There Will Always Be Some Kind of Sacrament

“My concern is that this objection to baptizing infants arises, but there is no objection to taking those same kids to summer youth camp thirteen years later in order to have them all throw pine cones in the fire as a sacramental indicator of their commitment. A rejection of God’s sacraments will not give us no sacraments but substitute sacraments.”

The Cultural Mind, p. 235

Where Down is Up

“In every culture, pride is seen as a challenge to the established god and humility is seen as obeisance before that god. In modern America, the reigning ‘god’ is the individual self. Confidence about anything other than self is therefore dismissed as arrogance. In other words, arrogance (biblically defined) is the one thing that is not seen as arrogance, and every form of biblical humility is redefined as a form of pride. The man who says, ‘The Bible teaches . . .’ is, by definition, a proud man. By contrast, the man who says, ‘It seems to me . . .’ is defined as humble. But the former is pointing away from himself entirely, while the second fellow is talking about his own thoughts and feelings, and nothing else.”

The Cultural Mind, pp. 219-220

Make It Even Clearer

“And this is why we now see the foolishness of dating things BCE (before the common era) instead of BC (before Christ), and CE (common era) instead of AD (anno Domini). Christian writers ought to fight with their editors for AD, and if they lose, they should then tell everyone that CE means ‘Christ’s Empire.’”

The Cultural Mind, p. 210