“When a man comes to Christ and begins to obey him, this means working with his hands and living a quiet life in all diligence. One of the consequences of this behavior is that the cocaine bill goes way down.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 43
And It Includes More Than That
“James tells us that a great deal of warfare comes about because we want and can’t have. This observation is not limited to toddlers grabbing things in the nursery; it includes kings and regiments, presidents and strike forces.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 42
The Cauldron of War Fever
“As many isolated and lonely Christians have found out, any reluctance to throw oneself into the cauldron of war fever is usually taken as some species of treachery.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 41
Bathrobe Time
“While their benefits have no doubt been many, church pageants have also had the unfortunate result of making us think that biblical characters did little more than stand around in their bathrobes.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 39
Freedom, Not Fussiness
“When the Spirit is grieved by elder boards packed with schoolmarms, liberty disappears along with any understanding of what true liberty even is. And when we have lost this understanding in the community of saints, we are dreaming to think we can find it anywhere else . . . Not to put too fine a point on it, we are becoming slaves of men in the political realm because we do not care enough about understanding liberty in the church. Freedom frightens us.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 37
Those Vulnerable Not Sins
“A willingness to turn sins into crimes will always end up with a willingness to turn not-sins into crimes. The spectacle of an ATF anti-alcohol SWAT team crashing the wedding at Cana ought to be sufficient to make the chilling point.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 36
Sins and Crimes
“We appear constitutionally incapable of distinguishing sins and crimes . . . When the hounds of righteousness are in full-throated pursuit of any public sin or sickness, it is perilous not to join in the chase. These civic bloodhounds currently have the tobacco companies up a tall pine tree, and while some aesthetic satisfaction can be gained from the spectacle of Philip Morris staring down at us like a concerned possum, there really are some deeper issues at stake.”
The Cultural Mind, pp. 35-36
Nothing Good, I’ll Tell You That
“If knowledge puffs up, what does pseudo-knowledge do?”
The Cultural Mind, p. 33
Moral Capital and the Public Square
“When the prodigal son ran off and began spending his inheritance, he did not find himself broke after five minutes of wasting money. When the inheritance is considerable, as ours was, some considerable time may elapse before the checks start to bounce.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 29
A Little Folding of the Hands to Rest
“Christians aren’t perfect, just asleep on the couch.”
The Cultural Mind, p. 26