EthixBytes
A Collection of Quotes, Comments, Statistics, and News Items
“Nothing contributes so much to social stability as an occasional scream of anguish from the well-to-do.”
John Kenneth Galbraith.
“I have tried to live a life I hope is unintelligible if the God we Christians worship does not exist. . . . wherever Christians exist they are constituted by words and actions that should—but may not—make their lives difficult.”
Stanley Hauerwas, who William Cavanaugh describes as “the one pacifist you would most want on your side in a bar fight.” (Christian Century, 8/24/10).
“A Baptist minister from Oregon who was killed in Afghanistan is the first Army chaplain to die in combat since Vietnam.”
(Sojourners, 9/3/10)
“Democracy didn’t bring us anything. Democracy brought us a can of Coke and a beer.”
Haitham Farhan, a disillusioned Baghdad shop owner (N.Y. Times).
“If one of the court’s conservatives leaves and is replaced by a liberal, the Second Amendment could revert to what it was for more than two centuries: a right that belongs to states, not individuals.”
Adam Cohen, on the Supreme Court’s ruling that Americans in all 50 states have a constitutional right to own firearms for self-defense (Time.com, June 29).
“The fact that anybody can now say anything publicly does not mean that anything anybody says is worth hearing.”
Jon Meacham, Newsweek Editor.
“When the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform set off the worst oil spill in American history it was flying the flag of the Marshall Islands—registering there significantly reduced Transocean’s American taxes, who for the same reason moved corporate headquarters from Houston to the Cayman Islands in 1999 and then to Switzerland in 2008.”
Dallas Morning News, (7/4/10).
“Only when Christian faith in God is lost do people feel compelled to make use of all means—even criminal—to force the victory of their cause . . . [even] torture.”
Pastor/martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic work Ethics.
“The United States Constitution is a secular document. It makes no mention of God, a Creator or a Supreme Being of any sort. It doesn’t mention the Bible. Nor is it true that our legal system is founded on the Ten Commandments. To the contrary, our laws don’t prohibit blasphemy, coveting, lying, adultery or failing to honor our parents.”
William D. Underwood, Pres. of Mercer Univ. in response to Sarah Palin’s assertion on Fox News that policy makers should return to what our founders meant, laws based on the Bible and the Ten Commandments.
“The simple fact is this: all the Bush tax cuts were unaffordable. They were an irresponsible act of hubris enacted during an economic boom.”
Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek (8/9/10).
“Our government declares war promiscuously—on drugs, poverty, cancer, environmental problems, etc.—but never when actually going to war.”
George Will (Newsweek, 7/5/10).
“A study by Stanford found that 37% of charter schools produce academic results THAT ARE WORSE THAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, while only 17% perform significantly better.”
(Newsweek, 6/21/10).
“It seems to me that . . . female subordination functions as a sixth point of TULIP for New Calvinists. John Piper, R. Albert Mohler Jr. and Mark Driscoll, . . all promote Christian patriarchy.”
Prof. Jenell Williams Paris, Messiah College (PA).
“Simple justice demands that women should have equal rights with men in mission meetings and in the conduct of their work.”
Lottie Moon, SBC missionary to China (1873-1912) in a letter to the mission board that forbid her to teach men, plant churches, or evangelize, which she did anyway.
“25% of U.S. adults attributed Proverbs 31:8 about caring for the poor to either Obama or the Dalai Lama.”
Sojourners (2/10).
“Detainees in Iraqi prisons and jails often go years without trial, face wide-spread torture and abuse, and have little access to their families or legal help, even as the U.S. military hands over all prison responsibilities to Iraqi authorities.”
(Amnesty International, 9/13/10).
“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. . . it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”
