“La manera como en conjunto se ha mantenido hasta ahora en Europa el respeto a la Biblia es tal vez el mejor elemento de disciplina y de refinamiento de las costumbres que Europa debe al cristianismo”
“Some haven’t read the Bible and yet hate it. To anyone, I say: there is one book on your planet that may have an answer, that has survived ages and debates, and you have never cared to read it? What was so important?”
“As a Christian, we should all make a habit of rising to the occasion! Be it joy or sadness, wealth or poverty, health or sickness, or whatever God may allow; we must rise to the occasion for the glory of God! Thoughts from Philippians 4:11-13”
“Somewhere along the line, I had bought into the idea, so pervasive in evangelical culture, that reading the right books and listening to the right music will make you ( inspire you to be ) a better Christian. Somehow, I had confused the trappings of faith with faith itself.”
“Every time you listen with great attentiveness to the voice that calls you the Beloved, you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply. It is like discovering a well in the desert. Once you have touched wet ground, you want to dig deeper.”
“Oppressed people must either reform or reject a religion that preaches spiritual salvation but has little to say about their physical and material conditions. The hypocrisy of white Christians who said their religion condemned darker-skinned people to perpetual slavery even as they worshipped a brown-skinned Jewish man who was put to death by an imperial power could hardly be starker, both then and now.”
“Jesus was a Messiah who challenged injustice and the oppressive status quo, but also one who gave his life on a Roman cross, rose again and calls his followers to personal and social transformation through repentance, discipleship, and the life in the kingdom of God.”
“It was the poor, because of their suffering and struggle, who teach the world the meaning of Christian of love. Through entering into the world of the poor, all Christians come to a deep into faith in God and Jesus Christ.”
“The purity message nestles neatly into the larger “us” versus “them” messaging I was raised with in the church. Those on the “positive” side of the binary are said to have access to God, Heaven, the community, and a happy life as one of “us.” Those on the “negative” side of the binary are said to be isolated from God, alone, and headed for Hell, a place of suffering reserved explicitly for “them.” Though one’s place on that binary is technically supposed to be determined by one’s belief system, let’s face it—you can’t see into another person’s heart and know whether she really believes these things or has just memorized a bunch of talking points. So if you want to assess who’s really a Christian and who’s not—and lots of people do—you need a proxy, some externally measurable quality that is deemed representative of the person’s internal commitment... ...Growing up, I heard a lot of talk about how evangelical Christians were better people than secular or other religious people (funnily enough, I now hear the exact same self-congratulatory messages from secular liberal people). But the truth was, I couldn’t always tell the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. I saw both lie, both steal, both love, and both unselfishly give to others. But one tangible thing we could point to as evangelicals was that we didn’t have sex before marriage. There was that. There was always that. (10-11) “Don’t just be pure in body; you need to be pure in spirit . . .” Everything was just so intertwined with each other. It almost seemed like if you weren’t being physically impure, you were being spiritually and emotionally impure. Being “pure” became this really heavy, heavy weight to bear all the time. It almost made me go crazy questioning, “Well, is this impure? . . . Is this wrong? . . . Is this okay? . . . Is this going on?” (Holly) (12)”
“My friend Naomi has also found solace for her soul. She shared the following with me: The healing balm of my Savior s Atonement has been the most constant source of peace and refuge throughout my journey. When I feel alone in my struggle, I am reminded that He has already experienced exactly what I am going through on my behalf. . . . There is so much hope in knowing that my future perfected, resurrected body will not be plagued by this mortal [affliction].”
“My friend Naomi described [depression and anxiety] this way: Since my early childhood, I have faced a constant battle with feelings of hopelessness, darkness, loneliness, and fear and the sense that I am broken or defective. I did everything to hide my pain and to never give the impression that I was anything but thriving and strong.”
“The inability to love and receive love is a sign that a disease has broken out in the human soul.”
“To be a Christian is to be a traveller. Our situation, say the Greek Fathers, is like that of the Israelite people in the desert of Sinai: we live in tents, not houses, for spiritually we are always on the move. We are on a journey through the inward space of the heart, a journey not measured by the hours of our watch or the days of the calendar, for it is a journey out of time into eternity.”
“I m startled or at least taken aback when people walk up to me and without being questioned inform me that they are Christians. My first response is the question Already? It seems to me that becoming a Christian is a lifelong endeavor.”
“Apparently, some slaveholders had concerns that their charity and piety in sharing the Christian message with enslaved children would result in the loss of unfree labor and income. Such a practice would also disrupt the ideology of white supremacy. It would be harder to maintain the social, economic, and religious superiority of white people if spiritual liberty translated into physical and material liberty for enslaved people as well.”
“Those who separate themselves from love, hardening their hearts as they grasp for power or wealth or fame, must separate themselves from the ground of their being. To fail to love is to destroy oneself.”
“From within the Scriptures, we see not only the character behind God s words but the power of God s words, showing us that what God speaks is equivalent to our reality. This is true of both the natural and the spiritual worlds in which we live. (p. 99)”