I was just going through my moleskin looking for a quote I wrote down from the Westminster Confession the last time I took a class with my doctrine of God professor (he always puts the same section on the test) and I found that quote by Leon Wieseltier I liked it in 2004 and I still like it today because it says so much with so few words.
What do you think of it? I think it reminds me of the Christian life (yeah, I know he's a Jew :-) -- we suffer and then we understand.
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"it popular with many writers because it is easy to carry."
And it has a little pocket in the back where you can stick notes. Much nicer than a spiral notebook because it's bound (it's like a little composition book).
Eh, I pass.
What was the WCF quote?
WCF 7:1
"The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant."
"i was forced to swallow my conservative pride and fall back onto those social programs that you call "failures" in order to keep my house and food on the table. if it weren't for those programs, i wouldn't have lasted long enough to find that next job. you conservatives talk about this fictional "welfare state" populated by lazy people who just live off of our tax money and have no desire to work. except for a few who game the system, you couldn't be more wrong. i know from experience that in colorado at least, you can't remain on these programs unless you prove every second week that you're looking for work."
Are you talking about pre-reform or post-reform of welfare?
BTW, I understand that it can be a help when you have no other option (I have seen it first hand, btw) but I also understand that it doesn't address the underlying problems that this nation faces when it comes to poverty. If you would get over you suspicion and hatred of people like me, and we stop playing one-upman maybe we could have a real conversation about the poor (of course it will have to wait until after finals :-) because I'm not against local government help for the poor, I'm against the federal government doing it.
Sheesh! I can't even put up a nice quote and say what it means to me with out getting questioned.
That's because it seems you so often go out of your way to express divisive, snarky, us/them comments, which seem very disconnected to the spirit of grace, forgiveness, and spiritual generosity that I think of as the foundation of Christian practice. Especially since, as you acknowledge, the quote comes from a religious Jew, a group who have as much a history of both tears and thoughts as Christians, even more if you're counting the centuries, your comment -- and your response to my earlier comment -- come across, in the cold light of a computer screen, as insensitive and ungracious.
I'd like to know more about your support for local programs over federal, though I expect you know that most programs combine both in terms of funding and administration. The history of federal programs being turned over to local control -- the Reagan-era block grants and the expulsion/liberation of the mentally ill from institutional care that was supposed to lead to better local programs but instead led to homelessness and abandonment, for example -- has often been one of increased inefficiency, increased expense, increased corruption, and increased neglect. This is a genuine question; I am completely sincere when I ask you which local programs you think are more effective than which federal programs and what your evidence is.
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