“All the rainbow banners were still there; the storm [Katrina] had left them intact. Interesting that the gay and bawdy sections of town were the parts least damaged, since some of the so-called religious people were claiming this to be God's punishment for our sinful ways. Perhaps they believed in a god of poor planning.”

“From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people.”

“Judas became the spokesman of all those who through the centuries would protest the ornamentation of the Christian cult and would feel that, when the best of gold and jewels were given to the God Who made them, there was some slight made to the poor - not because they were interested in the poor, but because they were envious of that wealth.”

“He is not a punishing God, Lizzy. That is the mistake most people make, thinking He sits with an account book and a big fist, waiting to punish us. He is not a wrathful God but a loving God who made each of us and loved us since we were in our mother’s womb”

“If it is a sin to be gay, then why did God make you that way to begin with?...What kid of god would condemn someone for just being the way that they are?...I do not believe for one second that God thinks we are unnatural or sinful because we love people of our same gender.”

“It was the beginning of the war. I was twelve years old, my parents were alive, and God still dwelt in our town.”