Monday, April 03, 2006
Quote for the day
“Listen carefully to most children’s sermons, and the gospel you hear proclaimed is ‘God is nice. You should be nice, too.’ To which the clever child should respond, ‘Let me get this straight. Jesus was crucified for saying that God is nice and we can be, too?’ … Imagine the extreme makeover this would give Isaiah’s vision of God: ‘…I saw the Lord sitting on a lawn chair, close and friendly; and the emblem of his ballcap said Chicago Cubs. Seraphs called to one another and said: ‘Nice, nice, nice is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his niceness’’ (Isaiah 6:1-3, altered a little).” — D. Stephen Long, “God is Not Nice” in God is Not...Religious, Nice, "One of Us," An American, A Capitalist
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2 comments:
I've said to friends suffering from the Care Bear God Syndrome, "God is good; He is not always nice." That gets them thinking (at least that ones that let themselves think anymore).
I can't stand that whole "nice" thing either. The New Testament is a record of offenses against the status quo.
"Care Bear God Syndrome" — I had never heard it put that way before. It is a very good description.
The whole book is full of good articles about how we have made God over in our image. Definitely worth the read. I read it about a year ago, and this and another quote popped into my head the other day. Thought I would share them.
James
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