Sentiment as Sediment of Theism

"Sentimentality, after all, is but the way our unbelief is lived out. Sentimentality, that attitude of being always ready to understand but not to judge, corrupts us and the ministry. This is as true of conservative churches as it is of liberal. Sentimentality is the subjecting of the church year to 'Mother's Day' and 'Thanksgiving.' Sentimentality is the necessity of the church to side with the Sandinistas against the Contras. Sentimentality is 'the family that prays together stays together.' Without God, without the One whose death on the cross challenges all our 'good feelings,' who stands beyond and over against our human anxieties, all we have left is sentiment, the saccharine residue of theism in demise."

Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens p. 120-121