Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: December 8, 2012 at 3:45 pm by Fred Clark

Smart people saying smart things 2012-12-08T15:45:41-05:00 Fred Clark

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Charlie Pierce: “In Which the GOP Reminds Us How Little They Care”

This is what prevails when you scratch down beneath the pretty surface — a party so completely fking unhinged that it thinks that a treaty on the rights of disabled people is some sort of one-world plot to steal the liberty of a third-rate moron like Jim Inhofe. This is conspiracy-theory brought to government. This is what’s there beneath all the perfumed words about “reforming,” say, Medicare and Medicaid. They simply do not care. Their prejudices and their paranoia must have pride of place over any help to be given to the less fortunate among us. Christians, my ass, They’d have been signing up for luxury suites on Golgotha.

Kristen Gaylord: “Stuff Christian College Kids Don’t Like”

Thus, for this group of young, Christian-college twenty-somethings, charity work is good, but political work is iffy. Protesting against contemporary slavery is honorable, but protesting against discriminatory hiring prejudices might take things too far. Non-objective art is beautiful; feminist art is discomforting. Talking about community is commendable; talking about alternative economic systems is extreme.

Jason Kuznicki: “Help.”

Do you want to give food? Add up its retail price. Take that money out of your wallet. Flush 90 percent of it down the toilet. Send the food bank the rest. You’re still helping more than if you gave the food.

John L. McKenzie: “Apocalypse is the cry of the helpless …”

Apocalypse is the cry of the helpless, who are borne passively by events which they cannot influence, much less control. The cry of the helpless is often vindictive, expressing impotent rage at reality. Apocalyptic rage is a flight from reality, a plea to God to fulfill their wishes and prove them right and the other wrong. Apocalyptic believers could hardly think the saying, “Go, make disciples of all nations,” was addressed to them. Had apocalyptic believers dominated the church since the first century, there would have been no missions to unbelievers, no schools, no hospitals, no orphanages, no almsgiving. The helpless cannot afford to think of such enterprises; they can only await the act of God, and then complain because that act is so long delayed. The gospels and epistles rather tell the believers that they are the act of God.

Sarah Bessey: “In which it’s a two-part invention”

Sometimes, I keep secrets because not enough time has passed for me to be able to really write about something. I keep secrets because it’s not yet time to tell that part of my life. I keep some secrets because it would hurt others to have it aired publicly. I keep secrets because only one part of the story can be told but really there is so much more going on behind the scenes.

I keep some secrets because I’m embarrassed or ashamed, others are because they are too dear and too precious for mass-consumption. I keep secrets because my appetite for truth and transparency doesn’t supersede my responsibility to care for the emotional well-being and hearts of others, and because most of our lives don’t occur in a vacuum.

I keep secrets because my family and my friends didn’t sign up to have their lives aired publicly.

I keep secrets because I like having my own life, tucked away, just for me. …

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