“Prophets from Amos and Isaiah to Gandhi and King have shown how frequently compassion demands confrontation. Love without criticism is a kind of betrayal. Lying is done with silence as well as with words.”

“Love is to make us more human, and that demands that we care so much for each other that we have not to be nice but to be honest. We have to be honest, for most real faults are hidden and therefore demand an outside revealer.”

“We are not slaves but children of our Father, free to do good, free to sin. So when in anguish over any human violence done to innocent victims, we ask of God, 'How could you let that happen?' it's well to remember that God at that very moment is asking the exact same question of us.”

“He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.' That's not really cruel. Loving Christ more than our fathers and mothers simply saves the love we have for our parents from idolatry.... God, as the source of love, is the proper head of every loving household.”

“Hope criticizes what is, hopelessness rationalizes it. Hope resists, hopelessness adapts.”

“And if God is a suffering God, if this whole universe is borne on a heart infinite in compassion, then the more we suffer in his name the closer we come to him.”

“It is bad religion to deify doctrines and creeds.... Doctrines, let's not forget, supported slavery and apartheid.... Moreover, doctrines can divide while compassion can only unite.”