Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Ordering of Our Affections


I have recently started Naugle's new book, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives, and am already excited. I enjoy good books that combine Christian spiritual formation and sound thinking, and this one falls smack in the middle of that category. So, unless I radically change my mind, this book is worth the price and a good, slow read!
The book's website is here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How unfortunate you are to attract such commenters.

In days gone by executive power rested in the hands of a monarch. Since power corrupts this arrangement limited the number of corrupted souls but increased the number of imposed upon, and therefore miserable, uncorrupted souls. Eventually a consensus regarding the undesirability of this state of affairs was reached. By the expedient of killing those who disagreed, power was distributed to the electorate who chose representatives in wielding executive authority. Thus were many empowered, that is to say corrupted, and misery lessened. The now less miserable and more corrupt populi apprehended that the right of kings was in their hands. Just as kings used their power to accumulate luxuries, the empowered public voted themselves some indulgences. These treats were to be supplied by the government from the public coffers. The public coffers were filled by taxes paid by the public. Somehow the elected representatives took credit for the flowing weal and convinced the public that they were good and necessary as securers of access to the teats of mama pig gov’t. Eventually influence with representatives was sold to the highest bidder and the interest of corporations replaced the interest of the people. This pandering to business interests was still done out of the public coffers, which the reader will remember were filled by the public. Thus did power accumulate into fewer and fewer hands leaving smaller numbers of corrupted souls but larger numbers of the miserable and disenfranchised. It is a fine thing to have an uncorrupted (powerless) soul but, it is a little hard to pay taxes and taxes and taxes with only increasing misery for the public and increasing corruption of elected representatives as a result. It is this unfortunate state of affairs that requires solutions. It is always tempting when seeking solutions to attempt assigning blame. The problem with pointing the finger is that when one finger points away three fingers point back. There is no escaping the responsibility. The direction of the future is yours to decide. Should we keep our spotless souls enduring increasing misery with the grim satisfaction of the righteous or, should we accept our share of corruption and give some of our misery to our unloved aristocracy?
This from Jaques