“Fighting the Traditional Marriage is provoking God;Beheading Jesus is to lead the church without His rulership or Counsel.Woe to theme who”
“Whenever God allows a mass blindness to cover his church, it is not out of stupidity, it is out of divine providence”
“Open-handed generosity and caring for the poor and marginalized as if we were caring for Jesus himself are extensions of our worship.”
“I remember feeling dimly that there was a kind of blackmail in it. People, I felt, ought to love the Lord because they loved Him, and not because they were afraid of going to Hell.”
“History tells us that all horrible things are not committed by evil men alone. The church has it s place, the saints and the sane too.”
“I don t like to hear cut and dried sermons. No—when I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.”
“The preachers and lecturers deal with men of straw, as they are men of straw themselves. Why, a free-spoken man, of sound lungs, cannot draw a long breath without causing your rotten institutions to come toppling down by the vacuum he makes. Your church is a baby-house made of blocks, and so of the state. ...The church, the state, the school, the magazine, think they are liberal and free! It is the freedom of a prison-yard.”
“Did those nice church ladies come by again? He nodded. I asked them if a man died and then the woman remarried, and then the three of them met in heaven, would it be a sin for them to have a threesome, since they were all married in God s eye. And they decided they were late to be somewhere else.”
“The story goes that a public sinner was excommunicated and forbidden entry to the church. He took his woes to God. They won t let me in, Lord, because I am a sinner. What are you complaining about? said God. They won t let Me in either.”
“This cat is looking at me with judgment.”“He’s not,” said Jules. “That’s just his face.”“You look at me the same way,” Mark said, glancing at Julian. “Judgy face.”
“I also never would have imagined I d quote back a church lesson, but when the rest of the crowd stood up to take communion, I found myself saying to Dimitri: Don t you think that if God can supposedly forgive you, it s kind of egotistical for you not to forgive yourself? How long have you been waiting to use that line on me? he asked. Actually, it just came to me. Pretty good, huh? I bet you thought I wasn t paying attention. You weren t. You never do. You were watching me.”
“When introverts go to church, we crave sanctuary in every sense of the word, as we flee from the disorienting distractions of twenty-first-century life. We desire to escape from superficial relationships, trivial communications and the constant noise that pervade our world, and find rest in the probing depths of God s love.”
“For the church, the many abuses of human life, liberty, and dignity are a heartfelt suffering. The church, entrusted with the earth’s glory, believes that in each person is the Creator’s image and that everyone who tramples it offends God. As holy defender of God’s rights and of his images, the church must cry out. It takes as spittle in its face, as lashes on its back, as the cross in its passion, all that human beings suffer, even though they be unbelievers. They suffer as God’s images. There is no dichotomy between man and God’s image. Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being abuses God’s image, and the church takes as its own that cross, that martyrdom.”
“I would rather live short and right then long and wrong.”
“the Twelve Apostles are the most evident sign of Jesus will regarding the existence and mission of his Church, the guarantee that between Christ and the Church there is no opposition: despite the sins of the people who make up the Church, they are inseparable. Therefore, a slogan that was popular some years back, Jesus yes, Church no, is totally inconceivable with the intention of Christ. This individualistically chosen Jesus is an imaginary Jesus.”
“It s tucked away in a quiet corner, shadowed and obscured, no part of the Nightside s usual bright gaudy neon noir. It doesn t advertise and it doesn t care if you habitually pass by on the other side. It s just there for when you need it. Dedicated to the patron saint of lost causes, St. Jude s is an old old place... St. Jude s isn t a place for comfort for frills and fancies and the trappings of religion. just a place where you can talk to your god and sometimes get an answer.”
“We admit that we will never reach our ideal in this life, a distinctive the church claims that most other human institutions try to deny.”