struggle

"to proclaim Person without Message, Ressurrection without Cross, or vice versa, is simply to try to manipulate religious concepts in order to make people believe that one's own little view of existence is God's view of existence."

"i conceive a strip-miner to be a model exploiter, and as a model nurturer i take the old-fashioned idea or ideal of a farmer. the exploiter is a specialist, an expert; the nurturer is not. the standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care. the exploiter's goal is money, profit; the nurturer's goal is health--his land's health, his own, his family's, his community's, his country's....the exploiter wishes to earn as much as possible by as little work as possible; the nurturer expects, certainly, to have a decent living from his work, but his characteristic wish is to work as well as possible. the competence of the exploiter is in organization; that of the nurturer is in order--a human order, that is, that accommodates itself both to other order and to mystery. the exploiter typically serves an institution or organization; the nurturer serves land, houshold, community, place. the exploiter thinks in terms of numbers, quantities, "hard facts"; the nurturer in terms of character, condition, quality, kind." --wendell berry

capitalists are the exploiters of our land. their advertisements shape the landscape we live in and clutter our mental environments with images promoting lust, self-centeredness and materialism. while attempting to shamelessly sell their products to us they try to tell us how to think, act, look, and even smell. we must reject this in every way possible.

if we are to live out the radical life which Christ has called us to, there are many things we have to allow ourselves to be freed from. the first of these is fear. "there is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. he that feareth is not made perfect in love."--1 john 4:18 we cannot possibly live a life of service to our Lord and to each other if we are afraid of anything. this includes death, persecution, loneliness, even loss and starvation. amen



¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.--ephesians 6:12