Quote of the Week

My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.

-Anne Rice, on why she's leaving the church

While I still choose to participate in (and thereby identify with) a local church, it's worth never losing sight of how quickly religion can become a stumbling block rather than a help to those seeking God. No institution is so sacred that its preservation should be a higher priority to any Christian than following the example of Christ, who favored the company of "sinners" over the blessing of the religious leaders.

That's How You Do It

Wish I could have been there for this. I used to attend the San Diego Comic-Con regularly when I lived in California, but haven't gone as often in recent years. It's a great event even if it is sheer chaos trying to navigate through 125,000 people.

In any case, I wonder what the Westboro folks were thinking afterward. Sure, they got the attention they crave so much, but they also got seriously upstaged by thousands of costumed geeks, most of whom weren't taking them even remotely seriously. And, quite frankly, that's the best way to deal with people like the Phelps clan: laugh. In cases like this, it's often the only constructive thing a person can do...

Quotes

A few random thoughts to ponder...

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
-H.L. Mencken

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
-Oscar Wilde

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
-Blaise Pascal

But the fundamentalist reserves his greatest creativity for the fashioning of Satan, the image of his foe, in opposition to which he defines and gives meaning to his own life.
-Steven Pressfield

Give me the judgment of balanced minds in preference to laws every time. Codes and manuals create patterned behavior. All patterned behavior tends to go unquestioned, gathering destructive momentum.
-Darwi Odrade in Chapterhouse Dune

Character

Ever seen a religious right news outlet demonstrate this much journalistic integrity? Has Focus on the Family (or FRC, CWA, the AFA, WND, NOM, etc.) ever publicly apologized for a mistake (i.e. acted like they valued the truth) rather than quietly covering it up?

I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised, but I won't be holding my breath...

More Links

1. First up, a heartwarming story about a wedding 62 years in the making.

2. Not so heartwarming, to know that demagogues like this can still draw crowds of evangelicals.

3. An astute observation about the tolerance we show for violent methods of addressing problems versus the instant results we expect from more peaceful means.

4. On a different note, some information for your health's sake about sweeteners - which ones to avoid (most of them) and which to use in their place.