"If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, 
	seriously, continuously, carefully, and bravely as we have ever prepared for war."

	"I think there’s something really corruptive at play in a lot of 
	our churches. We have politicians, both locally and nationwide, 
	who are preaching fear and anger. They don’t want Christians and 
	people of faith thinking about how to love, how to restore, how 
	to serve, how to respond to the suffering of those without. They 
	want them angry. They want them angry about Hollywood and angry 
	about people who are gay and angry about liberals and angry about 
	taxes. They want them fearful of crime and fearful of terrorism 
	and fearful of all these threats. That then yields social and 
	political policies that are very predictable. What that will give 
	you is a desire for the death penalty, support for mass incarceration, 
	resistance to social justice, indifference to the poor, contempt for 
	those who are disadvantaged and marginalized. This explains how we 
	can be so saturated with churches and religious institutions and 
	yet so silent on social justice issues and so lax in doing the 
	things Jesus called for us to do." 

	"The pope’s remarks (about reason) rekindle an examination of whether 
	spirituality and religiosity can stand on faith alone. If faith stands 
	at odds with scientific and moral truth, it must assert itself through 
	coercive means. Life is reduced to confliction in which the most powerful 
	and violent among us reign supreme. Righteousness absolves the faithful 
	from moral clarity and human charity. At once Moqtada al-Sadr and 
	Pat Robertson appear more similar than dissonant."

	“We’re human beings, with the blood of a million savage years on our hands. 
	But we can stop it. We can admit that we’re killers, but we won’t kill today.” 	

	"For Catholics, losing the faith once implied a crisis of belief or 
	a conversion to some other, conflicting outlook.  The process of losing 
	the faith might be prolonged, but ultimately the point came when one 
	rejected Catholic beliefs and practices and adhered to some alternative, 
	whether religious or not.  What worries Catholics today, however, is 
	different: not that the faith will be consciously abandoned but that 
	it will simply be lost in the more literal sense, the way one loses 
	a piece of jewelry or an old memento--by casually setting it aside, 
	mislaying it, leaving its absence long unnoticed, finally discovering 
	that it is irrecoverable."	

	"Common sense suggests that rigorously excluding feminine images of God
	and sticking to the supposedly generic use of masculine pronouns to cover
	both men and women diminishes women's sense of their own presence in
	scripture and worship.  Refusing to retranslate the Nicene Creed recited at
	Mass so that the eternally begotten Son comes down from heaven 'for us and
	for our salvation' rather than 'for us men and for our salvation'--on the
	grounds the 'men' still really means 'men and women'--is simply to beg for
	noncompliance.   On the other hand, when bedrock Christian formulas begin
	to be altered ("In the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier" instead
	of "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit"), resistance is appropriate.  The burden of
	proof certainty rests with the innovators."

	"Churches have comfortably defended segregation and Jim Crow laws and 
	comfortably tolerated lynching. Many of them comfortably accepted 
	slavery. The comfort level of religious institutions and people 
	expressing Christian ideology in the face of horrific human suffering, 
	tragedy, and abuse has some historical antecedent. It’s only when we get 
	past that - usually because we’re pushed by somebody who’s not necessarily 
	a person of faith - that we begin to come around. Any meaningful conversation 
	about where we are has to focus on this: Why have we so frequently allowed 
	ourselves to sit silently in church pews while horrific abuses and injustices 
	and evil are being tolerated, oftentimes with our support? That’s the challenge, 
	I think, for all of us, because we’ve seen the church do so many things that 
	undermine the kingdom of God. Human history is filled with volumes of gross 
	abuse and evil, all in the name of God. Unfortunately, people are still very 
	comfortable using God and Christianity to legitimate conduct that is very ungodly.	

	"I think there’s something really corruptive at play in a lot of our churches. 
	We have politicians, both locally and nationwide, who are preaching fear and 
	anger. They don’t want Christians and people of faith thinking about how to love, 
	how to restore, how to serve, how to respond to the suffering of those without. 
	They want them angry. They want them angry about Hollywood and angry about people 
	who are gay and angry about liberals and angry about taxes. They want them fearful 
	of crime and fearful of terrorism and fearful of all these threats. That then 
	yields social and political policies that are very predictable. 
	
	"What that will give you is a desire for the death penalty, support for mass 
	incarceration, resistance to social justice, indifference to the poor, contempt 
	for those who are disadvantaged and marginalized. This explains how we can be so 
	saturated with churches and religious institutions and yet so silent on social 
	justice issues and so lax in doing the things Jesus called for us to do." 

	"Dance can, of course, be abused. So can eulogies. So, I dare say, can that 
	most respectful of rhetorical art forms, the homily. But because many Catholics 
	are subjected on a regular basis to less than inspired homilies given in less 
	than artful ways does not in any way disqualify the homily as an important art 
	worthy of serious cultivation and refinement."	

	"The Bush administration continues to muddle a national understanding 
	of the conflict we are in by calling it the 'war on terror.'  This 
	political correctness presumably seeks to avoid hurting the feelings 
	of the Saudis and other Muslims, but it comes at high cost.  This is 
	not a war against terror any more than World War II was a war against 
	kamikazes.  We are at war with jihadists motivated by a violent 
	ideology based on an extremist interpretation of the Islamic faith."	

	"While the European Union lags behind the United States in terms of 
	conventional weapons, its capacity to fight terrorism is probably higher.  
	For historical reasons, Europe benefits from a political maturity that has 
	allowed it to avoid Bush's Manichean worldview,	which has merely reinforced, 
	rather than undermined, the enemy's fanaticism.  Moreover, for geographical 
	reasons, Europe also benefits from a better knowledge of Arab and Muslim
	countries and extensive familiarity with their populations."	

	"The Bible speaks more about justice than it does about anything else—
	except for love. But in the end, justice is nothing more than love 
	turned into social policies."	

	"For years now, American society has drifted toward a secular, 
	materialistic view of the world in which scientists and physicians 
	serve as its modern-day priests — whether or not their research goals 
	violate the long-standing tradition of promoting human dignity."

	"What to do about Iraq now? I don't know if we can stop the Iraqis 
	from killing each other. We're not doing a very good job of it now; 
	would it be any worse if we pulled out? We certainly have the moral 
	obligation to rebuild the infrastructure we destroyed. I don't have 
	the answer; I only know that this war has convinced me more deeply 
	that war is NEVER the answer. And if that makes me a Christian pacifist, 
	so be it!"

	"The sex abuse scandal can illuminate the general problems 
	of episcopal leadership, but only if one can get away from 
	the now popular idea of bishops as heedless villains.  Of 
	course there are exceptions, but mediocrity, not malevolence, 
	is the more typical episcopal infirmity.  And even that needs 
	qualification.  Individually, bishops oversee their own dioceses; 
	collectively, they give a national direction to the church.  
	Bishops who are good at the former may be poor at the latter, 
	and vice versa."

	"Last year four countries accounted for nearly all executions 
	worldwide: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States.  
	As my Irish grandmother used to say, you're known by the company 
	you keep."
	
 		

	"But we do know this. If there is one thing more powerful 
	than history, it is hope."   

	"If you want anything said, ask a man.  If you want anything done, 
	ask a woman."	

	"Compassion manifests itself in solidarity, the deep consciousness
	of being part of humanity, the existential awareness of the oneness
	of the human race, the intimate knowledge that all people, however
	separated by time and space, are bound together by the same human
	condition."	

	"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts."

	"If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor
	in the other direction."

	"The collapse of the (Dubai Ports company) deal was a measure of
	Bush's political weakness--but even more, of America's traumatized
	post-September 11 politics.  The ironic fact is that the UAE is
	precisely the kind of Arab ally the United States needs most now.
	But that clearly didn't matter to an election-year Congress,
	which responded to the Dubai deal with a frenzy of Muslim-bashing
	disguised as concern about terrorism.  And we wonder why the rest
	of the world doesn't like us."		
	

	"Muslim political and religious leaders must fight to take back
	our religion from vocal, violent, and ignorant extremists
	who have tried to hijack Islam over the last 100 years.  They do not
	speak for Islam any more than a Christian terrorist speaks for
	Christianity.  At one time or another, all religions have faced
	extremists who abuse the power of faith."

	"This year (2005) the United States will spend more than $500 billion
	on war and war preparation.  This is more than the next 20 nations
	combined--including Russia and China.  Our nation worships its military;
	it is our sacred cow.  And while the cow gets fatter, the poor get poorer."

	"Love is an idealistic thing, marriage a real thing.  A confusion
	of the real with the idealistic never goes unpunished."

	"I do not at all understand the mystery of grace--only that
	it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us." 

	
	"There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space
	program: your dollar will go farther."

	"Hope has two lovely daughters: anger and courage. Anger
	at what's wrong; courage to set it right."

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