Let Us Tell Better Stories to Our Culture, to Our Children

What story will we tell our culture?

What will it reveal about what we believe, love, and allow into our hearts to shape our affections?

 

:: Stories are Light; Ranting is Arson by S.D. Smith @ BreakPoint

'Chuck Colson wisely said that “politics is downstream of culture.” And what feeds the ecosystem of culture more than anything else? Stories. Stories. By the time the election comes, it’s too late. It’s been too late for a long time. Our hearts were already won over by the stories we loved as children, the tales that shaped us as profoundly as anything else in life. Likely more.'

 

:: The Age of Hooper: On Calculation, Poetry, and the Grace That Will Save the World by Andrew Kern @ CiRCE

"You cannot build a business on calculation, not to mention a family, a household, a tribe, a city, a state, or a confederation of states.

"You cannot build a moral code on calculation.

"You cannot reduce instruction or assessment to calculation.

"You cannot do philosophy or theology with calculation.

"It is not information that will save the world, but grace; and grace comes in the story of an image-restoring Son."

 

:: Tolkien Alternatives to the “Benedict Option” @ Crisis Magazine

"There are times when the burden of need and our own limitations might tempt us to become discouraged. But precisely then we are helped by the knowledge that, in the end, we are only instruments in the Lord’s hands; and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone are personally responsible for building a better world."

 

:: You Barely Make a Difference, and That’s a Good Thing @ Ancient Faith

"We have no commandment from God to make the world a better place. We have no commandment from God to “make a difference.” Only God makes a difference, and only God knows what “better” would actually mean. As Christians, the proper life is one lived in accordance with the commandments. We should love. We should forgive. We should be generous and kind. We should give thanks to God always and for everything."

 

:: Flannery O’Connor’s Hollow Men @ The Imaginative Conservative

"Many of Flannery O’Connor’s stories portray the ineptness of men to uphold traditional ideals of manhood. The men show no leadership, they do not protect or care for their family members, they lack all manner of chivalry, and they lose a sense of priority as they commit to careers and professions or social and political agendas at the expense of their family members. In these stories, the failure of men to live with honor, integrity, and magnanimity leads to tragic loss of family members they neglected in their pursuit of political causes or personal desires."

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SKIP THE REST OF THIS POST IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ ABOUT POLITICS ON THIS BLOG.

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:: Four Issues to Consider Before You Vote Trump – What is Really at Stake @ Samuel Whitefield

"Despite his wickedness, many Christians are being rallied to Trump’s cause by the idea that we must do anything to prevent a Clinton presidency. However, I want to say boldly that a Clinton presidency is not the biggest thing at stake in this election. The biggest thing at stake in this election is the church’s prophetic voice to the culture. The church’s role in the national discourse is at stake and that is far more important than who the next president is. Trading our voice in culture in an attempt to prevent a Clinton presidency should be a horrific thought to us.”

[If anyone comments on this post to tell me that any critique of Trump is support for Clinton, or that my vote for a third party is not actually a vote for a third party but a vote for Clinton, or that a third party can’t win, or that Trump’s character does not matter because Clinton is worse, or that Trump is a “Christian,” or that God can use anyone, or that character doesn’t matter because we are not electing a religious leader, or that I’m singling out Trump because I did not post about Clinton, or that we only have two choices because our secular world tells us so, or that I must not care about the world my children live in, then they have completely and utterly missed the point of this post.]

 

Are we telling stories of hope or fear? Love or hate? Do the right thing regardless of the outcome because God is in control, or the end justifies the means? Be a person of integrity even if no one is watching, or do what it takes to win? Christianity is the “long view” or American politics is the “long view”? In whom are we placing our trust and confidence and fealty?