Church Quotes - Page 17

• Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches, nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair.

  John Steinbeck

  Games, Singing, Despair

  William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, John Steinbeck (1971). “William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill [and] John Steinbeck”

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• If you leave the church service thinking about how good the pastor was, he has missed the mark. If you leave consumed with Christ, the pastor has been used by the Lord.

  Howard G. Hendricks

  Past, Thinking, Church Service

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• I have a vision of the whole Church getting nearer to God by abiding by the precepts of the Book of Mormon.

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Book, Vision, Abiding

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• A church has the right to set its own standards within its community. I don't think it has a right to prohibit birth control or to enforce upon a secular society its conception of divorce and the indissolubility of the marriage tie.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Divorce, Thinking, Secular Society

  "The Mike Wallace Interview". www.hrc.utexas.edu. April 27, 1958.

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• The separation of church and state is necessary partly because if religion is good then the state shouldn't interfere with the religious vision or with the religious prophet. There must be a realm of truth beyond political competence, that's why there must be a separation of churches, but if religion is bad and a bad religion is one that gives an ultimate sanctity to some particular cause. Then religion mustn't interfere with the state - so one of the basic Democratic principles as we know it in America is the separation of church and state.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Religious, America, Giving

  ABC TV Interview with Mike Wallace, www.hrc.utexas.edu. April 27, 1958.

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• The church ... is not just to bandage the victims under the wheel, but to put a spoke in the wheel itself.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Wheels, Victim, Spokes

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1995). “Selected Writings”, HarperCollins

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• The church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Community, Victim

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2013). “Letters to London: Bonhoeffer’s previously unpublished correspondence with Ernst Cromwell, 1935-36”, p.93, SPCK

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• The future and the hope for the middle class church lies in the renewal of its lifeblood, which is only possible if the church succeeds in winning the working class.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Lying, Winning, Class

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• I think it's already apparent that a good part of this Nation understands - if only instinctively - that anything which seems to suggest that God favors a political party or the establishment of a state church, is wrong and dangerous.

  Mario Cuomo

  Party, Thinking, Political

  New York (State). Governor (1983- : Cuomo), Mario Matthew Cuomo (1989). “Public Papers of Governor Mario M. Cuomo, 1984”

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• The American people need no course in philosophy or political science or church history to know that God should not be made into a celestial party chairman.

  Mario Cuomo

  Philosophy, Party, People

  New York (State). Governor (1983- : Cuomo), Mario Matthew Cuomo (1989). “Public Papers of Governor Mario M. Cuomo, 1984”

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• Every Christian church has tried to impose a code of morals of some kind for which it has claimed divine sanction. As these codes have always been opposed to those of the gospels a loophole has been left for moral progress such as hardly exists in other religions.

  John B. S. Haldane

  Christian, Progress, Moral

  "Daedalus of Science and the Future: A paper read to the Heretics". Address at Cambridge, February 04, 1923.

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• You have to get past the idea that music has to be one thing. To be alive in America is to hear all kinds of music constantly: radio, records, churches, cats on the street, everywhere music. And with records, the whole history of music is open to everyone who wants to hear it.

  Jerry Garcia

  Cat, Past, Ideas

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• It is the deepest desire of my heart to have every member of the Church worthy to enter the temple.

  Howard W. Hunter

  Heart, Desire, Temples

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• If the presence of God is in the church, the church will draw the world in. If the presence of God is not in the church, the world will draw the church out.

  Charles Grandison Finney

  World, Draws, Presence Of God

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• The task of the church, for example, becomes less that of indoctrinating or relating people to an external divine power and more that of providing opportunities for people to touch the infinite center of all things and to grow into all that they are destined to be.

  John Shelby Spong

  Opportunity, People, Example

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• No church group that knows spiritual warfare has wiener roasts or even passion plays. There is a real warfare. I have said before that we are an arrogant, self-styled bunch of believers. We "believe" to the point of inconvenience - and then quit.

  Leonard Ravenhill

  Spiritual, Real, Believe

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• Our spiritual immutarity never shows up more than in our lack of praying, be it alone or in a church prayer meeting. Let 20% of the chior members fail to turn up for rehearsal and the chior master is offended. Let 20% of the church members turn up for a prayer meeting, and the pastor is elated.

  Leonard Ravenhill

  Spiritual, Prayer, Past

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• The Rule of 150 says that congregants of a rapidly expanding church, or the members of a social club, or anyone in a group activity banking on the epidemic spread of shared ideals needs to be particularly cognizant of the perils of the bigness. Crossing the 150 line is a small change that can make a big difference.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Small Changes, Epidemics, Differences

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• When Chris­tians in free countries win a soul for Christ, the new believer may become a member of a quietly living church. But when those in captive nations win someone, we know that he may have to go to prison and that his children may become or­phans. The joy of having brought someone to Christ is always mixed with this feeling that there is a price that must be paid.

  Richard Wurmbrand

  Country, Children, Winning

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• Separation of church and state cannot mean an absolute separation between moral principles and political power.

  Edward Kennedy

  Mean, Political, Principles

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• It can be difficult to be an introvert in church, especially if you happen to be the pastor. Liking to be alone can be interpreted as a judgment on other people's company. Liking to be quiet can be construed as aloofness. There is so much emphasis on community in most congregations that anyone who does not participate risks being labeled a loner.

  Barbara Brown Taylor

  Past, People, Community

  Barbara Brown Taylor (2009). “An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith”, p.88, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

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• The poets began drifting away from churches as the jurists grew louder and more insistent.

  Barbara Brown Taylor

  Poet, Grew, Drifting

  Barbara Brown Taylor (2011). “Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith”, p.111, Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd

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• Remember that, brethren. You cannot destroy the appointments of the prophets of God. The Lord knows whom He wants to preside in His Church, and sometimes it takes a lot of practicing, guiding, testing, before He may know whether or not one of us is prepared for the present assignment.

  Harold B. Lee

  Want, May, Remember

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• I think I'm a real good person off the field. I've got good character traits, I go to Church often, and I do community service. I think I'm a really good role model.

  Jeremy Shockey

  Real, Character, Thinking

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• If you are really spontaneous, people will think you are mad.  If you go to a tree and start talking, or to a flower, people will think you are mad.  If you go to a church and talk to a cross or to an image, nobody will think your are mad, they will think that you are religious.  You are talking to a stone in a temple and everybody thinks you are religious because this is the authorized form.

  Rajneesh

  Religious, Flower, Thinking

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