me and my house

(this one's a little long winded, but it has great quotes in it)

i started reading c.s. lewis' mere christianity on my plane ride to seattle on tuesday. i'm about 2/3 of the way through and already i think i've underlined about half of the book. i read this portion today on my flight home and couldn't help but think of how applicable his political views are today, over 60 years later...

"how far aught christians try to force their views on marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in divorce laws? a great many people seem to think that if you are a christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for everyone. i dont think that. churches should frankly recognize that the majority of the british people are not christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live christian lives."

i can think of at least 3 or 4 current political topics that you could subsitute into that sentiment in place of divorce... man, c.s. lewis was a smartypants.

i also couldnt help but think of good old george w and his weapons of mass destruction hunt when i came across this section,

"the real test is this. suppose one reads a story of filthy atrocities in the paper. then suppose that something turns up suggesting that the story might not be quite true, or not quite so bad as it was made out. is one's first feeling, 'thank God, even they aren't quite so bad as that,' or is it a feeling of disappointment, and even a determination to cling to the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemies are as bad as possible? if it is the second then it is, i am afraid, the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils. you see, one is beginning to wish that black was a little blacker. if we give that wish its head, later on we shall wish to see grey as black, and then to see white itself as black. finally we shall insist on seeing everything—God and our friends and ourselves included—as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred."

scary, huh?