Just finished Brian McLaren's book Everything Must Change. McLaren is one of my new favorite Christian thinkers. His books make me excited to be a Christian again. McLaren has a chapter in this book on 'Theocapitalism'. A really interesting topic of how we have turned our monetary system into our God. He goes on to list a new set of spiritual laws in this theocampitalistic society. Provocative! Go read it.
He's not as quotable as Wendell Berry but he uses incredible quotes from others. Here is one of his, and one he quotes.
“But this insurgency can never use the weapons of the occupying regime; otherwise, it simply becomes another manifestation of it. So it is a merciful insurgency, a wisdom insurgency, a hope insurgency, a generous insurgency, a courage insurgency, a compassion insurgency, a faith insurgency, a peace insurgency.” p. 129
“Only a fraction of our sins are personal. By far the greater part are sins of neglect, sins of default, our social sin, our systemic sin, our economic sin. For these sins Christ died, and continues to die. For these sins Christ atoned, and continues to atone.... As long as evangelism presents a gospel centered on the need for personal salvation, individuals will acquire a faith that focuses on maximum benefits with minimal obligations, and we will change the costly work of Christ’s atonement into the pragmatic transaction of a salvific contract.... The sanctifying grace of God in Jesus Christ is meant not just for the sinner but also for a society beset by structural sin.” -David Lowes Watson and Douglas Meeks
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wenell Berry: Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community.
Here are some quotes from the book. Berry is an incredible writer; everything he writes down is so profound. Go out and get yer self a book!
Sex, economy, freedom and community:
p. 23 “In order to make ecological good sense for the planet, you must make ecological good sense locally. You can’t act locally by thinking globally.”
p. 40 “In a healthy community, people will be richer in their neighbors, in neighborhood, in the health and pleasure of neighborhood, than in their bank accounts. It is better, therefore, even if the cost is greater, to buy near at hand than to buy at a distance. It is better to buy from a small, privately owned local store than from a chain store. It is better to buy a good product than a bad one... do every thing you can to see that your money stays as long as possible in the local community.”
p. 77 “Freedom, of course, requires diversity of opinion. It not only tolerates political dissent but encourages and depends on it.”
p. 85 “But why God might particularly favor a nation whose economy is founded foursquare on the seven deadly sins is a mystery that has not been explained.”
p. 92 “Finally, if we want to be at peace, we will have to waste less, spend less, use less, want less, need less. The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and less wasteful.”
p. 99 “How can modern Christianity have so solemnly folded its hands while so much of the work of God was and is being destroyed?”
p. 104 “By denying spirit and truth to the nonhuman Creation, modern proponents of religion have legitimized a form of blasphemy without which the nature- and culture-destroying machinery of the industrial economy could not have been built--that is, they have legitimized bad work. Good human work honors God’s work. Good work uses no thing without respect, both for what it is in itself and for its origin.”
“This is blasphemy: to make shoddy work of the work of God. But such blasphemy is not possible when the entire Creation is understood as holy and when the works of God are understood as embodying and thus revealing His spirit. In the Bible we find none of the industrialist’s contempt or hatred for nature. We find, instead, a poetry of awe and reverence and profound cherishing...”
p. 115 “ Less is said of the Gospels’ bad news, which is that Jesus would have been horrified by just about every “Christian” government the world has ever seen. He would be horrified by our government and its works, and it would be horrified by him.”
p. 124 “The public political voice has become increasingly the voice of a conscious and self-serving duplicity: it is now, for instance, merely typical that a political leader can speak of ‘the preciousness of all life’ while armed for the annihilation of all life.”
p. 133 “The triumph of the industrial economy is the fall of community. But the fall of community reveals how precious and how necessary community is. For when community falls, so must fall all the things that only community life can engender and protect: the care of the old, the care and education of children, family life, neighborly work, the handing down of memory, the care of the earth, respect for nature and the lives of wild creatures.”
p. 143 “The basis of community sexuality is respect for everything that is involved--and respect, here as everywhere, implies discipline. By their common principles of extravagance and undisciplined freedom, our public economy and our public sexuality are exploiting and spending oral capital built up by centuries of community life--exactly as industrial agriculture has been exploiting and spending the natural capital built up over thousands of years in the soil.”
Sex, economy, freedom and community:
p. 23 “In order to make ecological good sense for the planet, you must make ecological good sense locally. You can’t act locally by thinking globally.”
p. 40 “In a healthy community, people will be richer in their neighbors, in neighborhood, in the health and pleasure of neighborhood, than in their bank accounts. It is better, therefore, even if the cost is greater, to buy near at hand than to buy at a distance. It is better to buy from a small, privately owned local store than from a chain store. It is better to buy a good product than a bad one... do every thing you can to see that your money stays as long as possible in the local community.”
p. 77 “Freedom, of course, requires diversity of opinion. It not only tolerates political dissent but encourages and depends on it.”
p. 85 “But why God might particularly favor a nation whose economy is founded foursquare on the seven deadly sins is a mystery that has not been explained.”
p. 92 “Finally, if we want to be at peace, we will have to waste less, spend less, use less, want less, need less. The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and less wasteful.”
p. 99 “How can modern Christianity have so solemnly folded its hands while so much of the work of God was and is being destroyed?”
p. 104 “By denying spirit and truth to the nonhuman Creation, modern proponents of religion have legitimized a form of blasphemy without which the nature- and culture-destroying machinery of the industrial economy could not have been built--that is, they have legitimized bad work. Good human work honors God’s work. Good work uses no thing without respect, both for what it is in itself and for its origin.”
“This is blasphemy: to make shoddy work of the work of God. But such blasphemy is not possible when the entire Creation is understood as holy and when the works of God are understood as embodying and thus revealing His spirit. In the Bible we find none of the industrialist’s contempt or hatred for nature. We find, instead, a poetry of awe and reverence and profound cherishing...”
p. 115 “ Less is said of the Gospels’ bad news, which is that Jesus would have been horrified by just about every “Christian” government the world has ever seen. He would be horrified by our government and its works, and it would be horrified by him.”
p. 124 “The public political voice has become increasingly the voice of a conscious and self-serving duplicity: it is now, for instance, merely typical that a political leader can speak of ‘the preciousness of all life’ while armed for the annihilation of all life.”
p. 133 “The triumph of the industrial economy is the fall of community. But the fall of community reveals how precious and how necessary community is. For when community falls, so must fall all the things that only community life can engender and protect: the care of the old, the care and education of children, family life, neighborly work, the handing down of memory, the care of the earth, respect for nature and the lives of wild creatures.”
p. 143 “The basis of community sexuality is respect for everything that is involved--and respect, here as everywhere, implies discipline. By their common principles of extravagance and undisciplined freedom, our public economy and our public sexuality are exploiting and spending oral capital built up by centuries of community life--exactly as industrial agriculture has been exploiting and spending the natural capital built up over thousands of years in the soil.”
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