David Brooks: The blowhard files

as to:

"“Do not use that word ‘sin’ – it’s so off-putting!” But Brooks concluded that it was necessary. “Sin isn’t the Holocaust; sin is spending your life thinking more about how you’re coming across [in a conversation] than on what the other person’s saying. These kinds of small sins that we do every day.” His point is not simply that we’re too focused on money, fame or possessions. Even someone committed to doing good – working for good causes, raising children well, helping the community – can too easily end up skipping the internal work of confronting our weaknesses, our inherent “brokenness”, required to achieve the richest inner life."

The sentence "Confronting our weaknesses, our inherent “brokenness”, required to achieve the richest inner life.", reminds me of this piece:

The Contradiction of the Cross “On the cross, our false dependencies are revealed. On the cross, our illusions are killed off. On the cross, our small self dies so that the true self, the God-given self, can emerge. On the cross, we give up the fantasy that we are in control, and the death of this fantasy is central to acceptance. The cross is, above all, a place of powerlessness. Here is the final proof that our own feeble powers can no more alter life’s trajectory than a magnet can pull down the moon. Here is the death of the ego, of the self that insists on being in charge, the self that continually tries to impose its own idea of order and righteousness on the world. The cross is a place of contradiction. For the powerlessness of the cross, if fully embraced, takes us to a place of power. This is the great mystery at the heart of the Christian faith, from Jesus to Martin Luther King Jr., the mystery of the power of powerlessness. As long as I am preoccupied with the marshaling of my own feeble powers, there will be no way for God’s power to flow through me. As long as I am getting in my own way, I cannot live in the power of God’s way.” – Parker Palmer, The Promise of Paradox, Pg 46-47 http://www.findingrhythm.com/blog/?p=2183

What the sinner, whose life was once completely consumed by sin, but whose life was redeemed by Christ, readily understands, but the sinner, who does not think he is really a sinner, (if he even admits that there is such a thing as sin in the first place), but who is under the delusion that he is controlling his sin, does not readily understand, is that Jesus Christ had the full power and authority of heaven to relieve Himself of the horrid torment of the cross but instead chose, because of His great love for us, to endure it, in its entirety, willingly, so that he might completely overcome sin, hell and death, and all their horrors, on our behalf, so that He may complete power and authority over them so that He could be fully reunited with us. Love is the only proper response on our part.

Matthew 26:53 "Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us. Temple Veil – video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDNHoijNO2I

Of personal note: We live in strange times today in America compared to when I was growing up. It use to be that pretty much everybody in America had the basic Christian knowledge that we were all sinners, i.e. that we are all 'broken'. But today it seems that the only person ever called a sinner anymore is the person who thinks that committing sin is, well, sinful and treats it as such, and the person actually committing the sin is not considered a sinner anymore but is celebrated as righteous. Although this shift in attitudes can be seen pretty much across the board for 'sin', the primary case in point is the dramatic shift in views on homosexuality in America over the past few decades:

Homosexuality Today: The Art of Justifying Sin - Arthur Daniels, Jr. Excerpt: ,,it's getting so bad today that people are actually getting fired from their jobs at well-known companies like AllState because of their Judeo-Christian stance against homosexuality.,, We have become a society that tolerates abnormality and punishes normality in the court of public opinion. http://www.gospelanswers1.com/HomosexualityToday.php

Indeed, it is a VERY different place in America today compared to when I was growing up. Verse:

Romans 1:32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Here is a Verse and Some Music on 'Brokenness'

Matthew 9:11-13 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’a For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Evanescence - My Heart Is Broken - music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1QGnq9jUU0 Seether & Amy Lee - Broken - music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPC2Fp7IT7o “Bless The Broken Road” – Rascal Flatts Official Music Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-vZlrBYLSU

bornagain77

a narcissistic blowhard

Concise and just about perfect descriptor for Mr. Brooks. I followed his career for a long while, and he has been the same throughout. Preachy and moralizing - with no basis or authority to do so. Silver Asiatic