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Religious Persecution Quotes

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Religious Persecution Quotes

“I've seen temples feed on fear, graves labeled as pride - I've seen nations crowned with glory, yet cruelty inside. But I've also seen a stranger share their only bread, and in that tiny gesture, every scripture was said.”

Sacrifice Tolerance Theology Service Of Humanity Intolerance Fundamentalism Altruism Xenophobia Religious Extremism Religious Persecution

Book:Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

Source: Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“How like God's love yours has been to me- so wise, so generous, and so unsparing!" exclaimed Pancratius. "Promise me one thing more- that is, that you will stay near to me to the end, and carry my last legacy to my mother.”

“The greatest story ever told is the story never told, the story of countless cultures wiped out of record, just so one cartel could have complete autonomy over the discourse of morality, culture and holiness, all the while being the scourge upon everything moral, cultured and sacred.”

Christianity Theology Imperialism Ethnic Cleansing First Nations Christian Missionary Eurocentrism Religious Persecution Erasure Vatican

Book:Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

Source: Hazrat-e Humanity: The Uncultured Polyglot

“It comes from history. It comes from the record of the Inquisition, persecuting heretics and torturing Jews and all that sort of stuff; and it comes from the other side, too, from the Protestants burning the Catholics. It comes from the insensate pursuit of innocent and crazy old women, and from the Puritans in America burning and hanging the witches — and it comes not only from the Christian church but also from the Taliban. Every single religion that has a monotheistic god ends up by persecuting other people and killing them because they don't accept him. Wherever you look in history, you find that. It’s still going on.”

History Torture Persecution Witches Protestants Taliban Inquisition Jews Monotheism Religious Persecution Catholics Heretics Puritans

Author:Philip Pullman

“Boom!” The thunder of a massive explosion rolled across the settlement. Maria’s sobbing came from the bedroom. Irina ran to her daughter. “They’ve blown up the church! They destroyed it!” Maria cried again and again in hysteria. “Hush, hush,” Irina whispered, holding her daughter close as she tried to calm her. “Be strong. We will pray before the icons at home. God in heaven sees everything. No one can destroy Him—or our faith.” — Volodymyr Shablia, Stone. Book Three Context note: Set in the 1930s during Stalin’s anti-religious campaign, this scene reflects the Soviet regime’s systematic destruction of churches and persecution of believers. Across the USSR, thousands of religious buildings were demolished as part of the state’s effort to eradicate faith—yet for many families, belief survived behind closed doors, becoming an act of quiet resistance.”

Faith Christianity Atheism Communism Historical Fiction Soviet Union Totalitarianism Freedom Of Religion Religious Persecution Church Drama

Book:Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга третя. Несправджені сподівання.: Все буде Голодомор.

Source: Камінь. Біографічний роман. Книга третя. Несправджені сподівання.: Все буде Голодомор.

“Right to leave religion is just as fundamental as right to religion.”

Faith Tolerance Secular Fundamentalism Secularism Religious Freedom Interfaith Religious Fundamentalism Peaceful Coexistence Religious Persecution

Book:Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

Source: Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“The chief care of the legislators [in the colonies of New England] was the maintenance of orderly conduct and good morals in the community: thus they constantly invaded the domain of conscience, and there was scarcely a sin which was no subject to magisterial censure. The reader is aware of the rigor with which these laws punished rape and adultery; intercourse between unmarried persons was likewise severely repressed. The judge was empowered to inflict either a pecuniary penalty, a whipping, or marriage, on the misdemeanants; and if the records of the old courts of New Haven may be believed, prosecutions of this kind were not unfrequent. We find a sentence, bearing date the 1st of May, 1660, inflicting a fine and reprimand on a young woman who was accused of using improper language, and of allowing herself to be kissed. The Code of 1650 abounds in preventive measures. It punishes idleness and drunkenness with severity. Innkeepers were forbidden to furnish more than certain quantities of liquor to each customer; and simple lying, whenever it may be injurious, is checked by a fine or a flogging. In other places, the legislator, entirely forgetting the great principles of religious toleration which he had himself demanded in Europe, makes attendance on divine service compulsory, and goes so far as to visit with severe punishment, and even with death, Christians who choose to worship God according to a ritual differing from his own. Sometimes, indeed, the zeal for regulation induces him to descend to the most frivolous particulars: thus a law is to be found in the same code which prohibits the use of tobacco. It must not be forgotten that these fantastical and vexatious laws were not imposed by authority, but that they were freely voted by all the persons interested in them, and that the manners of the community were even more austere and puritanical than the laws.... These errors are no doubt discreditable to human reason; they attest the inferiority of our nature, which is incapable of laying firm hold upon what is true and just, and is often reduced to the alternative of two excesses. In strict connection with this penal legislation, which bears such striking marks of a narrow, sectarian spirit, and of those religious passions which had been warmed by persecution and were still fermenting among the people, a body of political laws is to be found, which, though written two hundred years ago, is still in advance of the liberties of our own age.”

Democracy Massachusetts Rape Culture Connecticut Puritanism Religious Persecution 1835 Colonial Society Establishment Of Religion 1660

Book:Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

“Service of humanity is supreme shahada, to defend the persecuted is cosmic khalsa, to treat neighbor as god is real dharma, quiet kindness is the real karma.”

Religion Spirituality Divine Karma Tolerance Holiness Dharma Interfaith Religious Persecution Khalsa

Book:Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

Source: Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat

“Humans simply love inventing superstitions and then getting killed because of them. Or better yet, using them as an excuse to kill other humans.”

Persecution Superstition Religious Persecution Vespertine

Book:Vespertine

Source: Vespertine

“The Christian Church is the original religious persecutor of planet earth, British monarchy is the original terrorist organization of planet earth, Druncle Sam is the planet's longest running pandemic, Israeli state is the planet's youngest delinquent.”

Colonialism Imperialism British Empire Zionism Decolonization Indigenous Rights Christian Missionary Christian Nationalism Religious Persecution Ethnics Cleansing

Book:With Love From A Blue Rock

Source: With Love From A Blue Rock

“If we look back into history for the character of present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practised it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England, blamed persecution in the Roman church, but practised it against the Puritans: these found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here and in New England. [Letter to the London Packet, 3 June 1772]”

History Intolerance Persecution Bishops Protestants New England Roman Catholic Pagans Religious Persecution Church Of England Puritans

Book:The life and letters of Benjamin Franklin

Source: The life and letters of Benjamin Franklin

“Defending all persecuted is true act of khalsa.”

Intolerance Persecution Religious Persecution Sikh Sikhism Khalsa Gurbani

Book:Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

Source: Iftar-e Insaniyat: The First Supper

“How in any way does EQUALITY with other people equate to 'religious persecution'? Does the survival of a religion depend on the vilification and desecration of the humanity of others?”

Religion Humanity Survival Equality Religious Persecution Vilification Desecration Equate

Book:Dead Man's Hammer

Source: Dead Man's Hammer

“If the Pentateuch be true, religious persecution is a duty. The dungeons of the Inquisition were temples, and the clank of every chain upon the limbs of heresy was music in the ear of God. If the Pentateuch was inspired, every heretic should be destroyed; and every man who advocates a fact inconsistent with the sacred book, should be consumed by sword and flame. In the Old Testament no one is told to reason with a heretic, and not one word is said about relying upon argument, upon education, nor upon intellectual development—nothing except simple brute force. Is there to-day a christian who will say that four thousand years ago, it was the duty of a husband to kill his wife if she differed with him upon the subject of religion? Is there one who will now say that, under such circumstances, the wife ought to have been killed? Why should God be so jealous of the wooden idols of the heathen? Could he not compete with Baal? Was he envious of the success of the Egyptian magicians? Was it not possible for him to make such a convincing display of his power as to silence forever the voice of unbelief? Did this God have to resort to force to make converts? Was he so ignorant of the structure of the human mind as to believe all honest doubt a crime? If he wished to do away with the idolatry of the Canaanites, why did he not appear to them? Why did he not give them the tables of the law? Why did he only make known his will to a few wandering savages in the desert of Sinai? Will some theologian have the kindness to answer these questions? Will some minister, who now believes in religious liberty, and eloquently denounces the intolerance of Catholicism, explain these things; will he tell us why he worships an intolerant God? Is a god who will burn a soul forever in another world, better than a christian who burns the body for a few hours in this? Is there no intellectual liberty in heaven? Do the angels all discuss questions on the same side? Are all the investigators in perdition? Will the penitent thief, winged and crowned, laugh at the honest folks in hell? Will the agony of the damned increase or decrease the happiness of God? Will there be, in the universe, an eternal auto da fe?”

Source: Some Mistakes of Moses

“If Christianity were true religious persecution would become a pious and charitable duty: if God designs to punish men for their opinions it would be an act of mercy to mankind to extinguish such opinions. By burning the bodies of those who diffuse them many souls would be saved that would otherwise be lost, and so there would be an economy of torment in the long run. It is therefore not surprising that enthusiasts should be intolerant.”

Source: The Martyrdom of Man

“The sole purpose and effect of it is to exclude persecution and to secure the important right of religious liberty.”

Important Purpose Religious Liberty Atheism Effects Secure Sole Persecution Church And State Separation Of Church And State Founding Fathers Christian Separation Between Church And State Religious Liberty Christian Father Religious Persecution Christian Persecution

Author:Oliver Ellsworth

“The United States, which has been called the home of the persecuted and the dispossessed, has been since its founding an asylum for emotional orphans. For over three hundred years, refugees from political oppression, religious persecution, famine, poverty, and a rigid class system which limited educational and economic opportunities have been leaving their native villages and cities and coming to the United States in search of freedom and a better life.”

“The whole history of the last thousands of years has been a history of religious persecutions and wars, pogroms, jihads, crusades. I find it all very regrettable, to say the least.”

Years Has Beens War Whole Lasts Religious Atheism Positive Atheism Persecution Crusades Jihad Religious Persecution

Author:Steven Weinberg

“Historically the Puritans left England to escape religious persecution, and they promptly turned around and started persecuting the people they didn't agree with - the scarlet letter A, and the stocks and the dunking board came from that. That puritanism is still there.”

People Stills Left Religious Letters England Agree Boards Persecution Puritan Scarlet Puritanism Religious Persecution Dunking

Author:Hugh Hefner

“That ideology was never going to work, was it? It was just cobbled together from different beliefs: The anti-intellectualism of the Khmer Rouge, the religious persecution of the Nazis, the enforced beard-wearing from the world of folk music, and the segregation and humiliation of women from the world of golf.”

“Religious freedom is often referred to as America's first freedom. Our country was founded by religious exiles and built on the belief that God has given all people certain inalienable rights. Government's role in society is to protect these rights and ensure that we are safe from religious persecution and discrimination.”

“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.”

Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799

“For many people, I've ceased to be a human being. I've become an issue, a bother, an "affair".... And has it really been so long since religions persecuted people, burning them as heretics, drowning them as witches, that you can't recognize religious persecution when you see it?”

People Humans Long Religious Human Beings Issues Affair Burning Bother Witch Persecution Drowning Heretic Persecuted Religious Persecution

Author:Salman Rushdie

“... happily the Government of the United States... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

“At the bottom of religious persecution is the doctrine of self-defence; that is to say, the defence of the soul. If the founder of Christianity had plainly said: 'It is not necessary to believe in order to be saved; it is only necessary to do, and he who really loves his fellow-men, who is kind, honest, just and charitable, is to be forever blest' - if he had only said that, there would probably have been but little persecution.”

“America became a special source of attraction to people who were fleeing the aftereffects of the 30 Years War and the religious persecution that began to sweep through Europe in the period between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. And when people got here, very often they succeeded.”

People Years War America Religious Special Source Periods Enlightenment Europe Attraction Persecution Renaissance Fleeing Religious Persecution

Author:Mitch Horowitz

“Today, in Mexico, they speak 65 languages, counting the indigenous languages, 65. It is a people of great faith. They have also suffered religious persecution.”

People Today Speak Language Religious Mexico Persecution Indigenous Counting Great Faith Religious Persecution

Author:Pope Francis

“Religion which requires persecution to sustain, it is of the devil's propagation.”

Devil Persecution Persecuted Propagation Religious Persecution

Author:Hosea Ballou

“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.”

“I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.”

Source: The Writings of George Washington: pt. V. Speeches and messages to Congress, proclamations, and addresses

“Once you attempt legislation upon religious grounds, you open the way for every kind of intolerance and religious persecution.”

Way Kind Religious Atheism Positive Atheism Intolerance Legislation Persecution Religious Intolerance Religious Persecution

Author:William Butler Yeats

“The one distinct feature of our Association has been the right of the individual opinion for every member. We have been beset at every step with the cry that somebody was injuring the cause by the expression of some sentiments that differed with those held by the majority of mankind. The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.”

“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction - to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”

Source: The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources, 1745-1799

“Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety.”

May Religious Atheism Positive Atheism Mistaken Persecution Shields Piety Guise Zealous Religious Persecution

Author:Edmund Burke

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.... During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.”

Mind Has Beens Religion Religious Christianity Atheism Century Ignorance Pride Constitution Fruit Atheist Noble Trials Enterprise Bigotry Establishment Superstitions Fifteen Secular Persecution Founding Bondage Church And State Separation Of Church And State Our Founding Fathers Founding Fathers Christian Philosophy Of Religion Us Founding Fathers Clergy Indolence Founding Fathers Religion Separation Between Church And State Shackles Founding Fathers Religious Religion God Federalist Founding Fathers Anti Religion Founding Fathers Of America Founding America Federalist Papers American Founding Fathers Founding Fathers Atheist Religious Philosophy Deism Christianity From Founding Fathers Religion And Politics Christian Atheist Religion Christian Philosophy And Religion Religion And Government Faith Religion Servility Religious Persecution Religious Bigotry Christianity And Government Christian Persecution

Author:James Madison

“People who prefer to believe the worst of others will breed war and religious persecutions while the world lasts.”

People World Believe War Lasts Religious Worst Persecution Religious Persecution

Author:Dorothy L. Sayers

“Monotheistic religions alone furnish the spectacle of religious wars, religious persecutions, heretical tribunals, that breaking of idols and destruction of images of the gods, that razing of Indian temples and Egyptian colossi, which had looked on the sun 3,000 years: just because a jealous god had said, Thou shalt make no graven image.”

Years Said War Religion Religious Sun Atheism Destruction Indian Temples Jealous Idols Persecution Egyptian Tribunals Religious Wars Religious Persecution

Author:Arthur Schopenhauer

“The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God.”

Has Beens Done Age Culture Religious Diversity Social Justice Atheist Positive Atheism Command Persecution Religious Persecution

Book:Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words

Source: Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words

“Religious tolerance is something we should all practice; however, there have been more persecution and atrocities committed in the name of religion and religious freedom than anything else.”

Should Has Beens Names Religious Practice Committed Tolerance Persecution Atrocities Religious Freedom Religious Tolerance Religious Persecution Atrocities Committed

Author:Walter Koenig

“Ever since you're little you hear this: 'The pilgrims left England to escape religious persecution and sneak religious freedom into the new world.' But even when you're little you're like, 'Umm.. Bullsh*t?'”

World Littles Left Religious England New World Persecution Pilgrim Religious Freedom Sneak Funny Thanksgiving Religious Persecution

Author:Greg Proops

“Our two nations have a lot in common, when you think about it. We were both founded by immigrants escaping religious persecution in other lands. We both have built vibrant democracies. Both our countries are founded on certain basic beliefs, that there is an Almighty God who watches over the affairs of men and values every life. These ties have made us natural allies, and these ties will never be broken.”

“The spirit of religious persecution is not the special failing of any particular faith, but springs eternal in the human breast.”

Humans Spirit Religious Failing Special Particular Eternal Spring Breasts Persecution Religious Persecution

Author:Dion Fortune

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

Source: Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words

“Systems of religious error have been adopted in times of ignorance. It has been the interest of tyrannical kings, popes, and prelates to maintain these errors. When the clouds of ignorance began to vanish and the people grew more enlightened, there was no other way to keep them in error but to prohibit their altering their religious opinions by severe persecuting laws. In this way persecution became general throughout Europe.”

“Among all the religious persecutions with which almost every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suffered but for violation of what Government denominated the law of God. To prevent a similar train of evils in this country, the Constitution has wisely withheld from our Government the power of defining the divine law.”

Country States Government Law Evil Church Religious Modern Divine Pages Constitution Victim Train Persecution Defining Violation Modern History Divine Law Religious Persecution

Author:Richard Mentor Johnson

“President Obama understands that, as a nation founded by those who fled religious persecution, freedom of religion is central to who we are as Americans. Our rights are not given to us by government, they are endowed by our Creator.”

Government Given Nations President Religious Rights Creator Who We Are President Obama Persecution Freedom Of Religion Religious Persecution

Author:Denis McDonough