"Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is a pious, hollow hypocrisy."
Luke 12:1
"And such, I say, is the religion of the natural man in every age and place;—often very beautiful on the surface, but worthless in God's sight; good, as far as it goes, but worthless and hopeless, because it does not go further, because it is based on self-sufficiency, and results in self-satisfaction.
I grant, it may be beautiful to look at, as in the instance of the young ruler whom our Lord looked at and loved, yet sent away sad; it may have all the delicacy, the amiableness, the tenderness, the religious sentiment, the kindness, which is actually seen in many in a refined and polished age like this; but still it is rejected by the heart-searching God, because all such persons walk by their own light, and because they pace round and round in the small circle of their own thoughts and of their own judgments, careless to know what God says to them, and fearless of being condemned by Him, if only they stand approved in their own sight."
John Henry Newman
"The New Atheists (and most ideologues - J) embrace a belief system as intolerant, chauvinistic and bigoted as that of religious fundamentalists. They propose a route to collective salvation and the moral advancement of the human species through science and reason.
Those who believe in the possibility of this perfection often call for the silencing or eradication of human beings who are impediments to human progress. They turn their particular good into a universal good. They are blind to their own corruption and capacity for evil. They soon commit evil, not for evil's sake but to make a better world.
Reigns of terror are thus the bastard child of the Enlightenment. Terror in the name of utopian ideals would rise again and again in the coming centuries. The danger is the human heart—the capacity we all have for evil. All human institutions with a lust for power give their utopian visions divine sanction.”
Chris Hedges
"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right."
John Kenneth Galbraith
"Those among the rich who are not, in the rigorous sense, damned, can understand poverty, because they are poor themselves, after a fashion; they cannot understand destitution. Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, they will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them. They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."
Léon Bloy
The way that the stock markets shot higher in the last hour of trading, largely on hot money momentum buying, would make you think that tomorrow is something significant to the wise guys financials, like the end of quarter or something.
Oh yea, it is.
Supposedly the big tickle today was the 'better than expecting' number in pending home sales.
There is an even more impressive number in pending evictions.
Let's see we end tomorrow.
The WHO said that with regard to the pandemic, 'the worst is yet to come.'
That goes double for its economic impacts.
As a reminder this is a holiday-shortened week for trading in the States, compliments of the 4th of July.
It was just baking hot here today, with no breeze and high humidity. Nice.
I proofread a lengthy journal paper for the young man that took a couple of hours. It gave me an excuse to not work outside.
Serve whom you will. But know who it is that you serve. For the wages of sin are death.
Have a pleasant evening.
