Religious Division Quotes

United WE stand but divided THEY rule. ~ Amit Abraham

Religion divides us, while it is our human characteristics that bind us to each other. ~ Hermann Bondi

Every individual needs revolution, inner division, overthrow of the existing order, and renewal, but not by forcing them upon his neighbors under the hypocritical cloak of Christian love or the sense of social responsibility or any of the other beautiful euphemisms for unconscious urges to personal power. ~ C. G. Jung

Open theists affirm the same openness of the future that religious believers assume when they pray and almost all humans assume when they act. The open future is intuitive; but can it be rigorously defended? God in an Open Universe shows that it can. Open theism has always been an attractive view of God; now it becomes a philosophically rigorous one as well. ~ Philip Clayton

she described in a separate paragraph the Haredi community, and how within it religious practice was a total way of life. The distinction between what was rendered to Caesar and what to God was meaningless, much as it was for observant Muslims. ~ Ian McEwan

Anyone who is steady in his determination for the advanced stage of spiritual realization and can equally tolerate the onslaughts of distress and happiness is certainly a person eligible for liberation. ~ A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

On the surface, we are all different. We ascribe to a variety of belief systems, attain our identity from various stories, get our customs from diverse cultures, and so on. And, rightly or wrongly, we generally define ourselves by these differences - there is no denying that. However, when we look beneath the surface, we discover certain universal elements. ~ Gudjon Bergmann

The concept of justice I take to be defined, then, by the role of its principles in assigning rights and duties and in defining the appropriate division of social advantages. A conception of justice is an interpretation of this role. ~ John Rawls

I caught the preacher making love to Sister Mary Lou. God's gonna getcha for that. ~ Tammy Wynette

God seeks to influence humanity. This is at the heart of the Christmas story. It is the story of light coming into the darkness, of a Savior to show us the way, of light overcoming the darkness, of God's work to save the world. ~ Adam Hamilton

By the term cult I mean nothing derogatory to any group so classified. A cult, as I define it, is any religious group which differs significantly in one or more respects as to belief or practice from those religious groups which are regarded as the normative expressions of religion in our total culture. ~ Walter Ralston Martin

Lord, when I feel that what I'm doing is insignificant and unimportant, help me to remember that everything I do is significant and important in your eyes, because you love me and you put me here, and no one else can do what I am doing in exactly the way I do it. ~ Brennan Manning

These men were religious when the spirit of religion was buried in forms and ceremonies, and when the priesthood had armed itself with the civil powers to put down all opposition, and suppress all freedom, intellectual, civil, and religious. ~ Ethan A. Hitchcock

It's possible to do "Jesusy" stuff without knowing Jesus. It's possible to do good as part of some religious self-salvation project and not out of the joy of being saved. ~ Jared C. Wilson

Ancient metaphysics underwent many changes at the hands of medieval thinkers who brought it in line with the dominant religious and theological movements of their day. ~ Wilhelm Dilthey

Absent a sense of the preciousness of one's own life, why respect the life of anyone else? ~ Kentetsu Takamori

There are, then, three sorts of religious experiences. The ancient rites, which are essentially propitiatory. The mysteries, which purge the soul and allow us to glimpse eternity. And philosophy, which attempts to define not only the material world but to suggest practical ways to the good life, as well as attempting to synthesize (as Iamblichos does so beautifully) all true religion in a single comprehensive system. ~ Gore Vidal

I should have no compassion on these witches; I should burn them all. ~ Martin Luther

We open the halves of a miracle, and a clotting of acids brims into the starry divisions: creation's original juices, irreducible, changeless, alive: so the freshness lives on ~ Pablo Neruda

Indeed, the zeal of Boston's rank-and-file marathoners rivaled, and in some ways echoed, the religious passion of Nathaniel Howe and his congregation. The runners indulged in orgies of self-denial-running 100 miles a week, working junk )ohs in order to have time to train, paying their own way to races, banding together in ascetic cells, forgoing the temptations of an idolatrous world in order to attain grace and salvation out on the road. As in Puritan New England, grace was not blithely attained. A believer-a runner-earned it by losing toenails and training down to bone and muscle, just as the Puritans formed calluses on their knees from
praying. No one made a cent from their strenuous efforts. The running life, like the spiritual life, was its own reward. ~ John Brant

When, in 2012, Newt Gingrich was asked about how his religious beliefs would affect his conduct should he become president, the Republican nominee hopeful answered, "One of the reasons I am running is there has been an increasingly aggressive war against religion and in particular against Christianity" in the United States. For a potential president to state that he sees himself as a wartime candidate who will defend his party against other citizens is astonishing. There is not even a pretense here of "united states". ~ Candida R. Moss

Tears that are shed in time of affliction are rarely tears of penitence, but more likely they are shed out of self pity and pain or sorrow. ~ John Calvin

Science is never rigid, it is flexible. It can bend towards any direction that ultimately tends to do good to humanity. Religion must learn the same. And the moment any religion learns that, it would become the most scientific religion in the world. ~ Abhijit Naskar

A very small number of non-Christians, including those with radical anti-Christian agendas, have been able to control and manipulate the civil politics of America with little or no opposition. ~ Rick Scarborough

The discipline that aims to be objective and scientific can be used to rationalize religious-ethnic prejudiced and justify imperial ambitions. Israelis, Palestinians and the evangelical imperialists of nineteenth century have all been guilty of commandeering the same events and assigning them contradictory meanings and facts. ~ Simon Sebag Montefiore

Does this mean that religious consumption will increase online? That could be. We do not know yet, but to expect religion to disappear because of online technology is like expecting people to stop listening to music because Napster, Spotify and Wimp are offering us all the music we want online ~ Torkel Brekke

Obama's ascendancy unhinged the radical right, offering a unified target to competing camps of racial, nativist and religious animus. ~ Barton Gellman

Religious despair is often a defense against boredom and the daily grind of existence. Lacking intensity in our lives, we say that we are distant from God and then seek to make that distance into an intense experience. It is among the most difficult spiritual ailments to heal, because it is usually wholly illusory. There are definitely times when we must suffer God's absence, when we are called to enter the dark night of the soul in order to pass into some new understanding of God, some deeper communion with him and with all creation. But this is very rare, and for the most part our dark nights of the soul are, in a way this is more pathetic than tragic, wishful thinking. God is not absent. He is everywhere in the world we are too dispirited to love. To feel him - to find him - does not usually require that we renounce all worldly possessions and enter a monastery, or give our lives over to some cause of social justice, or create some sort of sacred art, or begin spontaneously speaking in tongues. All to often the task to which we are called is simply to show a kindness to the irritating person in the cubicle next to us, say, or to touch the face of a spouse from whom we ourselves have been long absent, letting grace wake love from our intense, self-enclosed sleep. ~ Christian Wiman

Between the combination of Judeo-Christian religious 'be good be good be good' and Capitalist 'something's wrong with you, buy this' and the parental upbringing, which is 'you're wrong, you're not thin enough, you're not smart enough' I mean, hello! We don't have a shot. ~ Eve Ensler

The careless, the lukewarm Catholics should, above all, dread hell, for he is continually walking on the brink of the infernal abyss. He makes little of the precepts of hearing Mass, of the prescribed abstinence from flesh meat, he scruples not neglecting the religious training of his children, he associates with persons and frequents places that are to him an occasion of sin, he yields to impure thoughts, commits sins of impurity without remorse, gives way to his vindictive feelings against his neighbor, indulges in excess in eating and drinking, neglects prayer and the sacraments. Now is the time for him to be aroused from his life of sin, now is the time for him to give up sin and change his life, for if he defers doing so, it may soon be to late. This may, indeed, be the last warning that God gives him. ~ Fr. Martin Von Cochem

ZOE
given some liberty from heaven God
young and a rebel
Is this why you chose me
up against it all
I wonder what's in store
for this rebel you say I reveal?
but I don't think I have that
rebel appeal

but I am radical in a heavenly
sort of way
and all the other angels do
look up to me
but only every other day

and you still love me God
with delight
you often say
you once said
"when you grow
then you will know
as the rebel in you will show"
this rebel you say I will reveal
I don't think I have that rebel appeal

but I am radical in a
moral religious purity way
but all the other angels did say
that I really should read that Bible
before I pray
my morals do seem to sway

sent to this world of giveaway
this world of moral decay
get these sinners back on side
fixated on my holy ride

this rebel you say I reveal
I don't think I have that rebel appeal
I know this rebel you want to see
but this rebel I don't think it is in me

revolutionist
revolutionary
rebellious
rebelliously
rebel

I don't think I am
but I do like to sell God's plan ~ R.M. Romarney

For nothing burns with such amazing speed, As the dry sticks of a religious creed. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

The proper response to religious opposition to choice or love or death can be reduced to a series of bumper stickers: Don't approve of abortion? Don't have one. Don't approve of gay marriage? Don't have one. Don't approve of physician-assisted suicide? For Christ's sake, don't have one. But don't tell me I can't have one - each and every one - because it offends your God. ~ Dan Savage

The Founding Fathers of the United States understood the risk of tribal religious conflict very well. George Washington observed, "Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing and ought most to be deprecated." James Madison agreed, noting the "torrents of blood" that result from religious competition. John Adams insisted that "the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." America has slipped a bit since then. ~ Edward O. Wilson

The goal of our lives should be nothing less that becoming so familiar with the "mind of Christ" that we could write Jesus' speeches. ~ Clare De Graaf

When harsh words cut you down and open long-forgotten wounds,may you, beloved daughter of a King,stand tall in your dignity and worth. ~ Joan Campbell

I had a head for religious ideas. They were the first ideas I ever encountered. They made other ideas seem mean ... I had miles of Bible in memory: some perforce, but most by hap, like the words to songs. There was no corner of my brain where you couldn't find, among the files of clothing labels and heaps of rocks, among the swarms of protozoans and shelves of novels, whole tapes and snarls and reels of Bible. ~ Annie Dillard

No one has a monopoly on wisdom, and even for people who aren't religious, you can learn things from religious people. ~ Steve Coogan

During World War II, law-abiding Japanese-American citizens were herded into remote internment camps, losing their jobs, businesses and social standing, while an all-Japanese-American division fought heroically in Europe. ~ Tom Brokaw

Since when do we in America believe that our society is made up of two diametrically opposed classes - one rich, one poor - both in a permanent state of conflict and neither able to get ahead except at the expense of the other? Since when do we in America accept this alien and discredited theory of social and class warfare? Since when do we in America endorse the politics of envy and division? ~ Ronald Reagan