I call it infantilism (yeah, I know that’s a term for something completely different), a wish to remain a child forever with a big, bad, strong sky daddy who’s gonna kiss and make it all better, while kicking everybody who doesn’t agree with you into eternal punishment. A desire for a sense of certainty is a kid’s wish that everything be all right all the time, with everyone knowing exactly what to do and an unshakable authority regulating your life down to the tiniest detail.

And all too many will probably never grow out of this need, ITIODNA…

Your comments made me go back and thumb through this retard’s book one more time. Listen to this one from page 187: “Many of our troubles occur because we base our choices on unreliable authorities: culture (’everyone is doing it’), tradition (’we’ve always done it’), reason (’it seemed logical’), or emotion (’it just felt right’). All four of these are flawed by the Fall. What we need is a perfect standard that will never lead us in the wrong direction. Only God’s Word meets that need.” (Bold added by me.)

You know, I think that statement gives us a key insight into one of the core psychological areas that religion parasitizes – a desire for a sense of certainty. I always knew this, but had never run across such an overt example from one of their own mouths.

Q: Would that be the “40 days and 40 nights of deluge kill the fuck out of everything” kind of love, or the “plagues of Egypt wish you were dead when all is said and done” kind of love?

A: Neither of the above. That would be the “ordering you to kill your own son, then changing your mind at the last minute, as a test of faith” kind of love.

Considering that the Gawd of which Warren speaks is neurotically needy in his weaker moments, and a psychotic killer in his finest hours, I’m going to take a pass and defer to a quote from Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slapstick”: “Please, a little less love, and a little more common decency.”

As for Warren–yeah, the dain bramage is no surprise, and of course he’s trying to appear moderate as a political power grab. Religion, particularly of the fundy mega-church variety, is the fastest way to gain political and financial power these days (kinda like the dark ages, huh?) His fundy legion already knows where he stands–seemingly moderate appeals will not scare off the scary religious wing-nuts who make up his core.

Of course I was familiar with him before this. But forevermore I will think of him as the Brain Disorder Guy.
Very fitting.

Here’s a contender for most ironic statement ever, occurring on page 39: “…actually it’s unhealthy to live in denial of death and not consider what is inevitable.”

And try comprehending the arrogance and egocentrism of the following statement from page 24: “Why did God do all of this? Why did he bother to go to all the trouble of creating a universe for us? [...] You were created as a special object of God’s love! God made you so He could love you.”

The guy comes off as a moderate on TV, at least from what I have watched. But make no mistake, he’s a fundamentalist of the Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson stripe and it makes my hackles go up that he wields so much clout.