Faith Quotes

“Thomas Jefferson, in the original days of our country, said he was fearful that the church might influence the state to take away human liberty. Roger Williams, who created the first Baptist church in America, was afraid that the church might be corrupted by the state. These concerns led to our Constitution’s First Amendment, which prohibits the establishment of any official state religion and, in the same sentence, prohibits the passing of any laws that might interfere with religious freedom.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“A person should have as our goal complete agape (self-sacrificial love). The most we can expect from a society is to institute simple justice.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“God is not my personal valet. God does not build a protective fence around my life, keep me from trouble, fulfill my personal desires, or guarantee my success. However, through prayer God offers me comfort, reassurance, satisfaction, courage, hope, and peace.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“To summarize, there are three words that characterize this brand of fundamentalism: pride, domination, and exclusion. In sharp contrast, Jesus espoused humility, servanthood of leaders, and breaking down walls between people.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“Those Christians who resist the inclination toward fundamentalism and who follow the nature, actions, and words of Jesus Christ should consider people who are different from us to be worthy of our care, generosity, forgiveness, compassion, and unselfish love.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“A country will have authority and influence because of moral factors, not its military strength; because it can be humble and not blatant and arrogant; because our people and our country want to serve others and not dominate others. And a nation without morality will soon lose its influence around the world.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“He explains the true character of the God of love and reassures us that ultimate power on earth will be good, not evil. It is through God and his Son that I strive to understand the world in which we live.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“when things became plentiful, we tended to want not only what we already had but also what everyone else had.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“Theologian Paul Tillich maintained that there is a profound difference between anxiety and fear. Anxiety, he wrote, grows out of the awareness of our own fragility, uncertainty, and impending death. By contrast, fear is of a specific, identifiable threat or object that can be faced or endured with courage. Tillich said that we should strive to change overwhelming anxiety into fear, with which we may deal more effectively. Our guilt and anxiety are relieved when we realize that God has already accepted us and loves us as we are.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All

“the total capacity of the brains of Neanderthals has been found to be greater than that of modern humans.”
― Jimmy Carter, Faith: A Journey for All