“I think people are tired of religion and how it divides and damages people. You can name it whatever you want, Islam or Christianity, but if you have a system in which God is distant and angry all the time, and you're trying to please him through the right disciplines, it isn't going to work for everyone.” PeopleIfsThinkingWantTryingNamesChristianityDisciplinePleaseAngryTiredIslamDamageDividesGoing To Work Author:William P. Young
“Disconnect your identity from what you produce, and that’s a hard thing for us because we think of our significance, worth and value based on what we do instead of who we are.” ThinkingHardValuesIdentityProduceWho We AreSignificanceHard Things Author:William P. Young
“I think one of the greatest losses to humanity was the domination of women. I think every religious system has found ways to be kind to them in a kind of subordinate way. Very patronizing, very colonial. But if you start looking at the fabric of society, even religious systems, they would fall apart if it wasn't for the embedded ability of the women who are involved.” IfsThinkingWayKindHumanityFallFoundWomenReligiousLossAbilityInvolvedBe KindFabricDominationFalling ApartSubordinatesEmbeddedPatronizing Author:William P. Young
“I think my books give people a language to have a conversation about God that's not religious. There isn't enough new literature that brings the conversation of God into a modern context. I love the Bible, but in the West we've analyzed it until it fits into a structure of control. We need more new stories. We need different ways of looking at things, and I think it's coming.” PeopleThinkingWayNeedsGivingBookDifferentEnoughStoriesLiteratureLanguageReligiousModernFitConversationStructureWestDifferent Ways Author:William P. Young
“I make a distinction between true and real. I think that the story is true, it’s just not real. That’s what a parable is. It takes things that we all know are real, and it takes life events that actually happens, and it weaves them into a fiction that allows truth to actually be embedded.” ThinkingKnowsRealStoriesHappensFictionEventsDistinctionEmbeddedParables Author:William P. Young
“I think that most creative fiction involves the transformational process, whether it is Dickens or Dostoyevsky and the writer in some sense is expressing their own journey through such a wilderness.” ThinkingProcessFictionCreativeJourneyWildernessDickensDostoyevsky Author:William P. Young
“Religion and anger has gone together a lot, historically. My father, being very religious and angry, was trying to reconcile the ideas of love and forgiveness with damage in his own heart. We historically create God in the image of someone who will redeem us, or someone who has damaged us. A lot of my imaginations of God was a projection of my own damage because of my father. God is good but he has a lot of expectations, of which I have failed -- just like my dad. But I don't think it's truthful to create God as a projection of either our damage or our altruism.” ThinkingTryingHeartIdeasTogetherFatherImaginationReligiousMy OwnGoneDadExpectationsAngryMy DadDamageTruthfulAltruismMy ImaginationProjectionReconcileLove And Forgiveness Author:William P. Young
“I think good creative writing opens up space for people to come into. Let God reach out and touch the human soul. That's not my job. I get to be present and create as much space as I can ... That frees me up just to be creative in the way I want to be.” PeopleThinkingWayWantWritingHumansI CanSoulJobsSpaceCreativeLetting GoReach OutBe CreativeCreative WritingHuman Soul Author:William P. Young
“Evangelicals have like millions of rules. And it's just, uh, we have sort of an accepted, rationalism within which we frame religion. And we think that belief, intellectually, is of the same as relationship. And in our Western family conversation, that's become an incredible impediment toward actual wholeness, where the heart and the head are aligned and relationship -- with not just God but with each other.” ThinkingHeartBeliefMillionsConversationWesternIncrediblesAcceptedWholenessRationalismImpediments Author:William P. Young
“Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong use to make others conform to what they want.” ThinkingWantUseStrongAuthorityExcuseConformShack Author:William P. Young
“It grants you the power to judge others and feel superior to them. You believe you are living to a higher standard than those you judge. Enforcing rules, especially in more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainly out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.” ThinkingFeelsTryingBelieveMightLawResponsibilityExpressionJudgingHigherStandardsExpectationsLawyerContrarySuperiorsVainUncertaintySubtleGrantsFondnessHigher Standards Author:William P. Young
“Mack was getting frustrated. He spoke louder, 'But, don't I have a right to...' To complete a sentence without being interrupted? Not in reality. But as long as you think you do, you will surely get ticked off when someone cuts you off, even if it is God.” IfsThinkingLongRealityCuttingSentencesSpokesFrustratedInterruptedMack Author:William P. Young
“When you chose independence over relationship, you became a danger to one another. Others became objects to be manipulated or managed for your own happiness. Authority as you usually think of it, is merely the excues the strone ones use to make others conform to what they want.” ThinkingWantUseDangerObjectsAuthorityIndependenceConformRelationship Over Author:William P. Young
“I am what some would say 'holy, and wholly other than you.' The problem is that many folks try to grasp some sense of who I am by taking the best version of themselves, projecting that to the nth degree, factoring in all the goodness they can perceive, which often isn't much, and then call that God. And while it may seem like a noble effort, the truth is that it falls pitifully short of who I really am. I'm not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask or think.” ThinkingTryingMayProblemSeemsFallAsksEffortHolyTruth IsGoodnessDegreesFolksNobleWho I AmVersionsPerceiveShackAbove And BeyondShack BookFactoring Author:William P. Young
“Forgiveness is first for you, the forgiver...to release you from something that will eat you alive; that will destroy your joy and your ability to love fully and openly. Do you think this man cares about the pain and torment you have gone through? If anything, he feeds on that knowledge. Don't you want to cut that off? And in doing so, you'll release him from a burden that he carries whether he knows it or not--acknowledges it or not.” IfsThinkingKnowsMenWantFirstsCarePainJoyAbilityGoneCuttingAliveBurdenReleaseAcknowledgeCarrieTormentAbility To Love Author:William P. Young
“Paradigms power perception and perceptions power emotions. Most emotions are responses to perception - what you think is true about a given situation. If your perception is false, then your emotional response to it will be false too. So check your perceptions, and beyond that check the truthfulness of your paradigms - what you believe. Just because you believe something firmly doesn't make it true. Be willing to reexamine what you believe.” IfsThinkingBelieveGivenEmotionSituationEmotionalWillingPerceptionResponseChecksParadigmTruthfulnessEmotional Response Author:William P. Young
