Sunday, October 28, 2007

Christian embarrassment

Yeah, no kidding:

Often a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other parts of the world, about the motions and orbits of the stars and even their sizes and distances,... and this knowledge he holds with certainty from reason and experience. It is thus offensive and disgraceful for an unbeliever to hear a Christian talk nonsense about such things, claiming that what he is saying is based in Scripture. We should do all that we can to avoid such an embarrassing situation, which people see as ignorance in the Christian and laugh to scorn.

- St. Augustine

This is from Augustine's work, De Genesi ad litteram libri duodecim.

And while I'm quoting Augustine, let me add the followings one about justice:

Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.

This second statement is quoted by William Sloane Coffin in The Heart Is a Little to the Left.

1 comment:

  1. Any Christian who is certain of his salvation and deny others their own, does not know the scriptures or God.
    Present day evils that a Christian views as worthy of God's justice and does not fight as much as it is within him to confront and oppose, is a discredit to the faith he represents.
    benny

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