Sunday, November 11, 2012

Quarterly Quote of the Month about Jesus for this Week

“Principles are what people have instead of God. To be a Christian means among other things to be willing if necessary to sacrifice even your highest principles for God's or your neighbour's sake the way a Christian pacifist must be willing to pick up a baseball bat if there's no other way to stop a man from savagely beating a child.

Jesus didn't forgive his executioners on principle but because in some unimaginable way he was able to love them. 'Principle' is an even duller word than 'Religion'.”

                                                           ~Frederick Buechner
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 12, 2012 at 9:23 AM

    Provocative statement! I approve this message.

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    1. Anthony Le DonneNovember 12, 2012 at 10:04 AM

      ...not sure if I do, but it's Buechner, so it's worth considering.

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  2. AnonymousNovember 24, 2012 at 11:09 AM

    This is an interesting and thought-provoking quote by Buechner. Think that he is saying that being Christian means be able to make sacrifices, even if it means sacrificing something else that you believe in order to serve God. In a way it seems like he is putting God and religion before principles. However, I don't think that these things are mutually exclusive. I believe that a major component of religion is observing and honoring certain principles; I don't see principles as being a replacement for God.

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  3. AnonymousDecember 4, 2012 at 9:09 PM

    Principles can easily be broken if one feels that it is no longer right in a certain situation. Buechner mentions above that if a pacifist saw a man beating a child, he must be willing to pick up a bat and defend that child. Although it goes against the Pacifists principles at that time that principle no longer applied because this child's life was in danger. It is somewhat similar to how values can change a lot over time.

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