Theology That Bites Back
“Too many Christians have adopted a foolish approach to automotive maintenance. ‘Don’t lift the hood if you don’t want to know.’ That’s not the way to go. It means you’re not trying to deal with the problem until it’s desperate. There are a lot of problems that can be corrected with minimal intervention—but if you put it off, put it off, put it off, then the engine freezes and everything blows up. Just change the oil now, and this won’t happen.”
Keep Your Kids, pp. 19-20
“I cannot commit adultery is there is no marriage. I cannot murder if there is no right to life. I cannot bear false witness if there is no truth. And, bring this to the point, I cannot steal or covet unless there is such a thing as my neighbor having a right to whatever is modified by his very own personal pronoun. To adapt the nouns from the tenth commandment—his house, his servants, his livestock, or anything else that is HIS.”
“But in three years, that very same child might be careening around the cookie table like a chimpanzee on meth, with both fists full of cookies. If one of our parents remembers the vow we all took back in that heartwarming moment and attempts to talk with you about your child, how easy is it to get defensive? The answer: very easy. Your heart and your mouth are full of arguments that are, on paper, good arguments. This person doesn’t know your child’s name. This person doesn’t know your child’s favorite food (it’s cookies). This person doesn’t know your child’s bedtime (they don’t have a bedtime).”
Keep Your Kids, pp. 18-19
“When there is no standard above the state, then the state becomes the standard. If there is no God above the system, then the system becomes god.”
“We should always remember our propensity to guard against the sin we are least likely to fall into. The indulgent parent is all on guard against tyranny, and the tyrannical parent is very careful not to be too soft.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 17
“In contrast, the dictatorial parent thinks that he is simply being firm, while the indulgent parent thins she is simply being kind. In both cases, they call their failure something else. And on top of that, both types often believe that they’re ‘balancing out’ the other. They each lean in opposite directions in the canoe, which, incidentally, is how you capsize a canoe.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 16
“Any society requires force for the outliers but is not held together at the center by force. When the ruling elites start to opt out of this societal bond—‘laws are for the little people’—there is usually a time lag, but the little people do catch on. And when they catch on, the whole thing spirals down into chaos.”
Keep Your Kids, pp. 21-22
“This is the behavior of a ruler who devours his people rather than a ruler who feeds his people. You can see the contrast in the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus feeds the people by the sea right after Herod throws a banquet where the head of John the Baptist is brought out on a serving platter. One king feeds His people, one king eats his people.”
Keep Your Kids, p. 15
“Godless secularism still maintains an impressive facade. Like an ornate shell of a long dead creature of the deep blue sea, there is enough to keep quite a number of people from pointing out the obvious, to wit, that the shell is hollow.”
“Notice how nobody ever says that the majority opinions in pursuit of judicial activism are ‘living documents’ also. No, you have to interpret their words with sobriety and respect, no funny business, and why? Where respect for the plain meaning of words is demanded, you have identified the god of the system.”
