Stacey Stark

“I watch and I wonder and I think. I think of the old slavery, and of the way The Economy has now improved upon it. The new slavery has improved upon the old by giving the new slaves the illusion that they are free. The Economy does not take people’s freedom by force, which would be against its principles, for it is very humane. It buys their freedom, pays for it, and then persuades its money back again with shoddy goods and the promise of freedom. “Buy a car,” it says, “and be free. Buy a boat and be free. Buy a beer and be free.” Is this not the raw material of bad dreams? Or is it maybe the very nightmare itself?”
― Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

“One of the besetting sins of our day is food-fussing, the attempt to resurrect some kind of food laws, whether they be all-natural, organic, paleo, gluten-free, or what have you. While there is no problem in having food preferences (I myself am not a fan of raw onions, bubblegum, or coffee), there is a serious problem in ascribing moral value to your food preferences. Making food choices based on food allergies or other responses to food is perfectly legitimate, but imposing those choices on others (or judging others for making different choices) is not. While a full treatment of food fussing is beyond the scope of this book, all Christians would do well to memorize, digest, and embody Mark 7:19, 1Cor. 8:8, and 1Cor. 10:31–33. In the first, Jesus declares all foods clean. All of them. All of them, which means the attempt to treat some foods as functionally unclean is contrary to Christ, however distasteful or dissatisfying they may be to you. The second reads, “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.” Your kale and arugula salad won’t commend you to God. And your neighbor’s greasy burger and large Diet Coke won’t condemn him. God does not care about what you eat, provided you do so with gratitude in your heart (see 1 Tim. 4:4–5). Finally, we all know that 1 Cor. 10:31 commands us to eat and drink to the glory of God. What we don’t often recognize is that Paul primarily has in mind our attitude toward others, not our attitude toward the food itself. The following verse reads, “Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved” (v. 32). We glorify God in eating when we Refuse to make dietary choices a barrier to fellowship. So thank God for the food, love your neighbor in your eating, and quit your fussing.”
― Joe Rigney, The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts

“You should begin with the attitude that nothing is wrong in the natural variation which finds one child reading at five and another at twelve. By the time both are fifteen nobody can tell which one learned to read first. The real trouble isn’t with the kid, it’s that you can’t run schools the way I just described. The pedagogical apparatus which compels age-graded five-year-olds to be ranked according to ability to respond “correctly” to a teacher’s urgencies gives rise to our familiar reading pathologies.”
― John Taylor Gatto, Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling

“And most importantly of all, if education is to be effective it needs to be based on knowledge about the nature and purpose of human life—a true, or at least adequate, ‘anthropology.’ This knowledge is what the modern relativist thinks impossible.”
― Stratford Caldecott, Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education