Notes & Quotes

I am always reading. A pile of half-finished books sit on my desk, and rather than watching the pile shrink, it seems to only grow. One book leads to another and then to another and then to another, so I always seem to be in between five or six books--and that doesn't even include the magazines and journals I subscribe to! There is so much to read, and so little time! I mark up my books, underlying, highlighting, starring, and keeping my own personal index on the empty front pages of books. I come across so many pearls of wisdom, memorable nuggets of truth that hardly get passed on unless I loan a book to someone. So this "Notes & Quotes" page is a collection of wisdom gathered from people much wiser than myself. I hope it will lead you to pick up a book, joining me in all the good reading that is out there! Happy Reading!

"They serve up silly sermonettes to Christianettes in bassinettes," http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/spiritual-growth/18165-warning-sugar-coated-ear-candy-gospel-is-weakening-saints

"Sometimes we worship tradition more than we worship Jesus, preferring the comfort of the familiar to the challenge and risk of doing something new."
-Mike Slaughter in Christmas Is Not Your Birthday (67)

"Here is a law as reliable as gravity: the degree to which we believe our faith is what makes us human is the same degree to which we will question the humanity of those who do not share our faith. 'We have just enough religion to make us hate one another,' Jonathan Swift once observed, 'but not enough to make us love one another.' Because we are human, which is to say essentially self-interested, we are always looking for ways to add a little more authority to our causes, to come up with better reasons to fight for what we want than 'Because I want it, that's why.' If we can convince ourselves that God wants it too--even if that means making God in our own image so we can deny the image of God in our enemies--then we are free to engage in combative piety."
-Barbara Brown Taylor in An Altar in the World