Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners Quotes

“Be careful,” warned Nietzsche, “lest in fighting the dragon you become the dragon.” I see the confusion of politics and religion as one of the greatest barriers to grace. C. S. Lewis once said that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“In no other arena is the church at greater risk of losing its calling than in the public square.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“The late Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical American author, wrote: “For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the beatitudes. But—often with tears in their eyes—they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the beatitudes, be posted anywhere.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Frankly, I have seen even more graceless, not to say scurrilous, responses to Barack Obama from Christians. The church has allowed itself to get so swept up in political issues that it plays by the rules of adversarial power. In no other arena is the church at greater risk of losing its calling than in the public square. Somehow the paramount command to love—even to love our enemies—gets lost. Seeing this, the watching world often finds itself repelled by outspoken followers of Jesus rather than attracted to them.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Christian faith, which is at its heart about self-giving—God’s self-giving and human self-giving—and not about self-imposing.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Will Christians turn once again toward an approach that imposes its will on the rest of society? By doing so we would betray our founder, who resisted a temptation to authority over “all the kingdoms of the world,” and who died a martyr at the hands of a powerful state. In the words of Miroslav Volf, “Imposition stands starkly at odds with the basic character of the Christian faith, which is at its heart about self-giving—God’s self-giving and human self-giving—and not about self-imposing.” Even”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“One prominent spiritual leader insists, “The only way to have a genuine spiritual revival is to have legislative reform.” Could he have that backwards?”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“C. S. Lewis shocked many people in his day when he came out in favor of allowing divorce, on the grounds that we Christians have no right to impose our morality on society at large. Although he would continue to oppose divorce on moral grounds, he maintained the distinction between morality and legality.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“I fear that our clumsy pronouncements, our name-calling, our hysteria about important issues—in short, our lack of grace—may in the end prove so damaging that society no longer looks to us for the guidance it needs.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“The apostle Paul had much to say about the immorality of individual church members, but little to say about the immorality of pagan Rome. He did not rail against the abuses in Rome—slavery, idolatry, gladiator games, political oppression, greed—even though such abuses surely offended Christians of that day every bit as much as our deteriorating society offends Christians today.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“I see the confusion of politics and religion as one of the greatest barriers to grace. C. S. Lewis once said that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist. Those”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Even in “post-Christian” societies the gospel will continue to do its subversive work. Jesus used small things to describe his kingdom: a sprinkling of yeast that causes the whole loaf to rise, a pinch of salt that preserves a slab of meat, the smallest seed in the garden that grows into a great bush in which the birds of the air come to nest. Practices that used to be common—human sacrifice, slavery, duels to the death, child labor, exploitation of women, racial apartheid, debtors’ prisons, the killing of the elderly and incurably ill—have been banned, in large part because of a gospel stream running through cultures influenced by the Christian faith. Once salted and yeasted, society is difficult to un-salt and un-yeast.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“culture? As Lesslie Newbigin poses the question, “Can one who goes the way of the Cross sit in the seat of Pilate when it falls vacant?”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“After reporting on such moments, the historian Paul Johnson concludes, “Attempts to perfect Christian societies in this world, whether conducted by popes or revolutionaries, have tended to degenerate into red terrors.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“When the church has occasion to set the rules for all society, it often veers toward the extremism”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“When the church joined with the state, it tended to wield power rather than dispense grace.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Democracy requires us to recognize others’ rights even when we fundamentally disagree with them. It requires a civility in which I respect a person’s ultimate worth and seek to persuade but not to coerce. For this reason modern democracy grew out of Christian soil.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Be careful,” warned Nietzsche, “lest in fighting the dragon you become the dragon.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Andy Rooney, the late commentator on the 60 Minutes television show, once said, “I’ve decided I’m against abortion. I think it’s murder. But I have a dilemma in that I much prefer the pro-choice to the pro-life people. I’d much rather eat dinner with a group of the former.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“From such experiments Christians have learned that the gospel grows best from the bottom up rather than being imposed from the top down.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Jesus used small things to describe his kingdom: a sprinkling of yeast that causes the whole loaf to rise, a pinch of salt that preserves a slab of meat, the smallest seed in the garden that grows into a great bush in which the birds of the air come to nest. Practices that used to be common—human sacrifice, slavery, duels to the death, child labor, exploitation of women, racial apartheid, debtors’ prisons, the killing of the elderly and incurably ill—have been banned, in large part because of a gospel stream running through cultures influenced by the Christian faith. Once salted and yeasted, society is difficult to un-salt and un-yeast. Many”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“The more we focus on tangential issues, the less effective we will be in addressing matters of true moral significance. I hear very little from evangelicals about the impact of gun proliferation on violent crime, much less an issue like nuclear disarmament. I hear almost nothing about health care for the poor and protecting widows and orphans, both biblical mandates, and scant mention of the thirteen million children who die worldwide from malnutrition in a year. I hear scornful dismissal of concerns about global warming, an issue viewed seriously by the vast majority of scientists. I hear talk about family values, but when an administration proposed legislation to allow mothers to take unpaid leave after childbirth, conservative religious groups opposed”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“As a writer I have received my share of mixed reviews. Even so, as I read through stacks of vituperative letters, I got a strong sense for why the world does not automatically associate the word “grace” with evangelical Christians. Noxious”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Be careful,” warned Nietzsche, “lest in fighting the dragon you become the dragon.” I”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“As the priest in Harold Frederic’s novel The Damnation of Theron Ware cynically concludes, There must always be a church. If one did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it. It is needed, first and foremost, as a police force. It is needed, secondly, so to speak, as a fire insurance. . . . . It furnishes the best obtainable social machinery for marrying off one’s daughters, getting to know the right people, patching up quarrels, and so on. The priesthood earn their salaries as the agents for these valuable social arrangements. Sometimes”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Jimmy Carter taught a Sunday school class throughout his presidency, winning the grudging respect of reporters who had once questioned his religious talk as a political ploy. Even so, he lost many Christians’ votes to Ronald Reagan, the only U.S. president to have been divorced and who rarely attended church and gave little to charity, mainly because Reagan supported many of the favorite causes of the religious Right.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“see the confusion of politics and religion as one of the greatest barriers to grace. C. S. Lewis once said that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“Democracy requires us to recognize others’ rights even when we fundamentally disagree with them. It requires a civility in which I respect a person’s ultimate worth and seek to persuade but not to coerce.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners

“I understand why some Christians are acting ungraciously: out of fear.”
― Philip Yancey, Christians and Politics Uneasy Partners