Snippet: Cold, Self-righteous Prigs
snip·pet | ˈsnipit | noun a small piece or brief extract.
I have a couple of snippets from one podcast episode. Gary Yagel quotes C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:
“If anyone thinks that (biblically informed) Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, they are quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual. The pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing, and patronizing, and spoil sport, and backbiting; the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me…they are the animal self and the diabolical self; and the diabolical self is the worst of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig, who goes regularly to church, may be nearer to hell than a prostitute. But of course, it is better to be neither.”
Tim Keller has said that you can tell when he didn’t have a lot of time to prepare a talk or sermon because he’ll quote Lewis a lot, having read his books many times. You can see how this quote has influenced Keller, if you follow Keller closely.
This was in the first episode I’ve heard of this podcast, and I’m impressed, although I think most episodes are so packed someone would have to listen to them several times for some of the ideas to stick. The podcast is called “Mission Focused Men for Christ” and it’s their latest episode which focuses on helping our kids understand that worldview matters.