Lonnie worked yesterday, Christmas. Here's his thoughts, with which I can't argue:
I am working this Christmas. I'm looking forward to it. Why would I, a professing Christian, be glad I am working instead of being where I OUGHT to be? First off I have a job! I am very happy and thankful to have a job this year. But of greatest importance: I'm a Christian. Who else, besides a Christian, do you want folks to meet? Do you want a pissy atheist to face the harried, tired, hurting, lonely and stressed Christmas shopper? Who else is going to give folks "Good will toward mankind?" I'm keeping Christmas by allowing the Holy Spirit to show God's good will toward the corner of the world he's put me in.
Meanwhile, Peter Kirk references a BioLogos discussion that has this interesting comment:
Totalizers use their classrooms to preach that if all people are perfectly rational they will all ultimately agree. Usually there is some sort of declaration that the progress of knowledge has one glorious end: light and magnetism will be understood, democracy and capitalism will prove to be the best systems for all situations, and natural selection will answer all questions about life. All rational people ride one train of progress together. Tentative Investigators, in comparison, are wimpy. Ask them a question and they give you at least two answers joined by “on the other hand.” The Totalizers are the more popular teachers, their books are easier to read, and the news media finds them easier to interview. Tentative Investigators are like cats. They can’t be herded and can rest easy in the midst of household chaos.
To which Peter adds, “While it would be too strong to accuse all Totalizers of being fundamentalists – and indeed some Christian Totalizers have quite different doctrines from Christian fundamentalists but similar attitudes – it is this assertion of certainty that one is correct and arrogant dismissal of other opinions that underlies fundamentalisms of all kinds.” What more can one say? He's right on the money there.
And Peter Leithart has this observation from Wendell Berry about modern christianity.
Despite its protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly the religion of the state and the economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into Heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for the most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flag and chanted the slogans of empire. It has assumed with the economists that ‘economic forces’ automatically work for good and has assumed with the industrialists and militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that ‘progress’ is good, that it is good to be modern and up with the times. It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and defaults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.
As always, do take the time to read the entire post on all of these in order to get the context.
No comments:
Post a Comment