Fletcher Christian Quotes

Sometimes I feel like Fletcher Christian.

It is a wholly deplorable state of affairs when specialists in any discipline talk only to each other, and accordingly I have sought to write a book which will communicate some of the fruits of research in a manner which will make them accessible to all.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That's why it is important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are. ~Maya Angelou

Foulgrin: "If you can keep Fletcher from saying a definitive no to a temptation, you've won. Whatever is not a no is merely a postponed yes." (advice to the tempter Squaltaint)

There are many different words inside a city. The world of the rich and the world of beggars. The world of men and the world behind the veil. The worlds of Muslims and of Christians and of Jews. If you are a rich woman living inside a harem, the world of a poor Christian beggarman is as foreign as China or Abyssinia. All the worlds touch at the bazaar. And the other place where they touch is in stories. Shahrazad crossed borders all the time, telling tales of country women and Bedouin sheikhs, of poor fishermen and scheming sultanas, of Jewish doctors and Christian brokers, of India and China and the lands of the jinn. If we don’t share our stories—trading them across our borders as freely as spices and ebony and silk—we will all be strangers forever.

Men speak of God’s love for man… but if providence does not come in this hour, where is He then? My conclusion is simple. The Semitic texts from Bronze Age Palestine of which Christianity is comprised still fit uncomfortably well with contemporary life. The Old Testament depicts a God capricious and cruel; blood sacrifice, vengeance, genocide; death and destruction et al. Would He not approve of Herr Hitler and the brutal, tribalistic crusade against Hebrews and non-Christian ‘untermensch?’ One thing is inarguable. His church on Earth has produced some of the most vigorous and violent contribution to the European fascist cause. It is synergy. Man Created God, even if God Created Man; it all exists in the hubris and apotheosis of the narcissistic soul, and alas, all too many of the human herd are willing to follow the beastly trait of leadership. The idea of self-emancipation and advancement, with Europe under the jackboot of fascism, would be Quixotic to the point of mirthless lunacy.

By eroding their sense of shame we've made immorality normal, not only in the world but also in the forbidden squadron. ...their new Christian friends recommended some of the movies Fletcher had been wondering if he should now avoid. I was delighted one of them said, "This is a great movie--only one sex scene, and the f-word's only used a few times." 'Titanic' is one of my favorites. How many Christian young people have watched it in their own homes? Think of it, Squaltaint. Suppose someone in the youth group said to the boys, 'There's an attractive girl down the street. Let's get together and go look through her window and watch her undress and lay back on a couch and pose naked from the waist up. Then this girl and her boyfriend will get in a car and have sex--let's get as close as we can and listen to them and watch the windows steam up.' The strategy would never work. They'd know immediately it was wrong. But you can get them to do exactly the same thing by using a television instead of a window. That's all is takes! Think of it, Squaltaint. Every day Christians across the country, including many squadron leaders, watch women and men undress and commit acts of fornication and adultery the Enemy calls an abomination. We've made them a bunch of voyeurs! Churches full of peeping toms.

It is difficult to know how anyone, even the most bitter anti-Catholic, could truly have believed any of this! By itself, the biography of Moses Maimonides (1135–1204) makes a travesty of all these claims. In 1148, the Maimonides family pretended to convert to Islam when the Jews of Córdoba were told to become Muslims or leave, upon pain of death. Note that when most historians mention that in 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the Jews of Spain to convert to Christianity or leave, they forget to mention that the Muslims had imposed the same demand in the twelfth century. Nor do they mention that many Jews who opted to leave Moorish Spain rather than pretend to convert settled in the Christian areas of northern Spain. In any event, after eleven years of posing as converts, the Maimonides family became so fearful of discovery that they fled to Morocco where they continued their deception. Thus, throughout his adult life, the most celebrated medieval Jewish thinker posed as a Muslim.64 His story clearly reveals that, as Richard Fletcher has put it so well, “Moorish Spain was not a tolerant and enlightened society even in its most cultivated epoch.

My own understanding is similar to that of scholar of religion and pastor Howard Thurman. I find a profound teaching in Thurman's saying that "what is true in any religion is in the religion because it is true; it is not true because it is in the religion." Thurman's saying is true for Christian theology. If there is truth in a theology, then it is present simply because it is true, not because it is in the theology. Whether or not we can find truth in a school of thought or particular theological construction is most important, not the school of thought or particular theological construction. Therefore, I find events of truth to draw on from a diversity of theological writings, rather than locate my work in a particular school of thought. The truth we Christians seek, beyond all our words and all of our labels, is found through unity in diversity. It is the common ground we all long for. No one theology alone is capable of revealing this common ground. We require a diversity taken together, each with its distinctive gifts. Together, these various insights into Christian truth correct and inform one another. This is the gift of ecumenism.

Christ cannot use, and God cannot honour a spotted Christian. The world sneers at them, and when men look at them they see a deformed Christian and are repelled.

Seeking holiness is not a popular employment even among Christians, but holiness was never more needed than today. We have abundant activity and machinery in our churches, but we need holiness more than all else. Every one of us should quietly seek for a nearer walk with God. Not talk about it; not run around trying to impress others with our sanctity – just cultivate it and live it for the glory of our God.

The outward signs of his priestly vocation were abandoned in a wooden footlocker. Like a casket. He shed his blood-stained prayer stole, his clerical collar, and a photo of his investiture as a priest that was folded down the middle – as if the crease itself depicted his divided nature. Good man. Bad man. Sinner. Saint. Christian. Buddhist.

Three things are required of man—to worship the gods, to do no evil, and to maintain manly behavior.

If good White Christians want to see changes in the world toward racial harmony, they must work for racial justice. Justice will not come from individual acts of charity but will require the transformation of our social structures.

Every artist carries upon his shoulders a profound moral responsibility. This responsibility is not, as supposed, the duty of teaching us to conform to the modern official distortion of Christian ethics, by which we are ruled. It is not the duty of upholding a system of negations, of prohibitions, of compromises, striking at the very roots of life. It is a far nobler, far more difficult task. The duty of the artist is to affirm the dignity of life, the value of humanity, despite the morbid prejudices of Puritanism, the timid conventionality of the mob, despite even his own knowledge of the insoluble riddle of suffering, decay and death.

If the Christian life seems boring, I suggest you may be DOING IT WRONG!

Wherein do evangelical Churchmen fall short of their great predecessors in the last century I Let us look this question fairly in the face. Let us come to particulars. They fall short in doctrine. They are neither so full nor so distinct, nor so bold, nor so uncompromising. They are afraid of strong statements. They are too ready to fence, and guard, and qualify all their teaching, as if Christ’s gospel was a little baby, and could not be trusted to walk alone. They fall short as preachers. They have neither the fervour, nor fire, nor thought, nor illustration, nor directness, nor holy boldness, nor grand simplicity of language which characterized the last century. Above all, they fall short in life. They are not men of one thing, separate from the world, unmistakable men of God, ministers of Christ everywhere, indifferent to man’s opinion, regardless who is offended, if they only preach truth, always about their Father’s business, as Grimshaw and Fletcher used to be. They do not make the world feel that a prophet is among them, and carry about with them their Master’s presence, as Moses when he came down from the mount. I write these things with sorrow. I desire to take my full share of blame. But I do believe I am speaking the truth.

Christian situation ethics has only one norm or principle or law...that is binding and unexceptionable, always good and right regardless of the circumstances. That is 'love' -- the agape of the summary commandment to love God and neighbor. Everything else without exception, all laws and rules and principles and ideals and norms, are only contingent, only valid if they happen to serve love in any situation.

Bligh made an announcement. “I now thought it for the Good of the Service to give Mr. Fletcher Christian an Acting Order as Lieut. I therefore Ordered it to be read to all hands.

the tortured master’s mate, his long hair loose, his shirt collar open, he with his gentlemanly pedigree and almost mythic name: Fletcher Christian.

To be hidden from observation is a severe test of character….Mere external acts of religious observance God will not accept in the place of inward purity of life.

Experience a gripping period in French history through the first-person experiences of one young Huguenot boy. Vince Rockston has poured the full range of human emotions into Gédéon’s story and carries the reader with him on the tidal wave of historic events following King Louis XIV’s revocation of religious freedom. The author’s comprehensive research on both sides of the English Channel propels Gédéon’s actions and gives authenticity to the story. The book includes extremely helpful maps and lists of some fifty historical characters – including the mysterious Suzon. A powerful coming-of-age novel.

I can't help but wonder what the United States would be like if white Christians had devoted even a tenth of the money, effort, sacrifice, and prayer toward efforts for racial equality, repair, true justice, and reconciliation as they have chasing dreams of spiritual heroism and cleansing themselves in the warm, inviting waters of other cultural contexts.

More importantly, global evangelical theology is largely based on a doctrine of individual salvation and transformation, a message central to the American movement. … There may be an even more stark financial appeal to the prosperity gospel in some evangelical movements outside the United States. But the general promise of faith yielding success pervades American evangelicalism. The critique of wealth and the love of money — a major biblical theme, about which Jesus had much to say — is similarly deep prioritized in both American and much of global evangelical Christianity. Instead, focus on sexual morality is central, as is the tendency for that to bleed into the control and subjugation of women, hypermasculinity, and the targeting of the LGBTQ community, especially in contexts with weaker human rights protections than in the United States.

White American Christians have thrown themselves into evangelism and humanitarianism among non-white people overseas, while trying to avoid the less heroic task of confronting their own responsibility for and complicity in the United States’ horrific racial past.

And more broadly, white evangelicals like to think of themselves as the most theologically and doctrinally correct of all Christians. Wading into the costly, arduous work of racial reconciliation and justice with people of color at home, who aren't letting them off the hook, might force them to reckon with the truth that the white evangelical tradition has been repeatedly and grievously wrong at every single turn on issues of race (and possibly on other matters of consequence as well).

As it has evolved out of southern Christianity, evangelical theology’s emphasis on individual conversion and faith deftly dispenses with issues of race with claims that racism is an expression of personal sin. The aim of color blindness — I see people, not color — shuts down any conversation around race, the Black experience, and white evangelicals’ appallingly poor track record by implying that anyone who brings it up is perpetuating the problem and failing to forgive.

[W]hether voting for a wannabe authoritarian because he will defend Christian interests, quietly cheering for people storming the Capitol in an attempt to overturn democracy, insisting on a rigid doctrine of theological certainty, shutting down alternate views and voices, putting mission above people, idolizing heroic calling over everyday faithfulness, or using power to maintain ownership of the gospel, American evangelicals, in their intense need for control, demonstrate a fair amount of fear.

American Christians need to imagine that God has never needed America, and God doesn't need them. In many ways, they have waved God off and told him to move on, even as they try to keep him on a leash.

Whatever people around the world learn from missionaries, whatever elements of American Christianity they keep, and whatever the missionaries themselves bring or take away, one thing is clear: the American church has been less affected and less enlightened by those on the receiving end of its missionary endeavor, or even by their own missionaries, then one might hope. Too often missions are less a relationship that challenges and matures the American church and more a pleasing product to consume, a beautiful reflection upon which to gaze.

The media is flooded with stories illustrating the unhappy marriage between patriarchy and abuse in evangelicalism. ... But patriarchy is just one piece of the puzzle, in some ways more of a manifestation than a driver. Patriarchy is what psychologist Dave Verhaagen, an evangelical Christian himself, identifies as a response to deep seated anxiety and fear that, according to data he has analyzed, pervades evangelical culture and leads to an overemphasis on control and unquestioned authority.

More generally, missions have been a key part of American Christians’ since of greatness, as if Jesus didn't really reign until we came on the scene, as if our way of being Christian is the long-delayed ultimate version. This belief has created a culture so convinced of its own rightness that it has left little space for self-reflection, even when proven to be catastrophically wrong. One is left wondering, "Whatever did the Lord do before there were American Christians?

I don't think it's any coincidence that the largest, most successful missionary enterprise in the history of the world — the Southern Baptist Convention’s missions arm, the International Mission Board (IMB) — was built by a church founded to defend slavery. And Southern Baptists began this endeavor not many repentant years later but WHILE IT WAS STILL DOING THAT. I mean, those folks must have been unparalleled moral acrobats, the Mary Lou Rettons of the Hypocrisy Olympics. If you were a nineteenth-century white Southern Baptist, or even a twenty-first-century one, it was — and still is — a whole lot more satisfying to go to Africa to preach the gospel to Black people than to live out the gospel among Black people at home — people who, with good cause, are not terribly impressed with white American Christianity.