“In church I was told that if I so much as smoked a cigarette or tasted alcohol, I’d be damned in hell for all eternity…it didn’t take long for me to start thinking that sounded all wrong….I didn’t cotton to the idea that your religion should be flaunted to other people. Your religion is for you, and…”— Willie Nelson, en.wikiquote.org
“Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between church and state.”— James K. Polk, en.wikiquote.org
“It was also another reminder of how important local parishes are in helping LGBT people feel loved by God. Even if they feel rejected by some church leaders, if LGBT people feel welcome in their home parishes, or if they can find a welcoming parish, it means everything to them.”— James Martin, SJ, twitter.com
“What the church mainly needs to do with transgender people is this: Listen. Since the church is still coming to know them, we need a stance of humility and a real willingness to learn. How do they suffer? What do they hope for? Where is God at work in their lives? Listen to them.”— James Martin, SJ, twitter.com
“The problem I have with all this religion stuff is that I can't relate to it. I think most people got into 'cos it gave them something to do on a Sunday, but since all the shops are now open it isn't required as much.”— Karl Pilkington, amazon.com
“I am fifty-two years of age. I am a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a few people might be constrained to say that I was reasonably responsible. In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attrib…”— Desmond Tutu, en.wikiquote.org
“But yet I say, that the doctrine of God’s eternal predestination is so necessary to the church of God, that, without the same, can faith neither be truly taught, neither surely established; man can never be brought to true humility and knowledge of himself; neither yet can he be ravished in admirati…”— John Knox, amazon.com
“I'm actually the fourth generation in my family to have no practical use for the church, or God, or religion. My children continue this trend”— Adam Savage, techland.time.com
“Why do no churches have wifi? Because no church wants to compete with an invisible power that actually works.”— NotATypicalTeen, reddit.com
“The Church has been reproached with endeavouring to appropriate to itself all those professorships in our Universities which are connected with science: it is however certain that the larger portion of these ill-remunerated offices have been filled by clergymen.”— Charles Babbage, amazon.com
“In any case, rather like priests who have forgotten the meaning of the prayers they chant, we shall go on for quite a long time talking of books and writing books, pretending all the while not to notice that the church is empty and the parishioners have gone elsewhere to attend other gods, perhaps i…”— Gore Vidal, amazon.com
“I sang in the choir for years, even though my family belonged to another church.”— Paul Lynde, books.google.com
“What do you call a book club that's been stuck on one book for years? Church”— TsUnAmI300x2, reddit.com
“Help is a prayer that is always answered. It doesn't matter how you pray--with your head bowed in silence, or crying out in grief, or dancing. Churches are good for prayer, but so are garages and cars and mountains and showers and dance floors.”— Anne Lamott, amazon.com
“The only problem was, Church, even the Catholic Church, didn't take up the whole of your life No matter how much you knelt and prayed, you still had to eat three meals a day and have a job and live in the world.”— Sylvia Plath, amazon.com