Black Church Quotes

• 

  Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.67, Beacon Press

  1141 Copy quote

  Show source

• Black churches are very powerful forces in the African American community and always have been. Because religion has been that one place where you have an imagination that no one can control. And so, as long as you know that you are a human being and nobody can take that away from you, then God is that reality in your life that enables you to know that.

  James H. Cone

  Powerful, Reality, Long

  42 Copy quote

• Nothing is more powerful than the black church experience. A good choir and a good sermon in the black church, it's pretty hard not to be move and be transported.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, Moving, Black

  Interview with Cathleen Falsani, www.beliefnet.com. March 27, 2004.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Faith, Peace

  "50 years after receiving Nobel Prize, do Martin Luther King's peace prophecies still resonate?", www.foxnews.com. October 12, 2014.

  124 Copy quote

  Show source

• I love what the church offers to us as a culture - black people in particular. We would be nowhere without the black church.

  Oprah Winfrey

  People, Black, Church

  Source: www.aarp.org

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The wonderful thing about the black church for me is that it forces you to come to terms with the centrality of love in the world.

  Cornel West

  Black, Church, World

  Source: articles.latimes.com

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Kings, Hate, Light

  "A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings".

  84 Copy quote

  Show source

• Black churches minister to social needs out of necessity.

  Barack Obama

  Black, Church, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• If the churches don't move, much of the community won't move. We've got a situation in which a black church is still a major institution in the black community where 55 percent of the black folk attend and over 75 pass through its doors.

  Cornel West

  Moving, Doors, Community

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ever since the civil rights movement, the black church has always encouraged people to utilize their voting right, which is a right that was fought for.

  Otis Moss III

  Rights, People, Voting

  6 Copy quote

• I refuse to accept the view . . . that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Kings, Unconditional Love

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.116, Beacon Press

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unconditional love will have the final word in reality.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Kings, Truth

  Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 10 Dec. 1964

  122 Copy quote

  Show source

• Jeremiah Wright is one of the greatest prophetic preachers that black America has produced. What I find striking is that many white brothers and sisters miss the fact that there would be no black church if the white church wasn't political and racist in refusing to worship with us.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Brother, White, America

  "Professor checks out new landscape 'after King'". Interview with Arienne Thompson, www.usatoday.com. April 3, 2008.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• You know, the vibrancy of the black church, the black businesses that employ so many people, the opportunities that so many families are working to provide for their kids. There's a lot that we should be proud of and we should be supporting and lifting up.

  Hillary Clinton

  Kids, Opportunity, People

  "Clinton And Trump Clash In Tense First Presidential Debate". www.npr.org. September 26, 2016.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Black church is extremely important in Black America. I think most Americans themselves believe in a divine power, in a god, and I'm sure that that number increases with Black people.

  Harry Lennix

  Believe, Thinking, Numbers

  Source: www.pbs.org

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The beauty of the literary art, the grappling with the black church, the wrestling with one's identity in the bosom of a complicated black community that was both bulwark to the larger white society as well as a threshing ground, so to speak, to hash out the differences that black people have among ourselves.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Art, Wrestling, White

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• As you know, Sunday at 11 o'clock is the most segregated hour in America. You have black churches; you have white churches; you have Hispanic churches. It's not really reflective of the world we live in, by and large, in America.

  David Oyelowo

  Sunday, White, America

  Source: decentfilms.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I know specifically me being somebody who has had most of my experiences within the black church, that's cultural... you gotta put on your church clothes when you got to church...and it's nothing wrong with that - that's absolutely fine! But I think what's happening to a new generation ,the hip hop generation, there's astigmatism, a feeling that I'm unwelcome.

  LeCrae

  Thinking, Clothes, Hip Hop

  Source: thegospelguru.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The black church will accept anybody.

  James McBride

  Black, Church, Accepting

  5 Copy quote

• Some of the most moving experiences I've had are just in black churches in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement, where people were getting beaten, killed, really struggling for the most elementary rights.

  Noam Chomsky

  Moving, Struggle, Rights

  "Noam Chomsky on Love: 'Life's Empty Without It'". Big think Interview, bigthink.com. August 18, 2009.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The next Republican that will win will campaign in the Latino community, will campaign amongst Asian-Americans, will campaign in the black churches, will campaign in college campuses.

  Jeb Bush

  Winning, College, Community

  "Jeb Bush calls for U.S. Embassy to move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem" By Ashley Killough, www.cnn.com. May 30, 2015.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I certainly think so, and I argue so, and I give talks on that. Are there risks by putting people together? Absolutely. Is there value in the black church? Absolutely. Is there value in having immigrant churches? Absolutely. But if we don't have congregations gathering with people of different races, what we're doing is we are redefining racial division, a racial inequality.

  Michael Emerson

  Thinking, Race, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The black church often has reinforced certain self images that are damaging to black peoples' beauty, black peoples' confidence.

  Cornel West

  Self, Black, Church

  Source: articles.latimes.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• People like Clyde McPhatter who came out of the black churches - like Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin - were all church singers who became great pop singers because gospel singing is very close to the blues.

  Ahmet Ertegun

  People, Black, Singing

  Source: www.slate.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The black church is dormant, much of the community is dormant. If the black church is leaning toward the right, much of the community is leaning toward the right. If it is leaning in the left wing direction having repercussions.

  Cornel West

  Wings, Community, Black

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source