Classic and contemporary excerpts
“Good” People?
Most of the evil in this world does not come from evil people. It comes from people who consider themselves good.
—Reinhold Neibuhr
Too Different
In recent years I have become increasingly aware of the dangerous possibility of making the Word of God sensational. Just as people can watch spellbound a circus artist tumbling through the air in a phosphorized costume, so they can listen to a preacher who uses the Word of God to draw attention to himself. But a sensational preacher stimulates the senses and leaves the spirit untouched. Instead of being the way to God, his “being different” gets in the way.
—Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Genesee Diary
Theology And Tractor Mechanics
Theologian as occupation holds no exalted place in my hierarchy of paying jobs. I am not a theologian for the same reason I am not a tractor mechanic—occupational choice.
Yet I am a tractor mechanic. Yesterday I took the distributor cap off the old machine I had left in the snow and dried the condenser. The tractor still would not start, but in that act I became a mechanic. In the same fashion I have a neighbor, an electrician by occupation, who is a theologian. He told me he would not teach his child to pray “Now I lay me down to sleep …” because, he said, the words could be a reminder to God to put her on His agenda that night. That is a theological statement because it is a statement about the kind of God God is. My neighbor is a “little theologian,” as Barth put it. And I am a little tractor mechanic.
—Will Campbell, writing in Christianity and Crisis (Feb. 20, 1984)
My Log, Your Speck
I can truthfully say that I am slow to see the blemishes of fellow beings, being myself full of them. And, therefore, being in need of their charity, I have learnt not to judge anyone harshly and to make allowances for defects that I may detect.’
—Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi
Jesus At Prayer
How much prayer meant to Jesus! It was not only his regular habit, but his resort in every emergency, however slight or serious. When perplexed he prayed. When hard pressed by work He prayed. When hungry for fellowship he found it in prayer. He chose his associates and received his messages upon his knees. If tempted, he prayed. If criticized, he prayed. If fatigued in body or wearied in spirit, he had recourse to his one unfailing habit of prayer. Prayer brought him unmeasured power at the beginning, and kept the flow unbroken and undiminished. There was no emergency, no difficulty, no necessity, no temptation that would not yield to prayer.
—S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Prayer
Taking Faith Seriously
The more seriously one takes religion, the more one should recognize that its claims are directly on the individual conscience, and only indirectly on collective behavior of any sort, including politics.
—David Broder, Chicago Tribune (Mar. 16, 1984)
Parenting The Parents
We spend a lot of time on the subject of sex education in the schools. Maybe it’s time to introduce mandatory courses in parenting—for boys as well as girls. Parenting skills, difficult enough for the lucky half of us [who were brought up in values-oriented two-parent families] to acquire, are all but impossible for the unlucky half to come by.
And yet nearly all of them will become parents. We’d better start doing what we can to help them do it right.
—William Raspberry, quoted in Festival Quarterly
To Stem The Tide
It seems to me that despite its priority for socio-political change, organized Protestantism shows little strength for stemming the secular tide. It ineffectively confronts the strangling humanism that permeates university learning and that shortchanges generations of young people. It powerlessly contests the mass media, particularly television, whose ideal image of humanity and portrayal of life styles depict Christian claims as obscurantist and archaic.
—Carl F. H. Henry, The Christian Century (Nov. 5, 1980)
Doubters In The Fold
Apparently it’s expected that candid confessions of uncertainty [by churchmen] will attract into the church other doubters who will contribute generously of their time, talents, and dollars for the spreading of a gospel in which neither they nor their mentors believe. The holding of such expectations requires a faith such as few can share but which all should admire.
—Roland Thorwaldsen, The Living Church (June 30, 1985)
Happiness Is …
There is a fairy story about a wealthy merchant, loaded with riches, who was in despair. He wondered why. He asked his companions how he could find happiness. “Look for a happy man,” they told him, “and ask him to give you his shirt.” The merchant searched for a long time until at last he found a happy man. “Give me your shirt,” he said. “I can pay for it.” The happy man began to laugh uproariously; he hadn’t got a shirt! Then the merchant understood the cause of his own despair: man cannot live by bread alone.
—Kitty Muggeridge, Gazing on Truth
“But God”
If you want a wonderful experience, take your New Testament and use a concordance to look up the two little words, “but God.” See how many times human resources have been brought to an utter end; despair has gripped the heart and pessimism and gloom has settled upon a people; and there is nothing that can be done. Then see how the Spirit of God writes in luminous letters, “But God,” and the whole situation changes into victory.
—Ray C. Stedman, Man of Faith
