Quote of the Day

A song can't be completely dissected and reduced to a formula in a laboratory.  There is something bigger happening that defies categorization or analysis.  Maybe that's called soul.  It's hard to define, but you know it when you hear it.

 -- Linford Detweiler

Quote of the Day

Mom treated everyone she ever met well, spent more time talking to "nobodies" than to the rich and famous who flocked to her after her books were published and became bestsellers. Put it this way: through my experience of being a father (of 3) and grandfather (of 4) I've finally been able to test Mom's life wisdom and spiritual outlook and found out that she was right: Love, Continuity, Beauty, Forgiveness, Art, Life and loving a loving all-forgiving God really are the only things that matter.

-- Frank Schaeffer, "A Tribute to My Evangelical Leader Mom -- Edith Schaeffer RIP"

Quote of the Day

I consider myself kind of a reporter -- one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography.  I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write.
 
-- Mary Oliver

Quote of the Day

The resistance to change is enormous and manifold.  It comes from all kinds of directions: family, friends, peers, life, even our own hearts.  It requires an incredible amount of decision and courage, especially when we know change is urgent.  Perhaps it is coming out in whatever way… sexually or theologically.  Whatever the case, our inner change must eventually manifest itself outwardly.  Then a particular fearlessness is necessary.

-- David Hayward, "Changing in Spite of Resistance"

Quote of the Day

Every writer has obsessions.

-- Tom Grimes, Mentor, p. 70

Quote of the Day

Sex education in America is a lot like a driver's-ed course that covers the internal combustion but not steering or brakes or those red octagons on the tops of those sticks at all those intersections.

-- Dan Savage, American Savage, p. 42

Quote of the Day

I knew now I'd tell everyone.  I'd tell them over and over for the rest of my life.  And the telling would get better and better.

-- Heather Sellers, You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know, p. 317

Quote of the Day

If we are willing to tell the truth, or establish some intimacy with a listener, maybe it gives them permission to begin speaking their truth too.

-- Linford Detweiler

Quote of the Day

Of course, evangelical/fundamentalists can't stand the Bible's obvious flaws because they worship the Bible, not God.  So they try to fix their "inerrant" Bible's reputation by torturous justifications.  They even make rules for God as if they understood God as some sort of creature trapped in the pages of the Bible, something like a fly caught on flypaper.  This also seems to be a problem that plagues Muslims, who say their holy book was actually dictated, so it records the actual words of God.  This may explain the apparent paralysis of much Islamic civilization.  If the literal last word has been pronounced, what's left to do, say, discover, or invent?  How do you change?  

-- Frank Schaeffer, Patience With God, p. 212

Quote of the Day

Imagine that -- religious people quoting the Bible to defend actions that were the exact opposite of the intent and purpose of those very same scriptures!  It's possible, then, to be quoting the Bible out of the conviction that you're defending God's way when in fact you're in that exact moment working against how God wants to continue drawing and pulling and calling humanity forward.  And then, to put a finer point on it, it's possible to take something that was a step forward at one point and still be clinging to it later on in the story, to the point where it becomes a step backward.

-- Rob Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, p. 161

Quote of the Day

Catholics have long realized that their own grasp of certain things, especially sex, has a validity that is lost on the celibate male hierarchy.

-- Garry Wills

Quote of the Day

It was the kind of library he had only read about in books.

-- Alan Bennett, The Uncommon Reader

Quote of the Day

But while I can't see myself going back to the Church -- I can't see myself going through the motions of the sacraments, despite their comforting familiarity -- some part of me wants the Church to want me back.  I want the option of going back.  Not because I believe -- I don't -- but because I ache.  I ache for my loss.

-- Dan Savage, American Savage, p. 16

Quote of the Day

Telling turned out to be exactly like going off the high dive.  The first time was hell.  And then, soon, I was running for the ladder, scrambling up, eager to fling myself off, wondering what kind of special spin I could include, how I could make the telling, the falling, more beautiful, more fun, more creative, more interesting and effective.
 
-- Heather Sellers, You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know, p. 314

Quote of the Day

Billy Collins used the metaphor of an eye chart.  When you get your eyes checked there's that big "e" on top of the chart that everyone can see.  Then the print gets smaller and finer and eventually you have to work harder.  He wants his poems to have a point of entry that is fairly effortless, and we want our songs to feel that way too.  To have a line or a moment where the whole room can enter in effortlessly.  But then those that want to go deeper and work harder and find other layers can explore the fine print.

-- Linford Detweiler

Quote of the Day

There is no good, let alone final answer about suffering and loss.  This is a question of embracing the paradox.  What I care about is that my life not be stripped of meaning and beauty in the here and now by overeager busybodies bent on converting me to their atheist cult or by religious zealots who soft-peddle lies about a God who solves everything.  He doesn't.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Patience With God, p. 194

Quote of the Day

Like a tree, planted near water, with deep roots.  A storm comes and the tree doesn't break because it's grounded enough to...bend.

-- Rob Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, p. 95

Quote of the Day

And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?

-- A. E. Housman

Quote of the Day

Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know, Are a substantial world, both pure and good.  Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, Our pastime and our happiness will grow.

-- William Wordsworth

Quote of the Day

(According to the Catholic Church), birth control, masturbation, homosexuality -- any sex act that isn't open to the "gift of life" is wrong.  Some well-meaning "liberal" Catholics claim that the Church isn't singling out gay people since all non-procreative sexual activity is wrong regardless of whether it's gay or straight.  But only gay people are expected to live lives devoid of intimacy and romantic love.

-- Dan Savage, American Savage, p. 14

Quote of the Day

I was never going to know -- really know -- what my mother's life had been, what her illness had been, if she'd been diagnosed and kept it a secret -- any of it.  She would remain a mystery, and I had to let her go.

-- Heather Sellers, You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know, p. 283

Quote of the Day

In spite of all the comforts and camaraderie of home, families can be dangerous.

-- Linford Detweiler

Quote of the Day

How can one be a Christian when those such as [Rousas John] Rushdoony, [Jerry] Jenkins, and [Tim] LaHaye describe themselves as such?  How can one be an atheist when a T-shirt vendor such as [Richard] Dawkins has foisted himself on thoughtful and humane non-believers?  [Marc] Chagall shows the way for all of us, whatever we believe.  His life and art demonstrate that it is possible to buck the trend of cynicism and to believe in each other more than in the rightness of our particular ideas.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Patience With God, p. 122

Quote of the Day

I tell you this because in the times I found myself in the deepest, darkest places of doubt and despair, it seemed too huge a leap of faith to trust that there is a God who loves and helps and hears and heals ... But the truth is, I had already taken a leap, because we've all taken a leap ... Whether you believe that this is all there is or we come from outer space or you're a Christian or a Buddhist or you're Jewish or Jedi or you don't believe that we can know anything for sure, it's all a form of faith.  Nobody hasn't leaped.

-- Rob Bell, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, p. 124-125

Quote of the Day

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

--  Franz Kafka

Quote of the Day

When you look at Americans' day-to-day activity, the top two things we hate the most on a day-to-day basis are, number one: housework and number two: the daily commute in our cars.  In fact, if you can cut an hour-long commute each way out of your life, it's the [happiest] equivalent of making up an extra forty thousand dollars a year.

-- Dan Buettner

Quote of the Day

This intuitive sense that the Church was wrong about homosexuality -- this unshakable conviction that the Church was wrong about me -- led me to wonder what else the Church might be wrong about.

-- Dan Savage, American Savage, p. 7

Quote of the Day

I was proud of how I handled her now.  I pretended my mother was a near-extinct, exotic bird.  You had to be very subtle and cagey in your approach.  You had to hold out your hand and pretend you wanted anything other than for her to land there.  I loved the feel of her feathers, the glance of them on my palm, the whisper, and I worked for it.

-- Heather Sellers, You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know, p. 262

Rachel Held Evans:

Hate grows in the soil of ignorance, and when it comes to sexuality, there’s a lot of ignorance to go around. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a well-intentioned Christian say something about how children in gay families suffer (this is not true) or how all gay people are pedophiles (also not true).  We can debate the merits of same-sex marriage, certainly, but let’s do it based on facts, not myths. And we can discuss how the Bible and Christian tradition factor into things as well, but let’s be informed about our convictions.   Check out 10 anti-gay myths debunked at The Southern Poverty Law Center to get started, and then follow the links to the various studies and scientific research that is cited there. For books, The Marin Foundation has a handy list here that includes perspectives from both conservative and progressive Christians.
 
"Responding to homophobia in the Christian community"

Frank Schaeffer:

The New Atheists have played into the evangelical/fundamentalist's hands.  Each side fans the flames of victimhood.  "An atheist can never be president!" says one side.  "A Christian never gets a fair shake in the New York Times!" claims the other.  Each side is led by opportunists claiming to speak for a beleaguered minority.

Patience With God, p. 118