The really scary part about this is that a lot of the P/C'ers I know are truly some of the most carnal people imaginable ........ it's always about what God can give me, what God (or someone else) can do to advance my standing, my agenda, my whatever. And yet these are the same people who preach leaving carnality behind for spirituality?

It amazes me how through the millennia so many Christian leaders preached and practiced a lifestyle that spoke of denying the self for the spiritual. Now, I'm not saying they all did (trust me, I can give just as many examples of what not to do") ...... but take St. Francis of Assisi. Loaded with family money, could have whatever he wanted .... and he chucks it all to live the mendicant life. Look at what he started and how many people in 700 years or so have followed his example in some way. Or there's St. Therese of Lisieux, who touted the "little way" -- finding joy and satisfaction and purpose in even the most mundane of chores or duties. In a little over than 100 years since her death, people have taken up that frame of thinking and said, "Sure, I can do that."

So why is it that P/C seems to think this is not a good example, and instead constantly harps on the blessings you can receive if you toe the line and hound people and cry and run and scream and try to curry God's favor through that ..... all about me? Where's the sense in that?