It’s still a struggle to survive, or still a race to try to escape as fast as they can

Lyse Doucet, BBC news report from Kabul, 31 August

Those who have served through the ages have drawn inspiration from the Book of Isaiah, when the Lord says: “Whom shall I send . . . who shall go for us?” And the American military has been answering for a long time: “Here am I, Lord. Send me.” “Here I am. Send me”

Joe Biden, US President, quoting Isaiah 6.8 in his “We will hunt you down” speech after the attack on Kabul airport, 26 August

Biden’s use of the verse completely misses the heart of the passage, which is what we actually need to hear today. The world does not need more conflation between American foreign involvement with Isaiah 6

Ed Stetzer, Professor and Dean at Wheaton College, Religion News Service, 27 August

Self-interest is no respecter of persons: it asks, not who knows best what ought to be done, but who is most likely to do it; we may, and often do, admire the talents of lazy and even dissipated men, but we do not trust them with the care of our interests

William Cobbett, from Advice to Young Men and (incidentally) Young Women, 1830, quoted on Twitter, 29 August

It was the appeal of doing something a little bit different. . . I hate being disturbed by other people’s noise. You don’t get that when you’re sleeping among the dead

Penny Thomas, interviewed by The Observer, on “champing” in churches, 29 August

Sleeping in churches enables people to experience them in completely new ways than they would during a service

Fiona Silk, business development officer for Champing at the Churches Conservation Trust (reported speech), in the same Observer article

When you think about celebrities today, they’re really trying to do what Jesus did, which is like, become remembered forever and sacrifice themselves for the public

Kyle Hide, co-founder of I NEED GOD, interviewed by Rachel A. Lisner, GQ, 31 August

God loves me and there’s nothing I can do about it

Script on a sweatshirt produced by I NEED GOD in October 2020, quoted in GQ

Dear God, please end the coronavirus pandemic. And please, make my parents buy me a new iPhone and JBL speaker

Letter from German boy, part of the threefold increase in letters to God handled by the Post Office in Israel in the past year, and quoted by Bloomberg, 30 August

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