Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.... And the world is
passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God
abides forever.
--1 John 2:15,17
Any appeal to the public in the name of Christ that rises no higher
than an invitation to tranquility must be recognized as mere
humanism with a few words of Jesus thrown in to make it appear
Christian....
Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His
name. He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if
they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster. He calls them to
suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern
civilization affords. He calls them to self-abnegation and death; we
call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance
even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac. He
calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness
that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic
philosophers....
We can afford to suffer now; we'll have a long eternity to enjoy
ourselves. And our enjoyment will be valid and pure, for it will
come in the right way at the right time.
Born After Midnight, pp. 141-142
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