citat

Något provokativt att begrunda i hängmattan:

"Familjen, det är egoism i grupp. En gruppegoism som förnekar individen. Och den är inte, som man ibland hör, produkten av individualism... Utvecklingen av våra samtida seder visar tvärtom på den ofantliga utväxten av familjekänslan. Det är familjen som har vunnit på bekostnad av sociala relationer, vänner, grannar... Den är drottningen."
Corine Maier, No Kid. 40 skäl att inte skaffa barn (Schibsted förlagen, 2008), 95.

Last Sunday was the 123rd anniversary of Karl Barth's birth. Here is one quote from his Church Dogmatics which have followed me for over 25 years and definitively did chaken my view of God ever since.

"Hence, the gift of forgiveness is the gift of the capacity to forgive and the return of the gift is a sign of the gift’s reception. Where it is not given, it has not been received… Conversely, where it has been received, the gift of forgiveness that is love is returned… Moreover, the gift of forgiveness is the communally instantiated capacity to forgive. Being in Christ is to participate in Christ’s body, the Church. Hence, we learn to receive and return the gift in the Church, and the task of the Church is nothing other than the reception and transmission of this gift.

"What should we get out of worship? Wrong question. Worship is not a utility but an offering, a sacrifice, an economy of grace that interrupts and critiques the feverish cycles of production and consumption - which is why the collection is not fund-raising but cultural critique. If you want relevance, excitement, or profit, go to a rally, a concert, or the stock exchange. To put it most counter-culturally: Blessed are the bored, for they will see God. Indeed you must be bored-again."

The Anabaptists, partly because of outside forces, gave priority to the proclamation and realization of the gospel in the community before they participated in shaping the world. Already Celsus blamed such an attitude for leaving "the government on earth for the most lawless and wildest barbarians" who neither respect the worship of God nor true wisdom among people. The accusation that Christian pacifism thrives on the fact that others take care of the dirty business of politics has a tradition!