Christian Persecution Quotes

• Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheist, Ignorance

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• The early Church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.

  Leonard Ravenhill

  Christian, Personality, Church

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• The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

  Tertullian

  Blood, Church Today, Christianity

  Speech at Christmas Celebration for Members of Inter-religious Organization by Reverend William Goh, www.catholic.sg. December 29, 2016.

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• I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.

  George Washington

  Spiritual, Religious, Religion

  George Washington (1837). “The Writings of George Washington: pt. V. Speeches and messages to Congress, proclamations, and addresses”, p.155

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• Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect.

  James Madison

  Religious, Atheist, Secular Society

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.

  Thomas Paine

  Motivation, Law, Religion

  The Rights of Man pt. 1 (1791)

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• It shouldn't be difficult, then, to make the transposition at this point into the early Christian vision of Jesus and the Spirit and the way in which the material world is both celebrated and renewed through their work. The Jewish basis for the early Christian patterns of belief and behavior is clear. It is important that God's people are embodied, because God made this world and has no intention of abandoning it. The material of creation is a vessel made to be filled with God's new life and glory, even though the transformation may involve suffering, persecution, and martyrdom.

  N. T. Wright

  Christian, Jesus, People

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• The sole purpose and effect of it is to exclude persecution and to secure the important right of religious liberty.

  Oliver Ellsworth

  Religious, Important, Atheism

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• Stereotypes involving Christian identity, Christian persecution is so far back in history now that no one fears it being revived, unless you live in China, I guess.

  Gregg Easterbrook

  Christian, Identity, Stereotype

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• Does anyone know... does the Christian persecution complex have an expiration date? Because... uh... you've all been in charge pretty much since... uh... what was that guys name... Constantine. He converted in, what was it, 312 A.D. I'm just saying, enjoy your success.

  Jon Stewart

  Christian, Names, Guy

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• Holocaust Museum said ISIS has carried out genocide against the Yazidis, but its investigation did not cover Christian persecution. Now there's concern the U.S. State Department might do the same, limiting any genocide pronouncement to Yazidis without mentioning Christians.

  Tom Gjelten

  Christian, Museums, Isis

  "As Christians Flee, Governments Pressured To Declare ISIS Guilty Of Genocide". "Morning Edition" with David Greene, www.npr.org. December 24, 2015.

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• The actual point in question, throughout the centuries of Christian persecution, has never been faith in God, but faith in the Bible as the word of God, and in the Church (this Church or that) as the interpreter of that word.

  Joseph Campbell

  Christian, Church, Faith In God

  Joseph Campbell (1991). “The Masks of God: Creative Mythology”, Penguin Group USA

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• Systems of religious error have been adopted in times of ignorance. It has been the interest of tyrannical kings, popes, and prelates to maintain these errors. When the clouds of ignorance began to vanish and the people grew more enlightened, there was no other way to keep them in error but to prohibit their altering their religious opinions by severe persecuting laws. In this way persecution became general throughout Europe.

  Oliver Ellsworth

  Religious, Kings, Ignorance

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• The first persecution of the Church took place in the year 67, under Nero, the sixth emperor of Rome.

  John Foxe

  Rome, Years, Church

  John Foxe, John Malham, T. Pratt (1830). “Fox's Book of Martyrs; Or, The Acts and Monuments of the Christian Church: Being a Complete History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Deaths of the Christian Martyrs; from the Commencement of Christianity to the Present Period. To which is Added an Account of the Inquisition, the Bartholomew Massacre in France, the General Persecution Under Louis XIV, the Massacres in the Irish Rebellions in the Years 1641, and 1798, Rise, Progress, and Persecutions of the People Commonly Called Quakers, Together with an Account of the Western Martyrology, Or Bloody Assizes; with the Lives of Some of the Early Eminent Reformers ...”, p.410

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• I support, defend, and admire prostitutes, gay or straight. They do important and necessary work, whether moralists of the Left and Right like it or not. Feminists who think they can abolish the sex trade are in a state of massive delusion. Only a ruthless, fascist regime of vast scale could eradicate the rogue sex impulse that is indistinguishable from the life force. Simply in the Western world, pagan sexuality has survived 2000 years of Judaeo-Christian persecution and is hardly going to be defeated by a few feminists whacking at it with their brooms.

  Camille Paglia

  Christian, Sex, Gay

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