The Year in Quotes

“In our current political climate, there is an attempt to make torture so ambiguous that we are not sure we know it when we see it. Therefore it is very important for Christians to say, ‘We know it when we see it.'”

— Stanley Hauerwas,
Gilbert T. Rowe professor of theological ethics,
quoted by United Methodist News Service

“Randomized, controlled trials of prayer have no theologically sound rationale. The idea that healing would be guaranteed if enough people prayed for it is more idolatry than theology, and such an arrangement would invert the proper relationship of man to God.”

— Richard Payne,
director of the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life,
in The Orlando Sentinel

“Whether it will end up being two camps that still sit in the same tent, or whether they [churches of the Anglican Communion] will finally decide to walk in different paths, I don't know. Nobody knows at this moment.”

— David Steinmetz,
Amos Ragan Kearns professor of the history of Christianity,
quoted by The Associated Press

“The idea has become axiomatic: Jesus sells. This is especially true in books and movies. Don't be fooled, though. The Jesus of the marketplace rarely resembles the Jesus whose teaching and example believers have tried to follow through the ages.”

— D. Moody Smith,
George Washington Ivey professor emeritus of New Testament,
in The Charlotte Observer

“Health includes relationships, vision and values, things at the heart of religious faith. You can't isolate one thing, like weight, without looking at problems such as the isolation or lack of community [that] clergy feel. We're complex beings with a mysterious interaction between the mind, body and spirit. There are correlations we can't ignore.”

—Bishop Kenneth Carder,
professor of the practice of pastoral formation,
in The Washington Post

“Holy friends are those people who challenge the sins we have come to love—they know us well enough to see the sins that mark our lives. It isn't difficult to find people who will talk with us about sins we already hate. But the sins that we love we tend to hide from others and even from ourselves. This is why we need other people to hold us accountable.”

— L. Gregory Jones,
dean,
in The Christian Century magazine