The First Thing To Say

Consumerism Is, Quite Precisely, The Consuming Of Life By The Things Consumed. It Is Living In A Manner That Is Measured By Having Rather Than Being... And Consumerism Is Hardly The Sin Of The Rich. The Poor, Driven By Discontent And Envy, May Be As Consumed By What They Do Not Have As The Rich Are Consumed By What They Do Have. The Question Is Not, Certainly Not Most Importantly, A Question About Economics. It Is First And Foremost A Cultural And Moral Problem Requiring A Cultural And Moral Remedy.

If A Church Offers No Truth That Is Not Available In The General Culture - In, For Instance, The Editorials Of The New York Times Or, For That Matter, Of National Review - There Is Not Much Reason To Pay It Attention.

Where Orthodoxy Is Optional, Orthodoxy Will Sooner Or Later Be Proscribed.

For Paradise We Long. For Perfection We Were Made...this Longing Is The Source Of The Hunger And Dissatisfaction That Mark Our Lives...this Longing Makes Our Loves And Friendships Possible, And So Very Unsatisfactory. The Hunger Is For...nothing Less Than Perfect Communion With The...one In Whom All The Fragments Of Our Scattered Existence Come Together...we Must Not Stifle This Longing. It Is A Holy Dissatisfaction. Such Dissatisfaction Is Not A Sickness To Be Healed, But The Seed Of A Promise To Be Fulfilled...the Only Death To Fear Is The Death Of Settling For Something Less.

One Would Like To Believe That People Who Think Of Themselves As Devout Christians Would Also Behave In A Manner That Is In According With Christian Ethics. But Pastorally And Existentially, I Know That This Is Not The Case, And Never Has Been.