Theology That Bites Back
“Up to this point, this book has resembled a jumbled box of different colored tiles. This last chapter is the place where you are supposed to be able to see the mosaic. Let us shake hands all around and wish each other luck.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 181
“I ask for the death of all wants demented,
And all our desires that risk being bent,
And for a good resurrection of the true, godly wanting,
A godly desire, a yearning that’s holy.”
21 Prayers, p. 74
“Take away from us now all false opinions,
And please bring to light all shifts and evasions.
If envy remains in any dark place,
Have mercy on us—pull it up and all out.”
21 Prayers, p. 71
“Why should men be free? Why should they be treated with equity? Why should we govern ourselves democratically? The answers will vary depending on whether you believe that we evolved out of the primordial goo, or whether the Creator God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, put us here. They will vary according to whether you believe in the Supreme Court or the Supreme Being. Religions don’t do well suspended in mid-air. Why should men be free? Who makes them free? How can they be free when they are slaves to sin?”
American Milk & Honey, p. 178
“But Christians who worship the triune God will refuse to worship any idol, whether it is the nerdy monad of the liberal bedwetters, or the gonad monad of the American neocons.”
American Milk & Honey, pp. 176-177)
“Light me on fire, I pray to You now.
Don’t let me preach without passion, I ask.
Admonish, rebuke, and speak to my soul
If it looks like the message might devolve to a lecture.”
21 Prayers, p. 68
“Let us experience the gift of Your rest
As well as the work that rests upon rest.”
21 Prayers, p. 67
“The Puritans did in fact shape the American personality. But personality is not the same thing as character. Two men can have an outgoing personality, with one of them honest and the other treacherous. Two men can be quiet and withdrawn, with one of them a rock of integrity and the other a knave. We do share certain personality features with the Puritans, attributes we inherited from them. But inheriting their personality is not the same thing as inheriting their character.”
American Milk & Honey, pp. 173-174
“The idea of America as messiah-nation is an idea that dies hard, but die it must.”
American Milk & Honey, p. 165
“I do not want to treat gathered saints
As I would an assembly of the unconverted,
But, nevertheless, I would still preach the gospel
And true liberation and conversion to all.
I pray that Your Spirit would accomplish this work,
And not only do it but make real sense of it.”
21 Prayers, p. 66
