"For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. "Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!"
"One thing I found out was that we need extended families. We need gangs. And, of course, if they're tribes and clans and so forth have been dispersed by the industrial revolution by people looking for work wherever they can find it. And a nuclear family, a man, a woman and kids and a dog and cat is no survival scheme at all. Horribly vulnerable."
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Source: Now with David Brancaccio, www.pbs.org. October 21, 2005.
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"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."
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"I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center."
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