"Violence is what happens when we don’t know what else to do with our suffering." 

-- Parker Palmer

"A corporation, essentially, is a pile of money to which a number of persons have sold their moral allegiance." 

-- Wendell Berry

"Our God is a God of hospitality." -- Stanley Hauerwas



(via AZSpot)

"This is the toxic tribalism that repeats itself over and over throughout the West. Western victims are mourned and humanized, while victims of Western violence are invisible and thus dehumanized. Aside from being repugnant in its own right, this formula, by design, is deeply deceptive as propaganda: It creates the impression among Western populations that we are the victims but not the perpetrators of heinous violence, that terrorism is something done to us but that we never commit ourselves, that 'primitive, radical and inhumanely violent' describes the enemy tribe but not our own." 

-- Glenn Greenwald

Young adult gay Christians tell their stories.

"When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others."

-- Desmond Tutu

"The evil in the world is all of our own making, and it proceeds entirely from our ruthless, senseless, wasteful, destructive, and suicidal neglect of our own being." 

-- Thomas Merton

"The need for ripeness — for the slow finishing work of God in me. It needs my desire, my consecrated attention, my submission, my withdrawal from noise and confusion."

--Thomas Merton

"All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone."

-- Blaise Pascal

"Killing Jesus was like trying to destroy a dandelion seed-head by blowing on it. It was like shattering a sun into a million fragments of light." 

- Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers

"Jesus was killed by the earthly structures in bondage to the power of evil.  His death was not a payment owed to God's honor, nor was it divine punishment that he suffered as a substitute for sinners.  Jesus' death was the rejection of the rule of God by forces opposed to that rule. ... Far from being an event organized for a divine requirement, his death reveals the nature of the forces of evil that opposed the rule of God.  It poses a contrast between the attempt to coerce by violence under the rule of evil and the nonviolence of the rule of God as revealed and made visible by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

When evil did its worst, namely denying Jesus his existence by killing him, God's resurrection of Jesus displayed the ability of the reign of God to triumph over death, the last enemy.  The power of the reign of God over the forces of evil is made manifest in the resurrection of Jesus.

The resurrection as the victory of the reign of God over the forces of evil constitutes an invitation to salvation, an invitation to submit to the rule of God.  It is an invitation to enter a new life, a life transformed by the rule of God and no longer in bondage to the powers of evil that killed Jesus.  For those who perceive the resurrection, the only option that makes sense is to submit to the reign of God.  Christians, Christ-identified people, participate in the victory of the resurrection and demonstrate their freedom from bondage to the powers by living under the rule of God rather than continuing to live in the power of the evil that killed Jesus.  Salvation is present when allegiances change and new life is lived 'in Christ' under the rule of God."

-- J. Denny Weaver, The Nonviolent Atonement

"The description of the history of atonement thus far has followed the standard account. Two questions cast additional light on these images and bring to the fore the violent elements they contain.

First, a nuance appears when we shift from asking about the object of the death of Jesus to inquire, Who or what needs the death of Jesus? For the ransom theory, one might say that the devil clearly needs the death -- it fulfills God's part of the bargain when the devil releases the souls of humankind. For the cosmic battle image, the question makes little sense. For the satisfaction theories, it is God's honor or God's law that needs the death. Without it, the debt to God's honor remains unpaid or unsatisfied, or the penalty required by God's law remains unmet. Finally, for the moral theory, one might say that "we" -- sinners -- need the death since that is what enables us to perceive the Father's love shown for and to us.

A second question shifts the nuance again and produces a much more controversial answer. Observe what happens when one asks, Who arranges for or is responsible for the death of Jesus? Or put most crassly, Who ultimately killed Jesus?"

- Mennonite theologian J. Denny Weaver, Violence in Christian Theology

"Freedom is not simply doing what we want when we want it. That is addiction. Freedom is the wisdom to choose wisely." 

-- Joseph Goldstein, One Dharma