Those Who Have Ears...

I enjoy listening to teachings from across the spectrum of thought, and I often get stuck with pieces that just stay lodged in my heart. Here are a couple of quotes from two separate talks that I heard recently:

 South African pastor and bishop Peter Storey said, “American preachers have a task more difficult, perhaps, than those faced by us under South Africa’s apartheid, or Christians under Communism. We had obvious evils to engage; you have to unwrap your culture from years of red, white and blue myth. You have to expose, and confront, the great disconnection between the kindness, compassion and caring of most American people, and the ruthless way American power is experienced, directly and indirectly, by the poor of the earth. You have to help good -people see how they have let their institutions do their sinning for them. This is not easy among people who really believe that their country does nothing but good, but it is necessary, not only for their future, but for us all.”

 Bruxey Cavey said, "Every hour that you put into trying to get America to act more Christian as an earthly nation, is another hour that you're not working at just getting the church to act more Christian. And I think you could spend your whole life on the latter rather than the former. Rather than trying to legislate morality, we teach the church to be the church."

 Wow, both pretty striking.