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Quote by Reinhold Niebuhr

“There must be a realm of truth beyond political competence, that's why there must be a separation of churches, but if religion is bad and a bad religion is one that gives an ultimate sanctity to some particular cause.”

Quote by Reinhold Niebuhr

Author

Reinhold Niebuhr

Reinhold Niebuhr was a prominent American theologian whose work on Christian ethics and social ethics had a profound impact on the 20th century. He was a key figure in theological discourse, particularly for his exploration of the nature of sin and the church's role in society. Niebuhr's theological thought has influenced various Christian denominations and has had a lasting effect on political and social thought. more

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“Religion mustn't interfere with the state - so one of the basic Democratic principles as we know it in America is the separation of church and state.”

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“Whenever a church does anything for its own group, it has that right.”

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“When a church reaches up beyond its group and tries to enforce its standards upon a society that doesn't accept these standards, and perhaps for good reason, perhaps for bad reason, but anyway this is the problem we face in pluralistic society, that not necessarily every standard that every church tries to enforce upon the society is from the society's standpoint a good standard.”

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“That is one of the flagrant misconceptions about Catholicism in America that if a man is a Catholic he owes allegiance to what they say a foreign sovereign, or something like that.”

Ifs Men America Catholic Catholicism Sovereign Allegiance Misconception

Author:Reinhold Niebuhr

“Now the ordinary Protestant, Jew or Secularist has a stereotype about Catholicism. It consists of Spanish Catholicism, Latin-American Catholicism and, let us say, a Catholicism of O'Connor's "Great Hurrah." Now there are types of Catholicism like that but this doesn't - this doesn't do justice to the genuine relation that Catholicism has had to Democratic Society.”

Justice Type Ordinary Relation Democratic Jew Genuine Latin Catholicism Stereotype Protestants Democratic Society Latin American

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“Not only in America but in Germany, in France since the war, in Germany after the First World War, the Germany of Adenauer, these are the creative relationships of Catholicism to a free society that the average American doesn't fully appreciate.”

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Author:Reinhold Niebuhr

“The churches that are most obviously democratic are most obviously given to race prejudice. I mean the churches that have absolute congregational control.”

Mean Given Church Race Prejudice Absolutes Democratic

Author:Reinhold Niebuhr

“In the 17th and 18th centuries there was a kind of Protestantism that said, "If you could only get rid of the Bishop, then you'd be a true Christian".”

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Author:Reinhold Niebuhr

“You might get rid of the Bishop and get to the local Ku Klux Klan leader. That, on the whole, has been the fate of certain types of Protestantism. They get under the control of a White Citizens Council while the Catholic Church has an authoritarian system, yes, in which the Bishop expresses the conscience of the whole Christian community and they say there are some things that you can't do on this matter.”

“There must be equality of all men before God and in a democratic society. Now that's one of the great achievements.”

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Author:Reinhold Niebuhr