“…modern politics needs to be cloaked in religious language in order to carry the necessary gravitas. The end result is that theology becomes the handmaiden of political agendas. In turn, patriotism becomes one and the same with Christianity for so many.
“1. Politics is what you are most passionate to speak about…. 2. Your enemy is the other political viewpoint/side…. 3. You live as if there is an enduring city here.” - Eric Geiger
By Jordan Standridge. Reposted from The Cripplegate, November 15, 2016. (HT: Zeteo 316.)
We were warned. I feel like it was over and over again. Pastor after pastor told us that if politics becomes an idol in our heart that those who don’t agree with us will slowly become the enemy. We were told that when we put our hopes and trust in the one who sits in the Oval Office and into avoiding persecution and holding on to religious freedom then when people speak out with opposing views from us we will despise them and treat them like an enemy.
“Any society thus dominated by its lust will do whatever it takes to satisfy it….Our political and religious landscape is littered with leaders who exemplify this kind of thinking and action—so densely so that there’s no need to name any examples. And we have chosen to follow them. We have elected them, or we have joined their churches.
“Every week I see images of full churches and read about how God is moving in churches across the world. I see pictures of baptisms and crowds. I also hear the podcasts. I can’t possibly keep up with the best of the preaching out there. It’s good when I can rejoice in how God is using others. It’s dangerous if I begin to envy the ministries of others.” - Servants of Grace
“We have added to the gospel through smells and scents, and promised those we lead that joy is found in something you apply to your skin and not something that happens to your heart.
“There is a double surprise in store for Aeschliman’s readers. It is alarming to learn how the rise and growth of a scientific culture has been linked with the most blatant subjectivism. It is a joy to be introduced to the ‘great central tradition’ of witnesses to the true meaning of words and defenders of human reason.” - National Review
“[T]o have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart,” Luther said. “That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.” - Acton (Gene Veith)
“[A] high proportion of the psalter is taken up with lamentation, with feeling sad, unhappy, tormented, and broken.
“In this short book, Daniel Mahoney brilliantly lays bare the shallow and facile but dictatorial modern religion of optimistic humanitarianism: shallow and facile because it does not acknowledge the depth and persistence of human evil, and dictatorial because it will brook no rival.” - National Review
