than "sleep" in the church and beyond in the post-covid era. In this second conversation (an interview), Pastor Stephen Buckley shares with us his perspective on the last two and a half years, interpreting the response of so many churches in terms of God's constructive judgement upon the churches themselves. As Pastor Buckley explains, this biblical-theological perspective—which sees God as ultimately sovereign over all events—allows us to ask tough questions of ourselves that we might otherwise never ask: What was God saying to us? Where have we gone wrong? And how should we move forward in Christ in the days ahead? Born on the mission field in Asia, Stephen grew up in a family of teachers and preachers. He has previously been part of church-planting leadership and is presently pastor of My King Church in Greater Manchester where he resides with his wife and three children. Learn more at MyKing.com. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

"The stakes could not be higher, and it has never been more essential to seriously engage with uncomfortable possibilities – even if that means interrogating explanations that move beyond reducing what we are all experiencing to blunder and incompetence."—Dr Piers Robinson We welcome to the programme Dr Piers Robinson—co-director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies—for an in-depth interview on his recent article: "Cock-up or Conspiracy? Understanding COVID-19 as a ‘Structural Deep Event’ ". As debate over "The Science" has intensified, increasing numbers of people are coming to question the Covid-19 Event. What best explains the often bizarre, and sometimes frightening, responses by authorities over the last two and a half years? Irrational panic by well-intentioned but incompetent politicians and health experts? Profiteering and power seeking by corporate and political vested interests? Or might we be looking at something more—a "structural deep event"—in which globally powerful actors might have harnessed (or even instigated) the Covid-19 Event in order to drive deep structural changes in society? Arguing that all possible explanations need to remain firmly on the table, Dr Robinson appeals to all thinking people to ask such difficult and uncomfortable questions, because to understand the past and the present is to guard the future and "the stakes could not be higher". Dr Piers Robinson is a co-director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies and was Chair/Professor in Politics, Society and Political Journalism, University of Sheffield, 2016-2019, Senior Lecturer in International Politics (University of Manchester 2010-2016) and Lecturer in Political Communication (University of Liverpool, 1999-2005). He researches and writes on propaganda, media, international politics and conflict. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

We are joined once again by Rev Phill Sacre—an ordained minister in the Church of England and host of the YouTube channel "Sacred Musings"—for an unstructured and thought-provoking conversation on the subject: "Following Christ in the New Old Normal". Many are saying "it's all over." We can "just move on." Put it all behind us and get back to the "Old Normal." But is any of that wise, or true? Can we really be confident—after two years of mass manipulation, grotesque profiteering and technocractic power grab—that the darkness we witnessed, just months ago, is really "all over"? And would it be right simply to "move on" and forget the lessons of the Covid Era? Indeed, why would we want to relive the exact Old Normal anyway? Join us as we discuss what it might mean to follow Christ in the "New Old Normal" and how we might live out and encourage "awakeness" rather than "sleep" in the church and beyond. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

For the second interview in our short series on the Ukraine Crisis—the first of which was with Dr Paul Craig Roberts—we are once again joined by the lawyer, writer and university lecturer Adeyinka Makinde, who has appeared on the programme several times in the past to speak on geopolitcal matters. In this in-depth interview, recorded on 8 April 2022, Adeyinka Makinde draws upon his considerable knowledge and understanding of military history and international relations to share with us his perspective on the historical, political and geographical conditions that he argues have led to the current Crisis. Adeyinka Makinde trained for the law as a barrister. He lectures in criminal law and public law at a university in London, and has an academic research interest in intelligence & security matters. He is a contributor to a number of websites for which he has written essays and commentaries on international relations, politics and military history. He has served as a programme consultant and provided expert commentary for BBC World Service Radio, China Radio International and the Voice of Russia. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

"Lies are being turned into truth, and fiction is being turned into fact."—PCR We are joined once again by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, former US Assistant Secretary to the Treasury for Economic Policy, for an in-depth interview on the current Ukraine Crisis. In this conversation, recorded on 22 March 2022, Dr Roberts shares with us his perspective on the ongoing Crisis, setting the tragic events in their historical, geographical and political contexts. "In addition to having held numerous senior academic positions in universities, Dr. Roberts was an associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and was appointed by US President Reagan as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during Reagan's first term in office, following which he served as a consultant to both the US Department of Defense and the US Department of Commerce. Dr. Roberts is now the Chairman of the The Institute for Political Economy." [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

"What we have is a series of images of a pseudo-world, which combine in the mind of the individual to create a worldview detached from actuality."—Colin Alexander We are joined by Dr Colin Alexander, Senior Lecturer in Political Communications at Nottingham Trent University, for a detailed conversation on the UK government's use of British wartime-style propaganda during (particularly the early days of) the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, Dr Alexander published a short video entitled "Coronavirus and the British Wartime Propaganda Playbook"—as part of a series of pieces on propaganda during the pandemic—and it is that presentation which serves as the springboard for our conversation today. "Dr Colin Alexander is Senior Lecturer in Political Communications within the School of Arts and Humanities. He works in Communication and Society subject team and contributes teaching to the BA Joint Honours Humanities, BA Media Communication and Culture and the MA Media and Globalisation degree programmes." [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

"We cannot trust the system, we cannot trust them with our children, we cannot trust them with our money..."—Henry Hildebrandt We welcome to the programme the inspirational Pastor Henry Hildebrandt of The Church of God, Ontario, who joins us to discuss the recent Canadian Truckers' Protest and to share with us his extraordinary experience of having been intimately involved with the convoy in Ottawa for three weeks, pastoring, preaching and praying for protesters and police alike. After explaining what triggered the protest, Pastor Hildebrandt draws upon his "boots-on-the-ground" experience to describe what happened both before and after Justin Trudeau inappropriately invoked the Canadian Emergencies Act. He also shares with us the amazing ways in which God was at work during those few weeks to bring people together in a spirit of fellowship and close co-operation, and spells out the crucial lessons that we all must learn from what he describes as God's victory in that situation. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

"We swim in a sea of assumptions we are largely unaware of."—David Charalambous Do you find that some people are no longer paying attention to facts? Or not listening to reason? Are conversations just getting "shut down" almost before they start? We are joined by David Charalambous, founder of The Reaching People Project, for a conversation on the aims and objectives of this important new project, and to gain some insights into the ways in which this project might help us all to communicate with people in these increasingly polarised times. David Charalambous is the founder of Reaching People. He has a background of 25 years consulting to multinational clients, from regular mums and dads, through athletes, to business leaders. His skills, which include NLP, EFT, General Semantics, System Theory, Process Mapping, Dynamics and Communication, have enabled him to build models of communication with which he has had much success in helping people over the years.—(Adapted from Reaching People Project) [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

"I think society is pretty lost right now. And maybe, just maybe, my story can set one or two of us on a better path."—Cory Zue We are joined by the software developer and entrepreneur Cory Zue for a conversation on his now well-known essay, "Coming Clean : My experience of the pandemic in South Africa and the case for a more inclusive conversation about Covid and vaccines". The essay, which—if you will excuse the pun—quickly "went viral" after it was published on his blog on 4th January 2022, struck a chord with people—not least because it seemed to connect (in broad terms) with the experience of so many, but also because of its balance, its openness and its well-researched nature. So, join us as we explore Cory's reasoning and personal experience as documented in the essay. "Hi, I'm Cory. I'm a software developer and entrepreneur. I also write occasionally. These days I mostly work on SaaS Pegasus: the Django SaaS boilerplate. I also made Place Card Me—what I hope is the best way to make printable place cards on the internet. My website originated during a six-month sabbatical I took from my day job where I tried to launch a profitable product. I also write occasionally about building software. Oh, and I'm a one-man open startup. From 2007-2017 I served as CTO of Dimagi and led the team that builds its flagship product: CommCare. I'm now an advisor to the organization."—Cory Zue [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

Would you be professionally offended by a fake arm? How many nuts, bolts and screws can you swallow after a gin and tonic? Might parachutes and armrests save the world from climate change? And will Frank Johnson raise enough cash through this evening's kickstarter to fund his skientific research project to discover the SARS-CoV-2 Omega Variant so as to end the "pandemic"? These (and other vitally important questions) are answered as we kick off 2022 here at TMR with our annual New Year's Eve show—a crazy roundtable chat with high-ranking members of The Fireside Nephilim Chaps, the secret society affiliated to The Mind Renewed, Like Flint Radio and The Iron Show. Join us—GK and Crusy (Like Flint Radio), Johnny Iron (The Iron Show), Jenifer Thyssen (classical singer), Frank Johnson (Omega Variant skientist), Jeff Bankens (short-wave strongman), The Right Honourable Boris Johnson, MP (the UK's so-called "Prime Minister") and Yours Truly—as we put aside the cares of this world for a little under an hour and chat our socks off in aid of Frank's latest skientific research. Be there, or be square. (And don't forget: "There was no party.") [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

“I’m drawing a line in the sand and showing my face for what I believe is right. I’m Standing with the intention to show enough is enough.”—Brady Gunn, Founder of ASITP As many of you know, each Sunday morning I take part in "A Stand in the Park" in a nearby town here in Lancashire. Over the months I have been attending, I have found the experience very encouraging, not least because it has been great to talk to people who have similar (not identical) concerns about the way the world seems to be going, particularly since the so-called "pandemic". So, I thought it would be good to share something of that experience with TMR listeners—in the form of an "audio diary" (which I've done before)—just to give a sense of the atmosphere of the Stands and to give an idea of the kinds of conversation that can take place. So, please do join me—and my gracious friends at the Stand, who kindly agreed to speak for this recording—and consider it an encouragement to check out your local Stand (if there is one) and perhaps make it part of your own Sunday routine. [For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com]

“We do not talk to say something, but to obtain a certain effect.”—Joseph Goebbels We are joined by our doubleplusgood friend Antony Rotunno for a relaxed, unstructured--and fullwise informative--conversation on "Propaganda in the COVID Era". Rabbit. Custard. Over the last two years (almost), we have been intimidated, cajoled, guilt-tripped and "nudged" (oh, what a cute word!) by the social engineers of Ingsoc. Where's your mother? Goodthinking behavioural psychologists, bellyfeeling mathematical epidemiologists, newspeaking media propagandists (and many other duckspeaking "ists" besides) have conspired to prod us out of our doubleplusungood ownlives into accepting so-called "non-pharmaceutical interventions" and "safe and effective" novel gene therapies in an ostensible "war" against a non-existentially threatening respiratory virus of dubious origin. Rudolph, can't see you now? Biscuits! Marigold? Fuzz, fuzz, fuzz. So join us as we attempt to dissect—with some oldthinking help from Jacques Ellul—aspects of the "invisible government" of "experts", "nudgers", "partnerships", "initiatives" and other plusgood organs of Ingsoc's "inverted totalitarian" underbelly. For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com

For the 10th of our TMR Movie Roundtables we welcome back our good friends Mark Campbell, Frank Johnson and Antony Rotunno for a four-way discussion on the 1978 conspiracy thriller, Capricorn One, starring Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Branda Vaccaro and Hal Holbrook, written and directed by Peter Hyams. About to embark upon the first crewed mission to Mars, three NASA astronauts (played by James Brolin, Sam Waterston and OJ Simpson) find themselves suddenly removed from their command module, minutes before lift-off, and flown to a secret desert base. There they learn of an outrageous plan, hatched by establishment conspirators, to fake the Mars landing using a TV studio, props and themselves as actors—a deception in which they are forced to be complicit. Picking up on the trail of the conspiracy is news reporter Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould), who goes further and further down the proverbial Rabbit Hole as tries to make sense of the increasing anomalies. But not all goes well—(or, perhaps, not all seems to go well)—with the plan. Upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, the astronauts' (crewless) module breaks up. Now, they are officially dead—their existence a threat to the lying narrative. Their only hope is to escape and reveal the plot to an incredulous world. Join us as we discuss the film's production, ponder its the "conspiracy" themes, and ask the question: Did "we" really go to the Moon? [Podcast theme music: "Crabs Up North" by KODOMASAN from the album "Capricorn One"; used with kind permission] For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com

"No one has been given or will be required to have a vaccine passport"—Nadhim Zahawi We are joined once again by Rev Phill Sacre—an ordained minister in the Church of England and host of the YouTube channel "Sacred Musings : Making Sense of the World from a Christian Perspective"—for a second conversation on the theme of "COVID and the Churches". In the previous conversation—TMR 267 (Part One)—we discussed the relationship between the UK churches (by and large) and the state during the so-called "pandemic", and asked to what extent the churches have been willing to critique (with reference to Scripture) the seemingly endless stream of diktats issuing from government. In this second conversation we venture into more controversial territory and discuss issues relating to the churches and Vaccine Passports, COVID-19 vaccination policy, and the perennial question: Is this the End? [Please note that nothing said in this interview should be understood as medical advice in any way.] "Phill is a Christian minister. He is ordained in the Church of England and serves on a part-time basis in a parish on the Essex coast. The remainder of his time he devotes to his online ministries: Understand the Bible and Sacred Musings : Making Sense of the World from a Christian Perspective (on YouTube)." [Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).] For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com

“Let one version come out, then another, then another. Let the public pick and choose. Nothing stinks more... than the classic seamless narrative.”—A Legacy of Chains We welcome back the author Philip Kraske—who joined us in 2019 to discuss his novel, 11/9 and the Terrorist Who Loved Bonsai Trees—for a discussion about his latest book, A Legacy of Chains and Other Stories, a novella plus six shorter stories that "range from the personal to the political, from the comic to the dramatic". In the novella, A Legacy of Chains, Kraske engages imaginatively with the issue of American POWs allegedly left behind in Vietnam after the Vietnam War, and crafts a vivid tale of nine American servicemen—now in their sixties and seventies—who turn up on the south coast of Spain having escaped from Vietnam after decades in captivity. By way of contrast in the short stories—"The Rainmaker", "Pioneer Woman", "Shoccer", "Alan the Newsboy", "Pirates" and "Exposures"—Kraske explores subjects as diverse as soccer, blackmail, poinsettia theft, and the imagined back-room planning for the "Raid" on Osama bin Laden's "compound" in Pakistan. Join us as we discuss a few of the more "conspiratorial" aspects of the stories and consider some of the historical claims that underpin the fiction. [Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).] For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com

“I’m drawing a line in the sand and showing my face for what I believe is right. I’m Standing with the intention to show enough is enough.”—Brady Gunn, Founder We are joined by Sophia Rose ("FiFi"), the founder of A Stand In The Park (UK), for a conversation on the history and aims of this difficult-to-define, but hugely important, global movement of concerned citizens. "A Stand in the Park unites people in parks all over the world every Sunday morning, 10 - 11 am local time. We Stand in the Park to celebrate freedom, diversity and fairness for all. Brady Gunn started A Stand in the Park in Hyde Park, Sydney, Australia. Brady made a Stand, alone at first, for his personal truth. In Brady’s early Facebook videos he talked about making a Stand for freedom—for our elderly, our children, our jobs and small businesses—against lockdowns, harmful new laws, the ‘pandemic’ and the people behind ‘The Great Reset’. Brady invited others to join him and Stand in THEIR personal truth. It took almost three months, but eventually they came. At the beginning of 2021 he reconnected with his UK-based friend FiFi Rose, and she was profoundly inspired by the message. FiFi worked tirelessly to spread the Stands to every corner of the British Isles. Since then, the concept has well and truly caught fire, and there are now about 1000 parks participating every Sunday morning across Australia, New Zealand, England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, Denmark, Hungary, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Germany, France, Mexico, Canada and the USA." [Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).] For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com

We are joined by the author Diny Fielder-van Kleeff, co-founder of the Vaccine Control Group—or, more fully, the SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Control Group—for an in-depth interview on the aims and objectives of this intriguiging and potentially highly significant "community cooperative" study. "The Vaccine Control Group is a worldwide independent long-term study that is seeking to provide a baseline of data from unvaccinated individuals for comparative analysis with the vaccinated population, to evaluate the success of the Covid-19 mass vaccination programme and assist future research projects. This study is not, and will never be, associated with any pharmaceutical enterprise as its impartiality is of paramount importance. The VaxControlGroup is a community cooperative, for the people. All monies raised will be re-invested into the project and its community."—VaxControlGroup "Diny previously worked as a corporate IT trainer and web designer before leaving to have children. She is currently a home-educating mum to two of her three daughters and a creative writing teacher, author and poet, although most of her writing work has been put on hold due to the commitments of the Control Group."—Diny [Podcast theme music by Antony Raijekov (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).] For show notes please visit https://themindrenewed.com