I’m thinking that the most important thing is to know where to take guilt. “Oh, I’m much worse than you think, worse than you accuse me of being. But I’m not depending on my own righteousness for my self-worth, and I’m not depending on my own strength to change. Is there anything else you’ve noticed about me that I should be aware of?” But it’s also important to discern when I need to repent and when the other person is mistaken.
Month: January 2007
Strawberry blond boy
My first child, a son, has been born. God is to be praised.
All of us are artists
It is impossible to see how good work might be accomplished by people who think that our life in this world either signifies nothing or has only a negative significance…. If it is true that we are living souls and morally free, then all of us are artists. All of us makers, within mortal terms and limits, of our lives, of one another’s lives, of things we need and use.
— Wendell Berry, Christianity and The Survival of Creation
The case against politeness
When I say something, my goal should be to communicate. I should try to understand how my message will be received by the person I’m communicating with. The fact that they may not understand it should affect how I communicate my message. The fact that they do not receive it might affect how I communicate my message. But the fact that they may not like it should not affect my message itself. Continue reading “The case against politeness”
Industrialized blasphemy
To work without pleasure or affection, to make a product that is not both useful and beautiful, is to dishonor God, nature, the thing that is made, and whomever it is made for. This is blasphemy: to make shoddy work of the work of God.
— Wendell Berry, Christianity and The Survival of Creation
Spiritual neutrality
Another unstated but commonly believed heresy could be called spiritual neutrality. This doctrine says that the devil hates believers but rarely attacks them. Continue reading “Spiritual neutrality”
My house is God’s house
Christians are encouraged from childhood to think of the church building as “God’s house,” and most of them could think of their houses or farms or shops or factories as holy places only with great effort and embarrassment. It is understandably difficult for modern Americans to think of their dwellings and workplaces as holy, because most of these are, in fact, places of desecration, deeply involved in the ruin of Creation.
— Wendell Berry, Christianity and The Survival of Creation
I wish I were wrong.
Pro-abortionists like to taunt pro-lifers for being so sure of ourselves. But one of the most convincing things about our side, actually, is that we wish we were wrong. Continue reading “I wish I were wrong.”
Abortion is a guy thing
Why would we believe that women naturally kill their own children? Instead, throughout the history of the world, abortion and infanticide have been traditional tools for male exploitation of women. It’s simple. A guy gets a woman pregnant, then he wants to get rid of the evidence and responsibility. Continue reading “Abortion is a guy thing”