Hitchens on Thrift

"Give up on thrift and husbandry"

I am not sure what Hitchens is referring to specifically here...my take on it is that he would say, for instance, that Peter leaving his fishing nets to become a fisher of men to be a fool's errand. Hitchens assumes preaching and teaching and ministering the Gospel to be a waste of time (at best), so he of course is going to frown on any transition of this nature.

Peter gave up his fishing nets. Others surely moved in and took his place. The Apostle Paul made tents to pay his and others' bills so as to not give the enemies the Cross any place to stand is judgement of his motives as to why he was a missionary. He was the model of thrift and husbandry. These enemies still did question his motives mind you. It just goes to show that people see what they want to see and assume what they want to assume.

Whose definition of thrift and husbandry is Hitchens using? His own. Clever but presumptive. And wrong. What gives Hitchens the moral authority to make such pronouncements? For such a free thinker who surely endorses the ethos of self-determination, his perspective is contradictory and confusing indeed.

Comments

VanTil said…
His debate with Doug Wilson featured in Collision would be amusing if not so sad. Wilson challenges him over and over to tell us why we should adopt his ethics and he has nothing to say -- ah, to be as God.
July 26, 2010 at 9:12 AM
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