“Condemnation feels good and it is now a staple of religion, politics, and the media (both left and right), but it changes nothing. Compassion, on the other hand, changes everything. (p. 121)”

“In the beginning, the call of God was not propositional. It was experiential. (p. 10)”

“It is easier and much more satisfying to rail against the Right than to suggest that we go back to Genesis 1 and study together. Liberals can be just as intolerant as fundamentalists, and we have arrived at a moment in human history when intolerance and hope are mutually exclusive. (p. 6)”

“The most twisted but perennial of American myths is that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. (p. 174)”

“Faith is always supposed to make it harder, not easier, to ignore the plight of our sisters and brothers. (p. 165)”

“Anti-intellectualism remains strongly entrenched in many parts of the church, but it is grounded in fear, not in faith. (p. 19)”

“...a deep and even paranoid suspicion continues to disparage higher criticism of the Bible, as if someone could publish a paper that would unravel God. (p. 151)”