The church is always trying to get other people to reform; it might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little, by way of example.
—Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad
Church Reform (Twain)
September 10, 2009 By 10 Comments
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I love Mark Twain, first of all because he’s nearly killed me a number of times with his humor. But he’s like a lot of us here. He couldn’t find a way to kid himself about things like this.
Semper ecclesia reformanda; (“The Church, which must always be reformed”).
It’s a good slogan. Living up to it: much more difficult.
Reform isn’t easy for anyone, let alone an organization as complex and large as the Christian church. That’s not an excuse for all the evil the church has perpetuated, but it does at least help to explain some of why the church says one thing but often does another.
Um, yes.
Sorry, but did you actually have anything to say?
Pretty sure that was “agreement”.
Yes. (Yes, I did have something to say; “Yes” was me agreeing)
The time for reformation is past. The church needs to peter out so we can get on with reality. I see no value in perpetuating superstitions any longer .
A long time favorite of mine, Twain’s War Prayer:
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html
“Strange, indeed, that you should not have suspected that your universe and its contents were only dreams, visions, fiction! Strange, because they are so frankly and hysterically insane – like all dreams: a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice and invented hell – mouths mercy and invented hell – mouths Golden Rules, and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man’s acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!”
- Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger