A House Divided

James Davison Hunter shows us something of the moral confusion that results from being made in the image of God on the one hand and sinfully suppressing the knowledge of God on the other. Morally, and in every other way, fallen humanity is a house divided against itself.

We want character but without unyielding conviction; we want strong morality but without the emotional burden of  guilt or shame; we want virtue but without particular moral justifications that invariably offend; we want good without having to name evil; we want decency without the authority to insist upon it; we want moral community without any limitations to personal freedom. In short, we want what we cannot possibly have on the terms that we want it.

~ The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2000), xv.