Old-Time Religion For Mainline Churches

Posted May 1, 2005, 12:07 p.m.

An interesting piece in the Post’s monthly On Faith series regarding some churches that have mixed various religious traditions in inventive (and apparently popular) ways. It’s worth a read, especially given that many of the Christian denominations in the U.S. are losing members while these churches are growing.

It’s worth thinking about. While I’m not convinced that this kind of thing is a complete solution to the continuing disintegration of religion in America, I do think a reevaluation of spiritual direction could probably benefit many churches.

Old-Time Religion For Mainline Churches (Washington Post, free registration may be required).

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

From the very beginning in the womb of a woman, until the very last moment when a person’s breath speaks of his or her presence in the world, this life is human, even if it develops into an immense array of conditions of weakness [and] suffering. . . .

If you can’t tell whether a simple plan or a complicated one will be the best, choose the simple one. If it’s a coin toss, you might as well do whatever is easiest.

Some of these rights are said to be unalienable, such as the rights of conscience. Yet even these have been often invaded, where they have not been carefully secured, by express and solemn bills and declarations in their favor.

Whenever men are unanimous on great public questions, whenever there is but one party, freedom ceases and despotism commences.

Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

The stories we can neither ignore nor forget are unforgettable [because] they speak to something we know, but do not know that we know.

Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the beloved.

Natural endowment is far less consequential than the ability to use it productively, and that ability is an outcome of culture.

When schedule slippage is recognized, the natural (and traditional) response is to add manpower. Like dousing a fire with gasoline, this makes matters worse, much worse.

How is it possible for us to retain the advantages of simplification, without falling prey to the accompanying blindness? The answer is to be found in the constant dialogue between genuinely different types of people.

He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him.

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Experience is the name everyone gives to his mistakes.

Hardly any amount of oppression from above takes the heart out of a boy like oppression from his fellows.

[Einstein] said, in effect, that everything should be as simple as it can be but not simpler!

Our task is not one of producing persuasive propaganda; Christianity shows its greatness when it is hated by the world.

Yet ever since the days of Adam, man has been hiding from God and saying, ‘God is hard to find.’

Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

But not everyone who is failing is a victim, and not everyone at the bottom wishes to rise, although many do, and many manage it.

Religion is no less the companion of liberty in all its battles and its triumphs; the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.

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