(no subject)
Jan. 2nd, 2003 10:22 pmI occasionally buy unwanted gift cards from my daughter or niece. Niece doesn’t live near a Walden’s, so I always take those off her hands. After Christmas I discovered I had a total of 3 Walden’s cards, old and new. Stopping at a bookstore on the way home, I learned that they totaled $27... and the store had the new Valdemar book, Exile’s Honor, in hardcover. It was clearly a Sign; now I have 78 cents left. The book is delightful; I’m glad I gave in to the impulse.
An exchange I liked-- not about Christianity, but surely inspired by it:
“I think that the priesthood was corrupted by the congregation.... The laity wanted absolutes, answers, and the priesthood finally elected to give them answers, the simpler the better. The Writ took second place to the Rule, and a poor second at that. The answers took away all uncertainty, and what is more, took away the need to think.” As I see it, Christianity should be providing the framework for thinking about life decisions-- not providing cut-and-dried answers that have more to do with culture than with the Bible or anything Jesus ever said. Then we could be free of all the silly proof-texting to show why the way some fundie wants people to behave is the way they have to behave. (For example, I just love (not!) the hoops some people jump through to argue that Christians shouldn’t drink alcohol, despite the water-into-wine incident and the advice to Timothy.)
An exchange I liked-- not about Christianity, but surely inspired by it:
“I think that the priesthood was corrupted by the congregation.... The laity wanted absolutes, answers, and the priesthood finally elected to give them answers, the simpler the better. The Writ took second place to the Rule, and a poor second at that. The answers took away all uncertainty, and what is more, took away the need to think.” As I see it, Christianity should be providing the framework for thinking about life decisions-- not providing cut-and-dried answers that have more to do with culture than with the Bible or anything Jesus ever said. Then we could be free of all the silly proof-texting to show why the way some fundie wants people to behave is the way they have to behave. (For example, I just love (not!) the hoops some people jump through to argue that Christians shouldn’t drink alcohol, despite the water-into-wine incident and the advice to Timothy.)