The Cat: Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.
Alice: How do you know I'm mad?
The Cat: You must be. Or you wouldn't have come here.
Alice: And how do you know that you're mad?
The Cat: To begin with, a dog's not mad. You grant that?
Alice: I suppose so.
The Cat: Well, then, you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad.
1 Corinthians 1.20, 25, 27The kingdom is as mad as any hatter's party, but it is divinely mad. --John Caputo
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
I listened to a message by John Piper last night on God's love for all people. One of us is definitely mad! It made me want to weep and gnash my teeth. I wondered what it said about me. Am I in outer darkness?
"When arguing with fools, don't answer their foolish arguments, or you will become as foolish as they are.
When arguing with fools, be sure to answer their foolish arguments, or they will become wise in their own estimation." Proverbs 26: 4-5
The kingdom, ie. the way of Jesus, in Lule's account of Paul's campaigns, reports reactions very much in keeping with your quoteof the Mad Hatter. Christians don't retaliate, the pray for and do good to their enemies, they spend their substance to help meet the needs of others, they live love out in their daily relationships. On and on, as you so well exemplify and advocate in this blog. Luke pictures Paul's advisories and auditors alike as deeming him insane (Acts. 26:24 and "turning the world upside down" (Acts 17 :6-7). May the values of the world world never get the upper hand in our lives. What a challenge!