Saturday, July 30, 2011

Eugene Peterson Cuts to the Quick


The new Holy Trinity. The sovereign self expresses itself in Holy Needs, Holy Wants and Holy Feelings. The time and intelligence that our ancestors spent on understanding the sovereignty revealed in Father, Son and Holy Spirit are directed by our contemporaries in affirming and validating the sovereignty of our needs, wants, and feelings.

My needs are non-negotiable. My so-called rights, defined individually, are fundamental to my identity. My need for fulfillment, for expression, for affirmation, for sexual satisfaction, for respect, my need to get my own way- all these provide a foundation to the centrality of me and fortify my self against diminution.

My wants are evidence of my expanding sense of the kingdom. I train myself to think big because I am big, important and significant. I am larger than life and so require more and more goods and services, more things and more power. Consumption and acquisition are the new fruits of the spirit. 

My feelings are the truth of who I am. Any thing or person who can provide me with ecstasy, with excitement, with joy, with stimulus, with spiritual connection validates my sovereignty. This, of course, involves employing quite a large cast of therapists, travel agents, gadgets and machines, recreations and entertainments to cast out the devils of boredom or loss or discontent- all the feelings that undermine or challenge my self-sovereignty.

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