the basic message #E367
10/1/05
I'm a great fan of quotes. They don't have to be the words of anyone famous, but I'm always looking for a profoundness that leaps off the page. Let me share a few with you:
Pearl S. Buck
"We send missionaries into China so the Chinese can get to heaven, but we won't let them into our country."
Perhaps we should update this to now read "Mexico" or "South America".
Abraham Lincoln
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
Are you listening, George? In case you still don't get it, try this one:
Mohandas K. Gandhi
"It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friend. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business."
Some of you might be shocked that I'd use this next one, but hey, wisdom is wisdom.
Buddha
"Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others."
I'm not sure what Buddha had in mind, but my own interpretation is: "Don't count on your pastor, Sunday School teacher, or any person other than Jesus Christ."
Benjamin Franklin
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."
Before you go beating up on old Ben, keep reading:
Benjamin Franklin
"The moral and religious system which Jesus Christ transmitted to us is the best the world has ever seen, or can be."
Most of you will read the quote above and say, "Amen", but try to read "between the lines" and hear what Franklin is really saying. It has nothing to do with the modern Republicanization of Christianity.
I've saved the best, and most indicting for last:
Mark Twain
"Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion--several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat, if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven.
If that isn't enough, let's close out with one more from Mr. Clemmons
"In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing."
John R. Singleton
"Ouch!"