The following “goes without saying” – until I change my mind, at least.
- All these things which are going on now, as well as all subsequent things, God will come with His broom and sweep them away in a manner known to Him. So, don’t worry. Let us commend ourselves and each other and all our lives unto Christ our God. (Elder Epiphanios)
- Some fundamentals that we easily overlook:
- The love of God that has been poured out to us in Christ Jesus is so strong that no conceivable hardship can separate us from that love. (Romans 8: 35-39)
- Everything that happens to us is organized by Divine Love for our benefit, even if we can’t understand how. (Romans 8:28; Matthew 10:29-31)
- In response to this love, we are commanded to replace anxious thoughts with a moment-by-moment awareness of all that is lovely, noble and good. (Philippians 4:6-8; 2 Thessalonians 5:16-18; Luke 12:29)
- Repent. Acts 2:38. This is ongoing advice. You don’t repent just once.
- To be deep in history is to cease being Protestant.
- You cannot comprehend God. If your religion “makes perfect sense,” it’s almost certainly heretical.
- Lex orandi, lex credendi.
- Culture normalizes (which is a sort of variant on lex orandi …)
Economics
- “The consumer society is in fact the most efficient mechanism ever devised for the creation and distribution of unhappiness.” Lord Jonathon Sacks, chief rabbi of Great Britain.
- If it’s “too big to fail,” break it up into harmless little pieces.
Church and State
- “The designation of the religious and the political is itself a political act.” (William T. Cavanaugh)
- “Put not your trust in princes, in sons of men in whom there is no salvation.” Psalm 146:3.
- American Exceptionalism is bad politics and, worse, bad theology.
- Culture war ≠ spiritual warfare.
- “It’s a complete absurdity to believe that Christians will suffer a single thing from the expansion of gay rights, and boy, do they deserve what they’re going to get.” (The Law of Merited Impossibility, discovered by Rod Dreher)
- At some point, conservatives within the churches will realize that when liberals call for “dialogue,” what they really mean is “we talk until you give us what we want.” (Rod Dreher)
The Culture
- “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd.” (Flannery O’Connor)
- Sex is Optional.
- “One law for the ox and the lion is oppression.” (William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)
- There is no “it” that “can’t happen here.”
- Turn off the damned television set. It’s trying to make you vulgar and broke. It’s trying to steal your children’s souls. TV “news” makes you neurotic.
- Beware the ménage à trois of American utilitarianism, individual rights, and a deficient interpretation of Christian love.
- If Huxley is right, sexual freedom is the Last Freedom, the one that remains when all others are taken away.
You can consider it part of every blog.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 