INTRODUCTION: So we have considered desire, envy, and competition, and we now come to ambition. To address the subject rightly, we have to recall what we learned thus far. There is a certain kind of desire that every human being has to deal with, and this is a desire that tends to veer toward envy. …
Gimme Gimme
“All true needs—such as food, drink, and companionship—are satiable. Illegitimate wants—pride, envy, greed—are insatiable” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 107).
And It Encounters a Lot of Realities
“Envy cannot be assuaged any more than cancer can be; they are both pathologies whose very being requires expansion to their neighbor’s territory. There is no fence that will ever be respected, no limitation that will be recognized as legitimate, no sense of proportion or humility sufficient to smother a sense of inferiority. By its …
Lickspittles in the Entourage
Terrorism is back in the news, at least in a way that requires us to revisit our definition of it. Jimmy Carter is apparently comfortable with meeting with the head of Hamas, and Obama is now tagged with his friendship with William Ayers, one who has admitted his role in various bombings of public buildings …
Repentance Is Not Scooting Your Shelf Idol to Face Right for a While
“Those pathologies cannot simply be subsumed under such labels as liberal, conservative, or radical. The ideologies common to American politics all have a share in them; none has clean hands . . . . political rhetoric, the media, and the educational establishment have badly distorted the political and economic landscape, making it appear that the …
The Problem With Third Ways
A lot of Christians know that the language of Scripture requires us to develop and maintain a distinctive voice. And thus it is that when they are in the process of being swept up by the latest wind of doctrine, they claim that they are doing this as a “third way.” Lured and enticed by …
More Leepike News
Nate’s first book with Random House was Leepike Ridge, and they are due to release it in paperback this July. The cost in this go-round will be $6.99. New cover too.
Ah. Just Some Men. I See It All Now.
“Humanitarianism is saviorhood, an ethic perfectly suited to the theology that divinizes man. But the theology that divinizes man, it turns out, only divinizes some men” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 87).
Reverse Dehumanization
“If we look at the villains instead of the victims — the police, politicians, social workers, businessmen — we find that the humanitarians have given them free will. They do not speak about the industrialist’s tyrannical father, the loan shark’s miserable childhood in an orphan home, the politician’s neurotic mother. Those people are responsible for …
A More Excellent Way
INTRODUCTION: We are continuing to consider the problems posed by desire, envy, competition, and ambition. We have now come to competition, something dear to the heart of most Americans. But because of this we must guard our step. You have heard many times that we must repent of our virtues, and this subject is a …