“Those who had taunted these religious conservatives for being disengaged were dismayed by what their engagement looked like, and so they began to taunt them for that. We were only to be allowed back into the public square if we immediately veered over to the left” (Rules, p. 137).
Tired of Paradise
“Adam did not rebel against God because he was tired of living in a slum. No, his children live in slums because he grew tired of living in Paradise . . . The cause of the evil is our revolt against the good, which we routinely justify by pointing at the evil” (Rules, p. 135).
Not the Story They Wanted
“Apart from Christ, all sorts of people in black robes and white lab coats, want to be the final word. They want to act like they are pacing back and forth on the widow’s walk of humanity’s great house, gazing heroically out to sea, under the azure sky, when they are actually down in the …
Evolution as Power Move
“This is why the theory of evolution is such a big issue — the theory of evolution is a jurisdictional claim that the devil is making. If we were not created in the image of God, then this means that we have no jurisdictional appeal beyond Caesar. If there is no God above Caesar, then …
Coin from God’s Mint
“The answer is that we are coin from God’s mint. We are created in the image of God, and are therefore forbidden to render ourselves to Caesar. We give one thing to Caesar and another to God. We may not render it all to Caesar. It is prohibited. And they marveled at him” (Rules, p. …
More Limits Than That
“We tend to assume that if the existing authorities tell us to do anything short of swearing an oath to worship Satan, then we have to do it. This does not exhibit a mature theology of resistance” (Rules, p. 129).
Blindness Is As Blindness Goes
“When someone is spiraling toward the darkness, the light doesn’t get any better as he goes. This is happening to them because they can’t see” (Rules, p. 126).
A Reservoir of Blood Guilt
“According to Scripture, blood is something that returns to those who shed it. It also returns to the land where it was shed. And our vast reservoir of guilt is larger and deeper than it has ever been. The only blood that does not return with compounded guilt is the blood of Jesus” (Rules, p. …
Long Gone
“It is not possible to build a culture around a denial of God-given standards, and then arbitrarily reintroduce those standards at your convenience, whenever you need a word like evil to describe what has just happened. Those words cannot just be whistled up from the place where we exiled them. If we have banished them, …
Which Is How We Got Here
“In the Olympic games of our culture wars, it is possible to win a gold medal from God when a bunch of your fellow Christians are embarrassed even to look at you” (Rules, p. 111).