“Lies are a little fortress; inside them you can feel safe and powerful. Through your little fortress of lies you try to run your life and manipulate others. But the fortress needs walls, so you build some. These are the justifications for your lies. You know, like you are doing this to protect someone you love, to keep them from feeling pain. Whatever works, just so you feel okay about the lies.” KnowsNeedsFeelsTryingLittlesFeelingsRunningPainLyingPowerfulLike YouWallProtectSafeOkayJustificationManipulateOne You LoveSomeone You LoveFortressesWhatever WorksFeeling Pain Author:William P. Young
“It's always been you know, religion that has been the primary impediment to actual relationship with God, because it creates a mythology about performance -- that you can perform your way into the appeasement of the deity. And you know, when you're born inside the cultural framework that I was, and you're born inside the religious traditions that I was, that becomes your understanding of spirituality: That it's about trying to please God. So, it's really not about God at all; it's about our ability to perform according to whatever the expectations are.” KnowsWayTryingHas BeensReligionSpiritualityUnderstandingBornReligiousAbilityPleaseExpectationsTraditionPerformancesMythologyPrimariesDeitiesFrameworkRelationship With GodImpedimentsReligious TraditionsAppeasement Author:William P. Young
“The intricacy and the inherent beautiful fragility of the human soul is such that it is uniquely damaged and only God knows how to heal it, and it's going to take time.” KnowsHumansSoulBeautifulKnow HowHealTake TimeInherentGod KnowsHuman SoulFragilityIntricacyOnly God Knows 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
“Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside.” SinPunishmentDevouringShackShack Book Author:William P. Young
“It is impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn't even real...” RealImpossible Author:William P. Young
“I want to tell you about the God that actually showed up and healed my heart. Not the God I grew up, because the God I grew up was fundamentally, and I use the word advisedly, fundamentally untrustworthy -- schizophrenic, narcissistic, unreachable, unknowable, and my concept within which I grew up was that Jesus -- He likes me -- but He came to save me from God the Father -- who was the one who was angry and distant, and unreachable, unknowable. All of that had to come crashing down.” WantHeartUseFatherJesusGrewMy HeartGrew UpConceptsAngryLikesHealedNarcissisticSave MeSchizophrenicUntrustworthyUnreachableCrashing Down Author:William P. Young
“It wasn't long ago I was cleaning toilets and now I have protestors. How cool is this?” LongLong AgoCleaningToilets 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