{"id":1784,"date":"2014-02-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-12T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=1784"},"modified":"2014-02-12T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-12T14:00:00","slug":"the-modern-idolatry-of-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=1784","title":{"rendered":"The Modern Idolatry of Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/call.baby_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1785\" alt=\"call.baby\" src=\"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/call.baby_.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/call.baby_.jpg 640w, https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/call.baby_-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8230; calling subverts the deadly modern idolatry of choice. Choice in modern life is central, powerful, unquestioned, and enshrined in how we think and all we do&#8211;so much so that it cannot be undermined merely by an appeal to another choice. Choice for modern people is a right that overwhelms both responsibility and rationality. &#8230; Arguments against choice need to recognize the special, godlike power of choice. <em>But ultimately only one thing can conquer choice&#8211;being chosen.<\/em> Thus, for followers of Christ, calling neutralizes the fundamental poison of choice in\u00a0 modern life. &#8216;I have chosen you,&#8217; Jesus said, &#8216;you have not chosen me.&#8217; We are not our own; we have been bought with a price. We have no rights, only responsibilities. Following Christ is not our initiative, merely our response, in obedience. Nothing works better to debunk the pretensions of choice than a conviction of calling. Once we have been called, we literally &#8216;have no choice.'&#8221; (Oz Guinness, <a title=\"The Call\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Call-Finding-Fulfilling-Central-Purpose\/dp\/0849944376\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1392213341&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+call+oz+guinness\" target=\"_blank\">The Call<\/a>, p.167, emphasis mine)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;&#8230; calling subverts the deadly modern idolatry of choice. Choice in modern life is central, powerful, unquestioned, and enshrined in how we think and all we do&#8211;so much so that it cannot be undermined merely by an appeal to another choice. Choice for modern people is a right that overwhelms both responsibility and rationality. &#8230; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-sM","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1786,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions\/1786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}