{"quotes":[{"text":"While you were busy trying to prove God stands behind you, God was before me lighting the trail, so he could lead us both.","author":"Shannon L. Alder","tags":["be-kind","building-people-up","commandments","communicate","conflict","dogma","end-it-with-talking","facebook","forgive","god","gospel","hidden-agendas","insecure","jilted","love-everyone","low-self-esteem","making-a-point","mental-illness","move-on","neighbors","novels","obviousness","out-there","over-the-top","piety","pious","practice-what-you-preach","preaching","privacy","problems","reach-out","relationships","relentless","religion","religions","ridiculous","rules","self-righteousness","silly","slighted","talk","tearing-people-down","upfront","worthless"],"id":7615,"author_id":"Shannon+L.+Alder"},{"text":"As sinners we are like addicts - addicted to ourselves and our own projects. The theology of glory simply seeks to give those projects eternal legitimacy. The remedy for the theology of glory, therefore, cannot be encouragement and positive thinking, but rather the end of the addictive desire. Luther says it directly: 'The remedy for curing desire does not lie in satisfying it, but in extinguishing it.' So we are back to the cross, the radical intervention, end of the life of the old and the beginning of the new. Since the theology of glory is like addiction and not abstract doctrine, it is a temptation over which we have no control in and of ourselves, and from which we must be saved. As with the addict, mere exhortation and optimistic encouragement will do no good. It may be intended to build up character and self-esteem, but when the addict realizes the impossibility of quitting, self-esteem degenerates all the more. The alcoholic will only take to drinking in secret, trying to put on the facade of sobriety. As theologians of glory we do much the same. We put on a facade of religious propriety and piety and try to hide or explain away or coddle our sins.... As with the addict there has to be an intervention, an act from without. In treatment of alcoholics some would speak of the necessity of 'bottoming out,' reaching the absolute bottom where one can no longer escape the need for help. Then it is finally evident that the desire can never be satisfied, but must be extinguished. In matters of faith, the preaching of the cross is analogous to that intervention. It is an act of God, entirely from without. It does not come to feed the religious desires of the Old Adam and Eve but to extinguish them. They are crucified with Christ to be made new.","author":"Gerhard O. Forde","tags":["addict","cross","glory","gospel","piety","sinner","theology"],"id":42755,"author_id":"Gerhard+O.+Forde"},{"text":"To be humble is to be teachable. Meek, not weak. The most humble people are the most aggressive leaders. Aggressive because to be truly taught, is to sincerely do. To lead. To start. To achieve. Willingly and urgently doing the work to make change.","author":"Richie Norton","tags":["achieve","aggressive","aggressive-behavior","aggressively","aggressiveness","change","entrepreneurship","gandhi","humanitarian","humble","humble-power","humble-yourself","humbleness","humility","meek","piety","startup","taught","teach","urgently","weak","willingly"],"id":54328,"author_id":"Richie+Norton"},{"text":"He was very religious he believed that he had a secret pact with God which exempted him from doing good in exchange for prayers and piety. ","author":"Jorge Luis Borges","tags":["hypocrisy","piety","religion"],"id":59198,"author_id":"Jorge+Luis+Borges"},{"text":"There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are guilty on behalf of all and for all. Whereas by shifting your own laziness and powerlessness onto others, you will end by sharing in Satan's pride and murmuring against God.The Brothers KaramazovBook VI - The Russian Monk, Chapter 3 - Conversations and Exhortations of Father Zosima.","author":"Fyodor Dostoyevsky","tags":["community","eastern-orthodox","god","holiness","orthodox","piety","religion","russia","the-brothers-karamazov"],"id":60846,"author_id":"Fyodor+Dostoyevsky"},{"text":"Piety is a discipline of the will through respect. It admits the right to exist of things larger than the ego, of things different from the ego.","author":"Richard M. Weaver","tags":["discipline","piety","politeness","rectitude"],"id":72563,"author_id":"Richard+M.+Weaver"},{"text":"I am not perfect, but if I looked perfect to everyone I must have been rocking imperfect perfectly to a few imperfect souls that seek imperfection vs. Perfection, in an imperfect world where God asks us to seek perfection for our imperfect souls.","author":"Shannon L. Alder","tags":["brainwashed","christian-hypocrisy","conundrum","critics","ethnic-cleansing","gibberish","group-cyberbulling","haters","humor","imperfect","imperfection","insecure","jokes","judegment","judgement","judgers","laughing","oscar-wilde","perfect","perfection","philosophical-redundance","piety","self-righteousness","stupid-people","stupidity"],"id":75092,"author_id":"Shannon+L.+Alder"},{"text":"My love for her was close to piety. You may think it strange that I should use this word, with its religious connotation, to describe my feeling towards a woman. But even now I believe—and I believe it very strongly—that true love is not so far removed from religious faith.","author":"Sōseki Natsume","tags":["love","piety","religion","spirituality"],"id":84020,"author_id":"S%C5%8Dseki+Natsume"},{"text":"The forces of piety have always and everywhere been the sworn enemy of the open mind and the open book.","author":"Christopher Hitchens","tags":["dissent","freethought","piety","rebellion","religion","strength","wisdom"],"id":87728,"author_id":"Christopher+Hitchens"},{"text":"Saying of the ProphetHumilityHumility and courtesy are themselves a part of piety.","author":"Idries Shah","tags":["evolution","hadith","humility","islam","muhammad","piety","religion","sufis","sufism"],"id":87823,"author_id":"Idries+Shah"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":42,"pages":5,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}