You Are Only Truly You in Relationship to Others

"But make no mistake. Moving churches in the West toward a trinitarian model of church life will involve a major paradigm shift away from our pervasive individualistic ways of thinking. Many Christians have bought into the cultural notion that religion is an individual, private matter and assume they can believe without belonging. We have to say to them, 'When you believed in Christ, whether you were aware of it or not, you entered into the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and  the fellowship of every other Christian who is a part of that triune fellowship. Now you belong to everyone else who belongs. Your faith may be individual, but it’s not personal except in relationship. In fact, you are only truly you in relationship to others.' When we insist they are connected and call them to concrete relationships and practices that reflect their connectedness, we should expect resistance. Though people long for community, many are unwilling to count the cost necessary for it."

quotation from p.39-40 Ministry in the image of God : the trinitarian shape of Christian service / by Seamands, Stephen A., 1949-

Annie Lamott on Hate

"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

--Annie Lamott Traveling Mercies; although on page 22 of Bird by Bird she attributes this quote to "my priest friend Tom"

George Carlin on Obscenity and Indecency

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition," Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview. "There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. ... It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

--The Associated Press. George Carlin's Obit, June 23, 2008

Tired of Speaking Sweetly

Tired of Speaking Sweetly

Love wants to reach out and manhandle us,
Break all our teacup talk of God.

If you had the courage and
Could give the Beloved His choice, some nights,
He would just drag you around the room
By your hair,
Ripping from your grip all those toys in the world
That bring you no joy.

Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly
And wants to rip to shreds
All your erroneous notions of truth

That make you fight within yourself, dear one,
And with others,

Causing the world to weep
On too many fine days.

God wants to manhandle us,
Lock us inside of a tiny room with Himself
And practice His dropkick.

The Beloved sometimes wants
To do us a great favor:

Hold us upside down
And shake all the nonsense out.

But when we hear
He is in such a "playful drunken mood"
Most everyone I know
Quickly packs their bags and hightails it
Out of town.

From The Gift by Sufi poet Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky