Christopher Hitchens Gets it Exactly Right

quote from Dr. Ray Pritchard:
http://www.christianity.com/blogs/pritchard/11625690/

During a recent trip to Portland, Oregon, noted atheist Christopher Hitchens laid down some seriously good theology. Most people recognize Hitchens as the author of the bestselling book God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything. Since the book's publication in 2007, Hitchens has toured the country debating a series of religious leaders, including some well-known evangelical thinkers. In Portland he was interviewed by Unitarian minister Marilyn Sewell. The entire transcript of the interview has been posted online. The following exchange took place near the start of the interview:

Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I'm a liberal Christian, and I don't take the stories from the scripture literally. I don't believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Hitchens: I would say that if you don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you're really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

Sewell wanted no part of that discussion so her next words are, "Let me go someplace else."
This little snippet demonstrates an important point about religious "God-talk." You can call yourself anything you like, but if you don't believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins and then rose from the dead, you are not "in any meaningful sense" a Christian.

Talk about nailing it.
In one of the delicious ironies of our time, an outspoken atheist grasps the central tenet of Christianity better than many Christians do. What you believe about Jesus Christ really does make a difference.

His True Self

"When he came here, he began to be his true self."

~ David L., at a SM memorial service 1/31/2010

John was like a burning and shining lamp

"John was like a burning and shining lamp."

~ John 5:35a, NLT

35 John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message.
36 But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me.
37 And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face,
38 and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you.

~ John 5:35-38, NLT

Fear of the Cross

"You can't be afraid to do something just because there is a cross involved."

~ Truthful Grace

Peace at the bottom

Thematic Summary of Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
http://www.articlemyriad.com/summary_little_dorrit.htm

The doctor, too, seems to feel at home as if among family or a community when in the prison. He comments to Mr. Dorrit in one of the important quotes from "Little Dorrit" by Dickens that all he wants is “A little more elbow room,” and he expounds upon the benefits of their incarceration and the prison environment: “We are quiet here; we don’t get badgered here… It’s freedom, sir, it’s freedom!....Elsewhere, people are restless, worried, hurried about, anxious respecting one thing, anxious respecting another. Nothing of the kind here, sir” (Dickens 78-79).
Quite paradoxically, the doctor concludes by proclaiming, “[W]e have got to the bottom, we can’t fall, and what have we found? Peace” (Dickens 78-79).
Mr. Dorrit recognizes that he actually agrees with the doctor, acknowledging that while he was “[c]rushed at first by his imprisonment, he had soon found a dull relief in it” (Dickens 79).

God was ready to take him home

quote from Jack's Life: The Life Story of C.S. Lewis, by Douglas H. Gresham, his stepson:

“He was the finest man I ever knew in my life, and I miss him to this day. But he was ready to go. He had done all he wanted to do and said all he wanted to say; and more important still, God was ready to take him home.”

cats: to love things for themselves

How are dog people and cat people different?
By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

quotes:

Veterinarian David Bessler, senior emergency clinician at NYC Veterinary Specialists in New York City, said he was a dog person growing up, but that owning a cat has "converted " him. It hasn't changed his personality, but he can imagine that dog people and cat people have personality differences.

"To love cats, you have to be able to love things for themselves; they have their own life, they aren't necessarily dependent on you," he said. "Your dog kind of lives for you."
...
Both of those studies are mentioned in an upcoming book called "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why it is So Hard to Think Straight About Animals" by Hal Herzog, professor of psychology at Western Carolina University.
...
About 37 percent of American households have dogs and 32 percent have cats, but the cat population (82 million) is significantly higher than the dog population (72 million), said Herzog, citing 2007 data from the American Veterinary Medical Association. That's because people tend to own multiple cats, as they are more amenable to many people's lifestyles, he said.

People tend to gravitate toward the animals they were raised with, Herzog said. Cat owners tend to be raised in cat families, and dog owners tend to be raised in dog families. In fact, one study found the animal you like is the one your grandparents lived with, he said.

The field of anthrozoology, the study of how animals and people relate to one another, only recently took off, Herzog said.

"I think our interactions with animals shed a lot of light on larger issues in human psychology," he said. "With pets it's things like attachment and why we're altruistic toward other creatures, especially creatures that we're not genetically related to."

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/13/
cat.dog.personality/index.html?hpt=Sbin

someone who appreciates you

“Your heart just breaks, that’s all. But you can’t judge, or point fingers. You just have to be lucky enough to find someone who appreciates you.”

~ Audrey Hepburn

Loving Dogs

"The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs."

~ Charles de Gaulle, President of France, 1958-69

http://www.answers.com/topic/charles-de-gaulle
"Charles de Gaulle rose to the rank of general and was serving as France's minister for National Defense and War in June, 1940, when France capitulated to Germany early in World War II. DeGaulle escaped to Britain, where he made a famous broadcast calling on the French people to resist (earning him the nickname of the "Man of June 18, 1940"). DeGaulle formed the Free French forces and led the provisional government that ruled France after it was retaken from Germany. After the war he was elected head of the French government."

Marriage benefits men the most

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/05/
elizabeth.gilbert.marriage.book/index.html

'Eat, Pray, Love' author tackles marriage
By A. Pawlowski, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• In "Committed," Elizabeth Gilbert spends months traveling and researching marriage
• Gilbert, boyfriend were "sentenced to wed" to avoid immigration problems
• "Women go into marriage with such high expectations," Gilbert says
• Julia Roberts will play her in the film version of Gilbert's memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love"
  

excerpt:

CNN: Marriage has often been portrayed as something that protects women. But you found in your book that it benefits men the most. Were you surprised by that?

Gilbert: It's surprising, though it shouldn't be. Looking at study after study, it becomes quite chilling to see how very much benefited men are by marriage. Married men perform in life exceptionally better than single men, they live longer, they're richer, they're happier.

CNN: And yet men are often reluctant to enter into marriage.

Gilbert: Which is the big irony. They have to be dragged kicking and screaming into something that will benefit them enormously in life. And the cruel irony is that the people who drag them kicking and screaming into it -- the women -- are the ones who often find that they've gotten the short end of the stick.

Women give more and as a result they give up more.

I think the other problem is that women go into marriage with such high expectations, really inflated romantic ideas about what this relationship is going to be. Men go into marriage with virtually no expectations whatsoever. Ten years later, the men are delightfully surprised to find out that it's actually kind of nice, and the women have sort of had to take a nose dive from what they thought it was going to be.
...

There's a wonderful expression, a Brazilian adage, that says most people never learn anything at all, very smart people learn from their own mistakes, and the geniuses learn from other people's mistakes.

Martin Luther King Jr. quotes

“It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.” (MLK)

“We must learn to live together as brothers (and sisters/my addition) or perish together as fools.” (MLK)

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” (MLK)

“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.” (MLK)

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” (MLK)

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” (MLK)

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.” (MLK)

“A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.” (MLK)

Goals - Picasso

"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone."

"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success."

"Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility."

"The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense."

"There are only two types of women - goddesses and doormats."

"We don't grow older, we grow riper."

"You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea."

"You mustn't always believe what I say. Questions tempt you to tell lies, particularly when there is no answer."

~ Pablo Picasso

work and happiness

"Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time."

~ Pablo Picasso

dangerous sympathetic understanding

"Is there anything more dangerous than sympathetic understanding?"

~ Pablo Picasso

Faith looks up

"Worry looks around,
sorry looks back,
Faith looks up."

~ author unknown

How To Make a Marriage Work

“Keep a neat and clean house;
Feed him well and have meals ready on time;
Have interesting thoughts to discuss at the table;
Listen to his telling of his day.”

~ Georga Henderson, PEO
(Mother of Francine I. Neff, PEO, Treasurer of the U.S.)

We are all equal creatures before God

"When you realize that we are all equal creatures before God, you can help others without being patronizing and superior, and you can receive without being degraded."

~ Rev. Dr. Diogenes Allen (1932-2013), Theologian, Professor of Philosophy, Princeton Theological Seminary

Four Fundamental Questions

Dallas Willard writes that there are four fundamental questions that every world view—and every human being—must answer.

What is real?

Who has "the good life"?

Who is a good person?

How do you become a good person?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/
currenttrendscolumns/leadershipweekly/
tigerandthegoodlife.html

Happy, Normal People

"Happy, normal people have boring lives. They don't make good movies."

~ Truthful Grace

(to explain why the people in movies create conflict in their lives when a better decision would avoid the conflict)

Experiencing Notan

from Ute Arnold

Experiencing Notan: a new orientation of seeing

"NOTAN" is a Japanese word for balance between dark and light, background and foreground, yin and yang.

Notan demands a totally new orientation of seeing and experiencing ... the concept of opposing dualities and energy forces by finding the integration of doing and non-doing, empty and full, good and bad, positive and negative, outside and inside, anxiety and presence...