Clergy Quotes - Page 5

• While politicians, clergy, creators of advertisements, and other worthies assert stoutly that the family is the foundation of society, the nuclear family, as an institution, is currently in grave trouble.

  Jane Jacobs

  Foundation, Nuclear Families, Trouble

  Jane Jacobs (2007). “Dark Age Ahead”, p.29, Vintage

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• The first life insurance societies where formed in England in the years between 1692 and 1720. In America, life insurance became available to the clergy through the Presbyterian Ministers Fund, founded in 1759 (still in existence), and the Episcopal Corporation, founded ten years later (subsequently merged).

  Andrew Tobias

  Years, America, Corporations

  "The Invisible Bankers, Everything The Insurance Industry Never Wanted You To Know". Book by Andrew Tobias, 1982.

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• The problem is that, regardless of what our theologies tell us about the purpose of the clergy, the actual effect of the clergy profession is to make the body of Christ lame. This happens not because clergy intend it (they usually intend the opposite) but because the objective nature of the profession inevitably turns the laity into passive receivers.

  Christian Smith

  Opposites, Purpose, Lame

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• Body have to physically strong and sturdy. Spiritually balanced fi clean and purge me. Mentally advanced fi always urge me. Read a couple books and challenge the clergy. Read a couple psalms up in the morning early.

  Damian Marley

  Strong, Morning, Couple

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• Throughout this protracted and disgraceful assault on American womanhood, the clergy baptized each new insult and act of injustice in the name of the Christian religion, and uniformly asked God's blessing on proceedings that would have put to shame an assembly of Hottentots.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Christian, Blessing, Names

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ida Husted Harper (1889). “History of woman suffrage”

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• It is time the clergy are told that thinking men, after a close examination of that doctrine, pronounce it to be subversive of true moral development and, therefore, positively noxious.

  George Eliot

  Men, Thinking, Atheism

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• I come to the categorical conclusion that precisely at this moment we must give battle to the Black Hundred clergy in the most decisive and merciless manner and crush its resistance with
  such brutality that it will not forget it for decades to come. The greater the number of representatives of the reactionary clergy and reactionary bourgeoisie we succeed in executing for
  this reason, the better.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Crush, Numbers, Giving

  Letter to Comrade Molotov for the Politburo on March 19, 1922. "The Unknown Lenin: From the Secret Archive". Book by Richard Pipes, p. 152-154, 1996.

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• Whenever the clergy were at the elbow of the civil arm, no matter whether they were Catholic or Protestant, persecution was the result.

  William Edward Hartpole Lecky

  Catholic, Atheism, Elbows

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• The clergy complain of the enormous spread of bold books, from the infidel tract to the latest handling of the miracle question.

  Harriet Martineau

  Book, Miracle, Atheism

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.233

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• Two hundred years ago the forces of freedom challenged this idea. The children of the new enlightenment rose up to defy the tyranny of arrogant clergy and the censorship of pious bureaucrats. They boldly proclaimed that the state must be free from religious coercion and that religion must be free from state control. All individuals have the right to pursue the dictates of their own conscience. All citizens even have the right not to be religious at all.

  Sherwin Wine

  Religious, Children, Years

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• It was in this year, 1828, that the standard of "the Christian Party in Politics" was openly unfurled... This was an evident attempt, through the influence of the clergy over the female mind - until this hour lamentably neglected in the United States - to effect a union of Church and State.

  Frances Wright

  Christian, Party, Years

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• A man wastes his time going to hear some of our eloquent modern preachers; they may change his opinions, but never his conduct.

  Honore de Balzac

  Men, May, Waste

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• The people are as severe toward the clergy as toward women; they want to see absolute devotion to duty from both.

  Madame de Stael

  Women, People, Want

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• Without fear of contradiction, I can safely say that every step in progress that woman has made she has been assailed by ecclesiastics, that her most vigilant unwearied opponents have always been the clergy.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Religion, Progress, Opponents

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• the profession of the ministry is like matrimony: if it is possible for you to keep out of it, it's a sign that you've no business to go into it!

  Margaret Deland

  Ministry, Matrimony, Profession

  Margaret Deland (2010). “Around Old Chester”, p.67, Wildside Press LLC

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• Whenever the clergy succeeded in conquering political power in any country, the result has been disastrous to the interests of religion and inimical to the progress of humanity.

  James Connolly

  Country, Political, Humanity

  James Connolly, Peter Berresford-Ellis (1988). “James Connolly: Selected Writings”, p.59, Pluto Press

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• It is remarkable that among all the preachers there are so few moral teachers. The prophets are employed in excusing the ways of men.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Teacher, Men, Way

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.415, Simon and Schuster

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• The Church expects that each of us carry a share of the burden of leadership. There is no paid clergy. The work is done because of a love of the cause. And as people serve, they grow in capacity. The time and effort is not a sacrifice because there is returned more than is given.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Sacrifice, People, Effort

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• so long as you believe that man is essentially evil in nature, and a more vicious doctrine was never promulgated, it follows that he is often going to need to have his ears slapped back, and who should do this but the clergy?

  Anne Roe

  Believe, Men, Long

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• the most grievous wrong of that day ... was to be found in the establishment of the celibacy of the clergy. ... This hideous doctrine of a celibate priesthood was maintained only by a constant struggle against the better and truer instincts of the heart.

  Lillie Devereux Blake

  Struggle, Heart, Religion

  Lillie Devereux Blake (1883). “Woman's Place To-day: Four Lectures, in Reply to the Lenten Lectures on "Woman" by the Rev. Morgan Dix ...”

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• It is clearly absurd that it should be possible for a woman to qualify as a saint with direct access to the Almighty, while she may not qualify as a curate.

  Mary Stocks, Baroness Stocks

  Religion, Saint, May

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• [On women as priests:] It has always seemed very odd to me that this particular sphere of activity should remain a male closed shop, seeing that, to judge from church attendance, women are the more religious sex - while our criminal statistics make quite clear that they are the least wicked.

  Mary Stocks, Baroness Stocks

  Religious, Sex, Judging

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• I have a work presently in the Press named 'Six Months in Hell' which you may one day read. I consider it will be worth perusing, bruising badly the morals of Britain and America, while Royalty, clergy, critics, society and bloodhounds of law must all incur its censure.

  Amanda McKittrick Ros

  America, Law, One Day

  Amanda McKittrick Ros, Frank Ormsby (1988). “Thine in storm and calm: an Amanda McKittrick Ros reader”, Blackstaff Pr

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• The grateful applause of the clergy has consecrated the memory of a prince, who indulged their passions and promoted their interest. Constantine gave them security, wealth, honours, and revenge; and the support of the orthodox faith was considered as the most sacred and important duty of the civil magistrate. The edict of Milan, the great charter of toleration, had confirmed to each individual of the Roman world the privilege of choosing and professing his own religion.

  Edward Gibbon

  Memories, Revenge, Grateful

  Edward Gibbon (2013). “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.169, Simon and Schuster

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• Many militants of the secular cause look astonishingly like clergy. Worse: like caricatures of clergy.

  Michel Onfray

  Looks, Causes, Secular

  Michel Onfray, Jeremy Leggatt (2007). “Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam”, p.215, Arcade Publishing

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