Josh Bishop Reads

Every real thing is a joy, if only you have eyes and ears to relish it, a nose and a tongue to taste it.

Robert Farrar Capon in The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection

There is a habit that plagues many so-called spiritual minds: they imagine that matter and spirit are somehow at odds with each other and that the right course for human life is to escape from the world of matter into some finer and purer (and undoubtedly duller) realm. To me, that is a crashing mistake. Because, in fact, it was God who invented dirt, onions and turnip greens; God who invented human beings, with their strange compulsion to cook their food; God who, at the end of each day of creation, pronounced a resounding ‘Good!’ over his own concoctions. And it is God’s unrelenting love of all the stuff of this world that keeps it in being at every moment.

Robert Farrar Capon in The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection

Jesus once compared two men who built two houses, one on sand and the other on the rock. He then compared what happened to the two houses when the storm hit them. Left out of His parable was the option of initially building a house on rock, but then going off to college and taking one philosophy course too many, and coming home again in order to have the house moved to a sandier location, but one with a better view of man’s endless potential and innate goodness.

Douglas Wilson in “Secularists With Bible Tinsel”

Beer is one means by which the fruits of the earth are enjoyed to praise God, to bring cheer into man’s heart, and to lead one into genuine fellowship.

R. Jared Staudt in “Cause for Mirth: The Return of Abbey Brewing to the United States”

If I am debating someone who was maintaining that God didn’t know where South Dakota was, the difference between us would not be about geography. And if I am debating someone who thinks the government has the right to tell me what kind of light bulb to use, the difference between us is not about the best wattage for my living room. If I am debating someone who wants to ban magazines with more than ten rounds, they want it to be about the magazines — whereas if I still have my wits about me, I should know that the debate is over whether or not the ATF rose from the dead in order to ascend into the heavenlies, in order to give gifts to men. I maintain the negative, but maybe that’s just me.

Douglas Wilson in “Maintaining the Negative”

And the earth and sky fled from their places, and America came forward trembling to speak with the Ancient of Days. And America said, “Lord, when did we ever see you struggling on a table, and go get scissors to snip your spinal cord?” And the Lord will say … but perhaps we don’t want to hear what the Lord will say. But it has something to do with why there is a Hell.

Douglas Wilson in “Our Gosnell Gulag”

What can you do, dragon, to erase the life and the laughter I’ve already lived and already laughed?

N.D. Wilson on Twitter

The problem is this: culture is upstream from politics, except in those important cases when politics is upstream from culture.

Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner, qtd. by Derek Rishmawy in “Constantine and the Gladiators: Politics or Culture?”

The sinner cannot rest content with mere external liberty to pursue his desires, so long as he finds himself confronted with those who, if only by their own personal purity, bear witness against his sin… For contemporary society will feel “judged” by us, no matter how silent we remain, so long as our deeds bear witness against their sin. In other words, no matter how charitable we seek to be, no matter how non-confrontational, so long as we seek to be faithful to Christ as individuals and communities, this faithfulness will be a source of offense.

Brad Littlejohn in “The Gay Marriage Debate: Tactical Withdrawal or a New Paradigm?”

Embracing gay marriage by necessity means abandoning biblical authority. Abandoning biblical authority by necessity means abandoning evangelicalism.

Denny Burke in “Jim Wallis’ less-than-prophetic voice on gay marriage”