Advocating Christianity?

"What is worst of all is to advocate Christianity, not because it is true, but because it might be beneficial."
~ T.S. Eliot

Comment: 
Of course Christianity is beneficial.  It is both true and beneficial because God created us and God loves us.  God is a good parent and Christianity is an act of love.
~ Truthful Grace

Protestant Sacerdotalism

Protestant Sacerdotalism

Evangelical Protestantism has been one of the most dynamic of Christian movements. Evangelical Protestantism is also one of the most dysfunctional of Christian movements. Our dysfunctions are many, but not necessarily worse than those found in Catholicism or Orthodoxy. But they still deserve our attention. Take this one, which includes a cogent quote by the great theologian Thomas Torrance:

But what has happened in Protestant worship and ministry? Is it not too often the case that the whole life and worship of the congregation revolves around the personality of the minister? He is the one who is in the center; he offers the prayers of the congregation; he it is who mediates "truth" through his personality, and he it is who mediates between the people and God through conducting the worship entirely on his own. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the case of the popular minister where everything centers on him, and the whole life of the congregation is built around him. What is that but Protestant sacerdotalism...?

As with most critiques, it's not true in every respect, but it is true enough to give one pause.

~ from The Galli Report, Weekly Must-Reads from the Editor of Christianity Today, Friday, Feb. 26, 2016

"Not Christian" to build walls, not bridges

Pope Francis Suggests Donald Trump Is ‘Not Christian’

Jim Yardley, Feb. 18, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/world/americas/pope-francis-donald-trump-christian.html

Inserting himself into the Republican presidential race, Pope Francis on Wednesday suggested that Donald J. Trump “is not Christian” because of the harshness of his campaign promises to deport more immigrants and force Mexico to pay for a wall along the border.

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said when a reporter asked him about Mr. Trump on the papal airliner as he returned to Rome after his six-day visit to Mexico. . . .

Mr. Trump has staked out controversial positions on immigration, vowing to force Mexico to build a wall and also increase deportations. He has also made inflammatory comments accusing Mexican immigrants of being rapists and criminals.

Asked whether he would try to influence Catholics in how they vote in the presidential election, Francis said he “was not going to get involved in that” but then repeated his criticism of Mr. Trump, with a caveat.

“I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that,” Francis said. “We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.”
. . .

"it was you and the people who love you who put you there"

Taylor Swift, accepting album of the year, calls out Kanye West

Less than a week after West drew backlash for his song Famous, in which he suggested that he made Swift famous by crashing the stage during her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech, the pop star indirectly responded to his diss. Accepting album of the year for her blockbuster 1989, Swift took a moment to address "the young women out there".

"There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame," Swift said. "But if you just focus on the work and you don't let those people sidetrack you, someday, when you get where you're going, you'll look around and you will know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world."

Our presence

"The most precious gift we can offer is our presence.

When mindfulness embraces those we love,

they will bloom like flowers.”

~ Thich Nhat Hahn

Expecting flowers to bloom

“If your heart is a volcano,
how shall you expect flowers to bloom?”

~ Khalil Gibran

"Joy" as a learning concept

Holappa, detecting my surprise, reiterated that the country’s early-childhood education program indeed places a heavy emphasis on “joy,” which along with play is explicitly written into the curriculum as a learning concept. "There's an old Finnish saying,” Holappa said. “Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily.”

The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergartners of Finland
Forget the Common Core, Finland’s youngsters are in charge of determining what happens in the classroom.
TIM WALKER  OCT 1, 2015
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-joyful-illiterate-kindergartners-of-finland/408325/

Embrace it

"Many times the stress we feel is because we’ve been afforded tremendous opportunity.  So embrace it..."
~ Tracey Bianchi

"No. This is what's important."

And every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling, "This is important! And this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!"

And each day, it's up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart and say, "No. This is what's important."

~ Iain Thomas

"A person filled with joy preaches without preaching."

"A person filled with joy preaches without preaching."
~ Mother Teresa

Jesus the Hero

These quotes are from One Jesus, Many Christs by Gregory J. Riley. According to the Library Journal, "Riley explicates the notion of Jesus as hero on the basis of literary analogies drawn from the role of other heroes in different stories of (mainly Greek) antiquity. This well-argued work is richly illustrated with literary connections between biblical and Greek portrayals of heroic traits."  http://www.amazon.com/One-Jesus-Many-Christs-Christianity/dp/0800632427

quotes:
"The universe had a dark side. Fate, the jealousy of the gods, and the devil and the dark powers all conspired against the innocent and brought them to ruin. Those who were in such difficulties could be seen as having in some way been especially notable.... Job after the exile, one may recall, 'deserved' the loss of his children, wife, property and health because he caught the attention of God and the devil as the most righteous man of his generation."
One Jesus, Many Christs by Gregory J. Riley, page 29

"Jesus died a death that defined his life.... If he had not been killed like one of the heroes, it would only have meant that he was not worthy of that status, that he was not a son of God, that he was not valuable enough to draw down on himself the jealousies of the gods or fate or the wrath of the powers and their religious authorities. The fact of his unjust death not only proved the real value of his life, it authenticated his right to complete the creedal journey to ascend into heaven and someday stand as judge."
One Jesus, Many Christs by Gregory J. Riley, page 91

Personally, I think God is who God is, regardless of what we understand or think about what God should be. :-)

Exodus 3:14a  ^ESV  God said to Moses, I AM Who I AM.

"Give me hypocrites over cynics any time"

"Give me hypocrites over cynics any time. At least they aspire to something."

~ Giles Fraser

Kenji Goto - "Judgment lies with God"

Slain Japanese hostage's old tweet embraced by social media
AP 1:34 p.m. EST February 2, 2015
TOKYO (AP) — Social media users have embraced a 4-year-old tweet by Kenji Goto as a poignant memorial to the slain freelance journalist.
On his Twitter account, 47-year-old Goto was reporting live from Syria. One tweet has captured imaginations, seeming to sum up the character of the journalist who was beheaded by Islamic State extremists after a months-long hostage ordeal.
The tweet gone viral is from Sept. 7, 2010:
"Closing my eyes and holding still. It's the end if I get mad or scream. It's close to a prayer. Hate is not for humans. Judgment lies with God. That's what I learned from my Arabic brothers and sisters."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/02/02/japanese-hostage-old-tweet-goes-viral-kenji-goto/22751005/

"Mario Cuomo was the keynote speaker for our better angels.”

At Funeral for Mario Cuomo, Praise for a Leader’s Role as a Humanist

By JAMES BARRON    JAN. 6, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/nyregion/mario-cuomo-funeral.html?emc=edit_th_20150107&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=14249205&_r=0

 

quotes:

In the end there were the words, and the words were the son’s, and the words were about his father, former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo.

“At his core, at his best, he was a philosopher, and he was a poet, and he was an advocate, and he was a crusader,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at his father’s funeral service on Tuesday. “Mario Cuomo was the keynote speaker for our better angels.”

In a eulogy that touched on Mario Cuomo’s thoughts about how to deliver a speech — don’t extemporize, use a prepared text — as well as his love of the French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his all-out style on the basketball court well into middle age, Andrew Cuomo said that his father was more of a “humanist” than a politician. To his father, he said, “politics were more of a personal belief system: It was who he was, not what he did.”

...

“They say your father never leaves you — if you listen carefully, you will hear his voice,” Mr. Cuomo said. “I believe that’s true. But one doesn’t need to listen that carefully or be his son to know what Mario Cuomo would say today — that it’s time for this city to come together, it’s time to stop the negative energy and move forward.”

He added, “And that’s just what we will do. I promise you that, Pop.”

 

Mario Cuomo, 82, died on New Year’s Day. In the pews at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue were hundreds of elected officials and government leaders, past and present, among them former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray; former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; and Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney in Brooklyn who is President Obama’s nominee to replace Eric H. Holder Jr. as attorney general.

...

“What came across to me was Mario Cuomo was unafraid,” Anthony M. Masiello, a former State Senator and former mayor of Buffalo, said after the service. “He was unafraid to lead, unafraid to govern, unafraid to be contrary. When people were going right, he was going left. When people were talking about what they had, he was talking about people who didn’t have. He was unafraid to define it as he saw it.”

etc.

Unobstructed

"If the eye is unobstructed, it results in sight;
if the ear is unobstructed, the result is hearing;
if the mind is unobstructed, the result is wisdom;
and if the heart is unobstructed, the result is love." 
     
~ Anthony De Mello, from his book, Awareness 

we are spiritual beings having a human experience

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience;

we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Movies: a machine that generates empathy

Roger Ebert said movies are “like a machine that generates empathy.”

God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick

"God can strike a straight stroke by a crooked stick."
~ Thomas Watson, English Puritan

"God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick."
~ Martin Luther, German Reformer

"God uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines."
~ Ignatius Loyola, Founder of the Jesuit Order

"God writes straight with crooked lines."
~ Spanish/Portuguese proverb

quotes researched by Virginia Huguenot, librarian

"Who is a hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend.”

“Who is a hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend.” 
~ The Talmud, Avot de-Rabbi Natan 23

Spirituality

SPIRITUALITY

Spirituality is "the progressive unlearning of the strange ideas about God you've been taught..."
~ Rabbi Kaplan

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience;
we are spiritual beings having a temporary human experience."
~ Christian philosopher Teilhard de Chardin

"You were born to walk with God...
So why would you walk alone?"
~ Dr. Steve McSwain