I must have really overdone on politics this week judging from how few items I have for this Sunday.
The Good Life
Disruptions born of doctrinal disagreements among Christians launched the legitimation of acquisitiveness and the strange—although now all but naturalized—Western notion that a “standard of living” refers neither to a normative human model nor even to ethical precepts, but to the quantity and quality of one’s material possessions and the wealth that accompanies them.
Brad S. Gregory, The Unintended Reformation
“The good life” is an advertising theme, a photoshoot of the American Dream where all obstacles are overcome through the miracles of technology, market forces, and unfettered freedom. “A good life” is an entirely different question. A good life may very well include an abundance of suffering, disease, and deprivation. The difference in these two descriptions points towards the overarching narratives that surround them. In effect, they describe two very different religions. True Christianity is incompatible with the American Dream.
… The gospels and our faith describe a normal life, charged with glory but sifted in the suffering of our broken existence. God has entered into this very world, emptying Himself even to encompass the whole of our suffering in the fullness of the Cross. We learn to find Him there and discover that in that very emptiness He has given us His fullness. The normal life, lived fully, becomes the vehicle of our transformation.
Fr. Stephen Freeman, A Good Life Versus The Good Life
It’s all relative
Maybe we’re more conservative now because the culture moved, not because we moved.
Fr. Zachary Galante on the perception that newly-ordained Roman Catholic priests are increasingly conservative.
… that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NKJV)
You can read most of my more impromptu stuff here and here (both of them cathartic venting, especially political) and here (the only social medium I frequent, because people there are quirky, pleasant and real). All should work in your RSS aggregator, like Feedly or Reeder, should you want to make a habit of it.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 