You'd think Christians would be different...

Imitation of Christ,
frontispiece and first chapter,
1878 (Wikimedia Commons)

… but you'd be wrong.

There is a greater tolerance among non-Christians toward Jesus and Christianity than there is among Christians themselves.

And it's not necessarily because they don't understand the distinctions we insist on, but because they see through us.

This is endemic to all human institutions, of course, a deep contempt that arises only from a deeper familiarity, like that which divides Republicans and Democrats today. (I can barely stand to watch the cocking heads and puffery that characterizes politics today, like alpha baboons taunting each other over a female in estrus.)

Internal divisions are deeper and more painful than peripheral ones. You'd think, though, that some groups (who wish for example to imitate Christ) would be different.

c0

While in college, I gave an old copy of The Imitation of Christ to Dad that I picked up at a used book store and had read. Wasn't any special occasion. Was very pretty, with opalescent linen-lined covers and wood block engravings that were slightly embossed. It made a very nice devotional.

[2014-07-20]

c0