‘To make no decision in regard to the growth of authoritarian government is already a decision for it.’”
Category Archives: Celestial Lands Quotes
Abraham Joshua Heschel
“Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.”
Eboo Patel
“In a world of lots of different people and prayers, of religious narratives that intersect here, diverge there, oppose elsewhere, perhaps the most important and relevant lesson we teach our religious children is this: your religion is even more relevant in this cacophonous world because it marks your concern with … Read more →
Eboo Patel
“My son’s encounters with other people’s religious language and stories actually made his own faith more relevant. Religion was not just something he did for a few moments before bed and meals, or for a few hours a week at religious education lessons, it was something all around him—at school, … Read more →
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
“Whatever one’s religion in private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution in all parts—including the First Amendment and the strict separation of Church and State.”Read
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“One of the first things we notice about this dream is an amazing universalism. It does not say some men, it says all men. It does not say all white men, but it says all men which includes black men. It doesn’t say all Protestants, but it says all men … Read more →
Max DePree
“The first job of a leader is to define reality.”
Reinhold Niebuhr
“The ironic situation is distinguished from a pathetic one by the fact that the person involved bears in it some responsibility for it.
Eboo Patel
“The marches, the sit-ins, the braving of fire hoses and attack dogs, had not been about safeguarding the rights of one community. The purpose was to expand and secure a framework that protected all communities.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
Eboo Patel
“I believe every inch of America is sacred, from sea to shining sea. I believe we make it holy by who we welcome and by how we relate to each other. Call it my Muslim eyes on the American project. “We made you different nations and tribes that you may … Read more →
Eboo Patel
“The realization that there is no better time to stand up for your values than when they are under attack, that bigotry concealed doesn’t go away, it only festers underground. It’s only when the poison of prejudice emerges out in the open that it can be confronted directly.”
Eboo Patel
“The great fault line in the world is not between Americans and Arabs or Muslims and Christians. It is between the moderates of all traditions and the extremists who belong only to one—the tradition of extremism.”
Barbara Brown Taylor
“God is greater than my imagination, wiser than my wisdom, more dazzling than the universe, as present as the air I breathe and utterly beyond my control.” ~from The Preaching Life
Audrey Hepburn
“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.”
Michael Wolfe
“Conservatives cannot govern well for the same reason that vegetarians cannot prepare a world-class boeuf bourguignon: If you believe that what you are called upon to do is wrong, you are unlikely to do it very well.”
Mohandis Gandhi
“An armed conflict between nations horrifies us. But the economic war is no better than an armed conflict. This is like a surgical operation. An economic war is prolonged torture. And its ravages are no less terrible than those depicted in the literature on war properly so called. We think … Read more →
Francis of Assisi
“Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.”
Rutilio Grande
“I am fully aware that very soon the Bible and the Gospels will not be allowed to cross the border. All that will reach us will be the covers, since all the pages are subversive, it is said. If Jesus crosses the border at Chalatenango, they will not allow him … Read more →
John W. Wimberly
“A leader is a visionary. She has a dream of what her congregation can be. He is a motivator. She can mobilize church members and staff around a vision. • A manager is a person who can transform a vision into reality. She is a master at implementation. He gets … Read more →
Thomas Jefferson
“To the corruptions of Christianity I am indeed opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence, … Read more →
Eboo Patel
“The great fault line in the world is not between Americans and Arabs or Muslims and Christians. It is between the moderates of all traditions and the extremists who belong only to one — the tradition of extremism.”
Julia Ward Howe
“Any religion which will sacrifice a certain set of human beings for the enjoyment or aggrandizement or advantage of another is no religion. It is a thing which may be allowed, but it is against true religion. Any religion which sacrifices women to the brutality of men is no religion.“
C.S. Lewis
“I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity”.
Plato
“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.”
Angus MacLean
“It has been said that liberal religion is a ‘do it yourself kit.’ But there is a danger that we would make it a kit not only without blueprint but without tools and materials.”
Barbara Pescan
“We are a community of seekers covenanted to walk together in the ways of integrity and service. Here, we open time and make room to reflect on the questions. Here, we help each other find the courage and commitment to live fully toward what answers we might find and within … Read more →
George de Benneville
“Preach the Universal and Everlasting Gospel of Boundless, Universal Love for the entire human race, without exception. . . . Proclaim and publish to all the people of the world a Universal Gospel that shall restore, in time, all the human species. . . . The inner Spirit makes us … Read more →
Benjamin Rush
“A belief in God’s universal love to all his creatures, and that he will finally restore all those of them that are miserable to happiness, is a polar truth. It leads to truths upon all subjects, more especially upon the subject of government. It establishes the equality of mankind–it abolishes … Read more →
C. Ellwood Nash
“Our faith is revelational; it is rational; it is inspirational; it is sunny, though serious; it harmonizes the providences of God and the faculties of man; it is democratic; it anticipates and allows for progress; it embodies the genius of the best age the world has had; it welcomes science, … Read more →
Gy-rgy Enyedi
“The future will ask us not how many we are, but what values we represent on the scale of humanness.” — Gy-rgy Enyedi 16th Century Transylvanian Unitarian
Laila Ibrahim
“It’s a blessing each of us was born. It matters what we do with our lives. What each of us knows about God is a piece of the truth. We don’t have to do it alone.”
James Vila Blake
“Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law. This is our great covenant: to dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another.”
Theodore Parker
“Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere; its temple, all space; its shrine, the good heart; its creed, all truth; its ritual, works of love; its profession of faith, divine living.”
Robert T. Weston
“Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the attendant of truth.”
Richard Gilbert
“Unitarian Universalists, I believe, share a religous conviction that history is a human project in which we are both the changers and the changed.” — Rev. Richard Gilbert
David Bumbaugh
“The sacred community is one in which we can rebel.”
Suzanne Meyer
“There is always the possibility that we may perish in the desert, that our religious movement is so inextricably wedded to modernism that it will not survive long enough to make it to the Promised Land. And although we are the generation that left Egypt, I seriously doubt we will … Read more →
David Baumbaugh
“It will not be enough to offer people the opportunity to “build your own theology.” They must be offered the freedom to build their own theology in the context of a community which is asking serious and probing religious questions, and has the courage to make deep and profound affirmation … Read more →
Fredric Muir
“As a nation and as a religious movement, there appears the possibility that we will find ourselves on the wrong side of history because we are not prepared for the changes that are taking place.” — Rev. Fredric Muir
Bill Sinkford
“I believe that Unitarian Universalism is growing up. Growing out of a cranky and contentious adolescence into a more confident maturity. A maturity in which we can not only claim our Good News, the values we have found in this free faith, but also begin to offer that Good News … Read more →
Margot Adler
“Unitarian Universalism gives me a place to be at home with some of my closest friends; my doubts.”
Forrest Church
“I’m suggesting a new theological model, in which one light (Unitarianism) shines through many windows (Universalism) in various, yet telling ways.”
Joan Goodwin
“Our Unitarian Universalist Congregations are as unique as fingerprints, and as similar.”
David E. Baumbaugh Jr.
“This church is dedicated to the proposition that beneath all our diversity, behind all our differences, there is a unity which makes us one and binds us forever together in spite of time, and death and the space between the stars.” — Rev. David E. Baumbaugh Jr.
Lewis B. Fisher
“Universalists are often asked to tell where they stand. The only true answer to give to this question is that we do not stand at all… we move.” — Rev. Lewis B. Fisher
William Henry Channing
“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, … Read more →
Adlai Stevenson
“I think that one of our most important tasks is to convince others that there’s nothing to fear in difference; that difference, in fact, is one of the healthiest and most invigorating of human characteristics without which life would become meaningless. Here lies the power of the liberal way: not … Read more →
David Baumbaugh
“We have not been called into being in order to take in each other’s emotional laundry. We have not been called into being to serve ourselves, to enrich our interior lives, to justify our narrow vision…The purpose of the church is the salvation of the world. The purpose of its … Read more →
Barbara Pescan
“When you enter the doors of our faith, you may not lock them after you.” — Rev. Barbara Pescan