From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified)
~Amy Carmichael
A profound piece of surgery has to take place in the very psyche of the disinherited before the great claim of the religion of Jesus can be presented. the great stretches of barren places in the soul must be revitalized, brought to life, before they can be challenged... Mere preaching is not enough. What are words, however sacred and powerful, in the presence of the grim facts of the daily struggle to survive?
~ Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited
"...Class is not a thing. It is not a structure. Class happens. It is a prescient comment. Class happens in the clothes people wear, in the things they do and don't do that make them smell differently, in their talk and what they talk about, in the practices that denote "good breeding" and in those that don't, in the kind of whiskey they drink, and how well they can cover their "impaired moments"... Class happens in the everyday encounters - I like to call them rituals - of inequality, where one person commands respect and the other provides it, where one person gives orders and the other takes them, where deference is offered and received and where one's bearing/demeanor shifts to reflect one's place in the schemes of class....
I had no idea of the degree to which I was an active participant in a struggle for distinction. I swam too much in a sea of inequality to be aware that I was engulfed by it."
~ Tex Sample, White Soul: Country Music, The Church and Working Americans
"Church members in too many cases are like deep sea divers, encased in the suits designed for fathoms deep, marching bravely to pull out plugs in bathtubs."
~ Peter Marshall
"The hard living expect that institutions (including the church) do things to them, not for them and certainly not with them.
"We must discover what we need, that we share, that the hard living have much to give us.""
~ Tex Sample, Bonnie Rosen-Cowherd
"The Gospel pleads a message of grace, and still Christians live as if they are 'G - rated' people offended by an 'R - rated' world."
~ John Fischer
"Remember that to those who are ignoring the game, or eating in the parking lot, or dozing in the sky boxes, the game on the field is just a game. To the players on the field, it’s blood, desperation, hope and perseverance."
~ internetmonk, The Suburban Jesus Hates Me
"Only the very safe can talk about wrong and right
Of those who are forced to choose, some will choose to fight."
~ Paul Doran, Natives - (From Endless Seasons, Rankin Family)
"So we will venture into this "season to be jolly" albeit with sadness in our hearts, but finding strength and comfort and joy through the One who not only sees and knows and validates our pain but also provides a personal escort."
~ Lisa Elliot, The Ben Ripple
"To figure out what was happening behind the cliches, I'd learned, meant a practice of looking not at the centre but at the edges of things - at the unlikeliest and weakest people, not the most apparently powerful. It meant asking lots of stupid questions, making room for inconvenient facts that didn't fit the schema, and trying to remain honest about what I didn't know."
~ Sara Miles, Take This Bread
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified)
~Amy Carmichael
A profound piece of surgery has to take place in the very psyche of the disinherited before the great claim of the religion of Jesus can be presented. the great stretches of barren places in the soul must be revitalized, brought to life, before they can be challenged... Mere preaching is not enough. What are words, however sacred and powerful, in the presence of the grim facts of the daily struggle to survive?
~ Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited
"...Class is not a thing. It is not a structure. Class happens. It is a prescient comment. Class happens in the clothes people wear, in the things they do and don't do that make them smell differently, in their talk and what they talk about, in the practices that denote "good breeding" and in those that don't, in the kind of whiskey they drink, and how well they can cover their "impaired moments"... Class happens in the everyday encounters - I like to call them rituals - of inequality, where one person commands respect and the other provides it, where one person gives orders and the other takes them, where deference is offered and received and where one's bearing/demeanor shifts to reflect one's place in the schemes of class....
I had no idea of the degree to which I was an active participant in a struggle for distinction. I swam too much in a sea of inequality to be aware that I was engulfed by it."
~ Tex Sample, White Soul: Country Music, The Church and Working Americans
"Church members in too many cases are like deep sea divers, encased in the suits designed for fathoms deep, marching bravely to pull out plugs in bathtubs."
~ Peter Marshall
"The hard living expect that institutions (including the church) do things to them, not for them and certainly not with them.
"We must discover what we need, that we share, that the hard living have much to give us.""
~ Tex Sample, Bonnie Rosen-Cowherd
"The Gospel pleads a message of grace, and still Christians live as if they are 'G - rated' people offended by an 'R - rated' world."
~ John Fischer
"Remember that to those who are ignoring the game, or eating in the parking lot, or dozing in the sky boxes, the game on the field is just a game. To the players on the field, it’s blood, desperation, hope and perseverance."
~ internetmonk, The Suburban Jesus Hates Me
"Only the very safe can talk about wrong and right
Of those who are forced to choose, some will choose to fight."
~ Paul Doran, Natives - (From Endless Seasons, Rankin Family)
"So we will venture into this "season to be jolly" albeit with sadness in our hearts, but finding strength and comfort and joy through the One who not only sees and knows and validates our pain but also provides a personal escort."
~ Lisa Elliot, The Ben Ripple
"To figure out what was happening behind the cliches, I'd learned, meant a practice of looking not at the centre but at the edges of things - at the unlikeliest and weakest people, not the most apparently powerful. It meant asking lots of stupid questions, making room for inconvenient facts that didn't fit the schema, and trying to remain honest about what I didn't know."
~ Sara Miles, Take This Bread
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