Posts

Showing posts from August, 2012

"Distrust no man's strength so much as thine own"

There was a very remarkable thing that happened in the upper room when Jesus celebrated his last Passover with his disciples before he suffered. He had said that one of them would betray him. And then, as Matthew tells us, “they [each] began to say to him one after another, ‘Is it I, Lord?’ ” (Matt. 26:22). I say this is remarkable because eleven of the twelve disciples had no consciousness of ever having formed the intention to betray him, yet each one asks, “Is it I, Lord? Am I the one?” The disciples had come to understand that Jesus “knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man” (Jn. 2:24-25). And now he announces that one of them would betray him and rather than saying, “No this can’t be! Surely not!” Or, “Surely not me!” They each “began to say to him one after another, ‘Is it I, Lord? Is it I? Am I the one?” See how distrustful they were of themselves. Though they were not conscious of ever having formed the inten

The diversity that is not diverse

Add the name of Christine Quinn to the list of people who are unable to detect even the most obvious of self-contradictions. She is the Speaker of the New York City Council. Like the mayors of Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., she is using the powers of her office to punish Chick-fil-A for having the audacity to disagree with her. She wrote a letter to New York University president John Sexton asking him to immediately terminate the school's contract with Chick-fil-A. The company's lone NYC franchise is in the school's food court. Said Ms. Quinn, "I write as the Speaker of the NYC Council, and on behalf of my family. NYC is a place where we celebrate diversity. We do not believe in denigrating others. We revel in the diversity of all our citizens..." Translation:  "NYC is a place where we celebrate diversity [meaning people who think just like us]. We do not believe in denigrating others [unless they refuse to think just like us]. We