Some good stuff here (via Justin)
“Mission Priests don’t confuse faith in the Gospel with a soft assent to its social principles or moral utility. Rather, they know the veracity of the Gospel through first-hand experience. For many, faith was strengthened when they changed careers and entered seminary. Enduring the patronizing and petty atmosphere of “theological school” clarified the eyes of their soul. Facing down and even defeating parish antagonists and persecutors revealed the strength of the Gospel and cemented their conviction once and for all…
“Mission Priests are fearful. They fear losing their communion with God by being caught up in the things of this world. They worry about losing their courage in the coercion and compromise of ecclesiastical politics…
“Most pastoral work actually erodes prayer. The reason is obvious: people are not comfortable with God in their lives’…‘And so pastors, instead of practicing prayer, which brings people into the presence of God, enter into the practice of messiah: we will do the work of God for God, fix people up, tell them what to do, conspire in finding the shortcuts by which the long journey to the Cross can be bypassed since we all have such crowded schedules right now. People love us when we do this…”
There is no god and I don’t see any evidence that religious people live better than atheists or agnostics.
Anonymous,
Just compare the list of Christian hospitals, schools, charity centers, orphanages with the atheist ones.
And I’ll do it – as soon as atheists build one.