Quote of the Day
The truth is, and this is where I agree with Scot McKnight on the deeper truth of the matter: the slippery slope falls away on both sides of faithfulness. On the Left side, we fall toward conformity and licentiousness and abandonment of the faith. On the Right side, we fall toward paranoia, legalism, and a cold and fossilized faith that is really no faith at all. We cannot trust in the systems of the Right or the Left. We cannot trust in systems at all. We have to trust in a Person, not in a Predilection or a Philosophy. That Person will lead us forward, along the ridge-top above the slippery slopes.
December 13th, 2011 at 10:14 am
I suggest the sentences following the quote above are more insightful:
I am conservative, measured against the American median. But I don’t seek to be conservative. I don’t want to be conservative; I don’t want to be liberal. I want to be faithful. Sometimes that faithfulness will require me to hold fast to an ancient belief in the face of the world’s mockery; sometimes faithfulness will require me to let go of my hidebound forms of understanding, and venture forth into an unseen and unstable future.
Perhaps ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ are useful terms, but I think this linking religious outlook to ‘right’ or ‘left’ is unhelpful.
December 13th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Reminds me of a Bonhoeffer quote of what happens when we try to base our beliefs on a system instead of God himself.
(summary after a detailed explanation)
Who stands his ground? Only the man whose ultimate
criterion is not in his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all these things when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and exclusive allegiance to God
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. http://www.questia.com
Publication Information: Book Title: Prisoner for God: Letters and Papers from Prison. Contributors: Dietrich Bonhoeffer – author, Eberhard Bethge – editor, Reginald H. Fuller – transltr. Publisher: Macmillan. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1960. Page Number: 15.