Secular Quotes - Page 19

• For decades, since the mid-twentieth century, the nationalist movement, and Fatah in particular, has dominated the political scene. Palestinian politics were primarily nationalistic, secular. Now, suddenly we are seeing the election of a religious party with extreme political ideologies and with a social agenda that seems inconsistent with the cultural heritage of the Palestinian people.

  Hanan Ashrawi

  Religious, Party, People

  Source: progressive.org

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• In religious and in secular affairs, the more fervent beliefs attract followers. If you are a moderate in any respect - if you're a moderate on abortion, if you're a moderate on gun control, or if you're a moderate in your religious faith - it doesn't evolve into a crusade where you're either right or wrong, good or bad, with us or against us.

  Jimmy Carter

  Religious, Gun, Abortion

  "SUNDAY INTERVIEW -- A Statesman And a Man Of Faith / With a lifetime of public service to his credit, the former president reflects on the beliefs that have sustained him". Interview with Don Lattin, www.sfgate.com. January 12, 1997.

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• Many things about American life, that even secular people consider good, have flowed from the presence of a robust, resilient institutional Christianity.

  Ross Douthat

  People, Christianity, Resilient

  Source: www.christianpost.com

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• As God's followers, we must be ever watchful not to allow diluted teachings or secular philosophies to creep into our doctrine.

  Jonathan Falwell

  Philosophy, Teaching, Doctrine

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• It can have a secular purpose and have a relationship to God because God was presumed to be both over the state and the church, and separation of church and state was never meant to separate God from government.

  Roy Moore

  Relationship, Government, Church

  "Defender of the Decalogue". Interview with Thomas R. Eddlem, www.thenewamerican.com. December 16, 2002.

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• Home for the exile in a secular and contingent world is always provisional

  Trinh T. Minh-ha

  Home, World, Exile

  Trinh T. Minh-ha (2014). “When the Moon Waxes Red: Representation, Gender and Cultural Politics”, p.193, Routledge

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• And what is a kiss, specifically? A pledge properly sealed, a promise seasoned to taste, a vow stamped with the immediacy of a lip, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love.' A kiss is a message too intimate for the ear, infinity captured in the bee's brief visit to a flower, secular communication with an aftertaste of heaven, the pulse rising from the heart to utter its name on a lover's lip: 'Forever.

  Edmond Rostand

  Love, Flower, Communication

  Edmond Rostand (1995). “Cyrano de Bergerac”, Talonbooks Limited

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• We are presented with an unpleasant choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host of consoling, subtle or just charming rituals for which we struggle to find equivalents in secular society.

  Alain de Botton

  Letting Go, Struggle, Secular Society

  "Katie Antoniou interviews Alain de Botton on his new book 'Religion for Atheists'". Interview with Katie Antoniou, www.run-riot.com. January 24, 2012.

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• If we look at the last decades, we see that the US rightist-fundamentalist alliance demonized partnership-oriented families and painted women's rights as a threat to "tradition" - which of course it is to traditions of domination. These people had an integrated political agenda that recognizes that a "traditional" authoritarian, male dominated, punitive family is foundational to an authoritarian, male dominated, punitive politics. We can see this connection in sharp relief in brutal top-down regimes, be they secular like Nazi Germany or religious like ISIS in the Middle East.

  Riane Eisler

  Religious, Top Down, Rights

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

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• It is secular spiritual music, the gospel blues. It's music from the heart instead of the head.

  Charlie Musselwhite

  Spiritual, Heart, Spiritual Music

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• If I use Facebook to stay in touch with my high school friends who are church-going Republicans, I may be getting more ideological diversity than in hanging out with secular progressives on the World Politics sub-reddit.

  Ethan Zuckerman

  School, Diversity, Church

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• The journey homewards. Coming home. That's what it's all about. The journey to the coming of the Kingdom. That's probably the chief difference between the Christian and the secular artist--the purpose of the work, be it story or music or painting, is to further the coming of the kingdom, to make us aware of our status as children of God, and to turn our feet toward home.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Christian, Children, Home

  Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art”, p.135, Convergent Books

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• Whether one sees the world as God's creation or as a secular mystery that science is on the way to figuring out, there is no denying the beauty and majesty of everything from mountain ranges, deserts, and rain forests to the exquisite details in the design of an ordinary mosquito.

  Robert C. Solomon

  Rain, Mountain Ranges, Design

  Robert C. Solomon (2006). “Spirituality for the Skeptic: The Thoughtful Love of Life”, p.15, Oxford University Press

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• The missionaries of Christianity had said in effect: You have no right to live among us as Jews. The secular rulers who followed had proclaimed: You have no right to live among us. The German Nazis at last decreed: You have no right to live.

  Raul Hilberg

  Holocaust, Lasts, Christianity

  Raul Hilberg (1973). “The destruction of the European Jews”, Octagon Press, Limited

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• I don't see life divided into public and private, secular and sacred. It's all an open place of service before our God.

  Charles R. Swindoll

  Christian, Religion, Sacred

  Charles R. Swindoll (2007). “Wisdom for the Way: Wise Words for Busy People”, p.101, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• Today's secular libertarians, who want to remove biblical religion from public life, have trouble making sense of the civil rights movement because it was so clearly a religiously inspired movement that entered the public arena and made a major difference in American life.

  Bruce L. Shelley

  Christian, Religious, Biblical

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• The Secular City, having legislated and litigated itself out of any entanglement with the City of God, would be a hell upon earth .

  Russell Kirk

  Christian, Religious, Cities

  Russell Kirk (1986). “The Assault on religion: commentaries on the decline of religious liberty”, Univ Pr of Amer

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• For many American-Jewish writers, the dominant motifs have been cultural, secular, sometimes comic, often satirical. Writing about the religious component of Judaism, I found my own themes independent of the New York experience and the immigrant experience.

  Allegra Goodman

  Religious, Writing, Independent

  Source: www.commonwealmagazine.org

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• I'm gonna try to talk about this in a secular way, but where's the spirituality of just being a person? I think it contributes to this rise in bad manners and mean comments; people are being driven by seeking something that's just designed to keep them seeking something. I'm not reducing people in this age to phone-addicted dum-dums, but we have to remind ourselves to also study compassion and inner life as well.

  Lauren Graham

  Mean, Thinking, Compassion

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• Many people celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday for the most part than a Christian holiday. Obviously, many, many people celebrate it as a Christian holiday. But then there's even more people or there's additional people who celebrate it as a secular holiday as well.

  Adam Conover

  Christian, Holiday, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Doing something because God has said to do it does not make a person moral: it merely tells us that person is a prudential believer, akin to the person who obeys the command of an all-powerful secular king.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Kings, Powerful, Doe

  Alan Dershowitz (2009). “Letters to a Young Lawer (Easyread Large Edition)”, p.193, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• In Western lands there is a distinct division between the religious and the secular life. There is one rule of conduct for laymen and another for clergymen. This distinction has never found its place in the life of the people of India. There, all of life is included in the word 'religion.'

  Virchand Gandhi

  Religious, Land, People

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• Secular humanists can sit around and talk about their love of humanity, but it doesn't stack up against a two-millennium-old funeral high mass.

  E. O. Wilson

  Two, Funeral, Humanity

  "E.O. Wilson Is on Top of the World". Interview with Jill Neimark, www.psychologytoday.com. September 1, 1998.

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• Yes, all fundamentalists feel that in a secular society, God has been relegated to the margin, to the periphery and they are all in different ways seeking to drag him out of that peripheral position, back to center stage.

  Karen Armstrong

  Secular Society, Different, Way

  "Now" with Bill Moyers, www.pbs.org.

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• According to your belief [Christian clergy], my kind of man — secular, prideful, agnostic and all the rest of it — is among the damned. I'm on my own. You've got your God.

  C. Wright Mills

  Christian, Men, Belief

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