Today’s Quote 5/24/09

“Before you can ever make a clean and unamended confession of your sin, you have to first begin by confessing your righteousness. It’s not just your sin that separates you from God; your righteousness does as well. Because, when you are convinced you are righteous, you don’t seek the forgiving, rescuing, and restoring mercy that can be found only in Jesus Christ.”

- Paul David Tripp,

Forget those multi-purpose worship centers!!!

Here’s my version of our church’s new worship center.Think the Board will approve?

Is capitalism just another rationalization writ large on a societal scale?

Michael Kruse is reviewing John Stackhouse’s Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World. He states

Stackhouse also employ’s Albert Einstein’s dictum that we should simplify as far as possible – and not farther.  We must put things in categories but oversimplification is a real danger in ethics. I really appreciated this paragraph.
Marx earlier warned us of the phenomenon of ideology, which is rationalization writ large on a societal scale. Those in power evolve an explanation of how they got to be in charge and how it is therefore proper for everyone else to respect the order of things and to play their respective parts with compliance and even diligence. The divine right of kings, the universally beneficial “rising tide” of capitalism, nationalist myths, and communist utopias all have been formulated as persuasive accounts of the inherent goodness of the status quo. Again, perhaps those in power have believed it themselves. (162)

What is ultimately true is the Kingdom of God. This itself explains where history is going. The glory of God will cover the whole earth. (See Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man). This is the story which wins the allegiance of the Christian. However, I still feel that any survey of the great “-isms” of this world tends to short the true contribution of capitalism, which has brought with it the greatest good that has yet come to humankind in terms of socio/economic/political systems. That it comes to us with dark undertones is no secret. That other systems have darker undertones needs to be shouted from the rooftops. I fear that this is not done to the degree that it ought.

When kids ask how babies are made, this is the answer