Author: ppadmin

Forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils. It is the will and command of God that . . . a permission of the most paganish, Jewish, Turkish [Muslim] or antichristian consciences and worships be granted to all men in all nations and countries. IGod requireth not an uniformity of Religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state, which uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war . . . and of hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls. . . . [T]rue civility and Christianity may both flourish in a state or kingdom…either of Jew or Gentile. — Roger Williams, founder of the first Baptist congregation in the “new world” and champion of religious liberty

The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever. . . . Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse another. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians. Is conformity of sentiments in matters of religion essential to the happiness of civil government? Not at all. Government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men than it has with the principles of mathematics. Let every man speak freely without fear—maintain the principles that he believes—worship according to his own faith, either one God, three Gods, no God, or twenty Gods; and let government protect him in so doing, i.e., see that he meets with no personal abuse or loss of property for his religious opinion. — John Leland, Colonial Baptist pastor and champion of religion liberty

I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wandering awed about on a splintered wreck I've come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty beats and shines not in its imperfections, but overwhelmingly in spite of them. — Annie Dillard

To find the kingdom is the easiest thing in the world but also the most difficult. Easy because it is all around you and within you, and all you have to do is reach out and take possession of it. Difficult because if you wish to possess the kingdom you may possess nothing else. — Anthony de Mello

It is very remarkable that we face the thought that God is coming so calmly, whereas previously peoples trembled at the day of God, whereas the world fell into trembling when Jesus Christ walked over the earth. That is why we find it so strange when we see the marks of God in the world so often together with the marks of human suffering. . . . We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for everyone who has a conscience. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

So weep not for me my friend When my time below does end For my life belongs to him Who will raise the dead again It don't matter where you bury me I'll be home and I'll be free It don't matter where I lay All my tears be washed away — Emmy Lou Harris

I’ll be glad for the neuroscientists to help us unravel the knotty cognitive connections seen among people of faith in the dissonant affinities for semi-automatic weapons alongside scriptural mandates to love enemies, for hoarding alongside the holy writ’s warnings about possessions. But for now, in this culture of ours that is so addicted to violence and so possessed by the prospects of concentrated wealth at the expense of the poor, we need this Psalm [74] and its hopeful imagery of ultimate victory for the forces of peace and justice. — Stan Dotson