Reading notes

From the day he started The Right Christians, now The Village Gate, Allen has been a pastor to my heart. He is again now, in this entry from last Friday:

We live in a culture in the midst of a nervous breakdown. It seems that half want to retreat into a denial state and live in an idealized version of the Victorian era. The other half is filled with anger at that prospect but too confused itself to offer an alternative attractive to the rest. …

Politicians cannot lead us from this wilderness for they do not know where we are headed. It takes those who have scouted out the Promised Land and know where the river must be parted so that we can enter. We have been to a good and spacious land flowing with both Reason and Faith. And it lies just ahead.

Let the government do what it will during these next few years. It could never legislate this new synthesis anyway. It does not lie within its power either to create or prohibit it. Let the church-that-was devour itself with internecine strife and fearful bigotry. If it must resort to the ballot box to do God’s will, it is already dead. …

Let us sing our new song. We’ll sing it in the sanctuaries and on the airwaves and at the electronic streetcorners. Those with ears will hear. Those with eyes will see. And, God willing, enough will turn and be healed so that this day of darkness and gloom will pass.

Help me sing, Lord, help me sing.

Thanks, Allen.

[via Dale]