“Why are we so afraid of theocracy? What might happen? Might we go on a rampage and kill sixty million babies? Yeah, that would be bad. Better not risk it. Might we set up a surveillance state, with camera clusters pointed in every direction at all the intersections? Right—theocracies are terrible like that.”
Two Jobs
“The priests of this system have two basic jobs. The first is to keep throwing virgins into the volcano. The second is to keep up an unrelenting stream of criticism of the Christians, heaping scorn upon how we treat our virgins.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 29
At the Table or On It
“There are only two ‘ways,’ two fundamental religions in the world. One of them feeds people, and the other one eats people.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 27
Contra All Three
“We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, and pecksniffs.”
Mingle Mangle
“Attempts to undertake what is euphemistically called sex reassignment surgery is in reality a high revolt. It is an attempted coup, an attempt to assassinate the God of Heaven. We can see this in two aspects. First, it attempts to take a prerogative of Deity in hand—only God can transform XY chromosomes into XX. And second, when God did this, the result was something that bore His image, the image of God. When He did it, the result was glorious beauty. When we do it, it will come out as some kind of mingle mangle of Frankenstein, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Mr. Potato Head, and the book of Enoch. It cannot end well . . . unless you count fire from Heaven as ending well.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 24
Not You
“The basic Christian answer to our leaders and scientists and politicians and writers and poets and philosophers has to be this. Who is God? Not you. Who has the prerogatives of Deity? Not you.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 23
Why Civil Government Must Have a Transcendental Grounding
“When I tell an ordinary citizen that he must not steal, I should be in a position to answer the question if he wonders why. If I tell my government that it must be modest, what do I do in the face of the same question? For—believe me—governments want to misuse their power more than ordinary citizens want to steal. My elected representatives want to steal from me more than my next-door neighbor does. That being the case, they must be told not to—which is a strong ethical requirement. As such, like all ethical requirements, it requires transcendental grounding.”
Pride Entire
“The aboriginal sin is not sexual, but is rather pride and insolence. Sex gets involved soon enough, but the sexual issues are just the battlefield. The conflict is over mastery.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 21
Totalitolerance
“Without an exhaustive rule through the predestinating love of the Father, unbelieving men will always see a job opening. They will want to fill that gap. They mimic the Father’s omnipotence, which is where we get the totalitarian part. They also try to mimic His love, which is how we get the tolerance farce. And so it is that we find ourselves suffocating under this totalitolerance.”
Fixed Immensity
“We cannot understand the first thing about the Creation, or the Fall, or the redemption accomplished by Christ until we first grasp the fixed immensity that is nature.”
Virgins and Volcanoes, p. 19