Thoughts from Clive Staples, Part 1

I've been reading a lot of books this summer over various topics of interest. The problem never seems to be, "Should I read this book?", rather, "Which book should I read now?". My issue is that I see 3 or 4 different books that I want to read and then get them all. I then strategically place them all over the house in various places where I might have some spare time to pick them up and read a few pages (yes, like the bathrooms). This becomes a problem because I now find myself reading only small portions from one book rather than large portions of a whole book. So I never get anything finished. Anyways, sorry for the rant.

I was reading The Screwtape Letters today when I came to this explanation of Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood concerning what he wants the human to believe humility is. I found this very convicting for myself and just wanted to share:

"You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Humility. Let him think of it not as self-forgetfulness but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character...By this method millions of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. An since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible." pgs 70-71

Ouch.

One of the best articles I've read in a while

I've just finished reading a very long, but very elightening article discussing the role of evangelical Protestantism in American culture. If you associate yourself in any way with Christianity, this article is a very very good read,

http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i42/42b00601.htm

PS: Please allot yourself about 10 minutes to read it as it is lenghty. Feel free to leave your comments on this blog, or e-mail me with what you think.

Is there anything about this article that bothers you?

This article kind of bothers me. I just don't think we need to get this crazy about technology for churches. It just seems like its taking things a little "over the top".