Quotes About Community

Control creates domesticated animals. The purpose of society is to inspire humanity, not tame them,' said Ram.

A society that does not make room for imperfection can never be a happy society.

Christian church, a Muslim mosque, a Buddhist monastery or a Sikh gurudwara are spaces designed to bring the community together and focus on a common goal—confess sins, reaffirm submission, awaken to desires and delusions and learn from the songs of the sages, as the case may be. But a Hindu temple is the house of a deity. We go to see them and be seen by them,

Travel, realized the wise men, was an important way to widen the outlook of otherwise inward-looking communities.

Beginning with Bilbo's unexpected party in chapter 1 with its tea, seed-cakes, buttered scones, apple-tarts, mince-pies, cheese, eggs, cold chicken, pickles, beer, coffee, and smoke rings, we find that a reverence, celebration, and love of the everyday is an essential part of Tolkien's moral vision

Good books and good friends were critical in Lewis's conversion.

Balm to my soul.' Chris smiled. 'I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm taking this drive along the valley rather than going up the plateau road, which can be a bit hair-raising.' 'Who lives around here?' 'All sorts; families running dairy or beef herds, hobby farmers starting up gourmet enterprises, a few old hippies, and even a few wealthy folk in their hideaway holiday homes.' 'A

One nice thing about being a woman in Hollywood is that the women tend to be very close-knit. All of us writers and directors know each other and cling to each other for safety and support, and it's really a completely different vibe than the men experience out here, where they're all trying to murder each other.

Everyone's favorite supper is a gluey carbohydrate-rich concoction known simply as "hotdish" and served in a community Pyrex.

The biggest disease this day and age is that of people feeling unloved.

There's the man with his cart who sold me rolls sprinkled with thyme and sesame every morning and then saluted me like a soldier.

Trees don't simply maintain the conditions necessary for human and most animal life on earth, trees created these conditions through the community of forests. Trees paved the way for the human family. The debt we owe them is too big to ever repay.

Christianity did not begin with a confession. It began with an invitation into friendship, into creating a new community, into forming relationships based on love and service.

We are safer and happier when we care for each other in community, when we do things for each other.

To transform home is to transform the world.

But some contemporary believers, such as Lisa Domke, a pastor and mother in Seattle, ground their identity in Christ's love but a love that goes beyond sentiment or feeling. "I say that I am someone seeking to live in the world with love and humility," Lisa reports, "following God in the way of Jesus." Love is the active practice of Christian virtue. As Sky, a Seattle Baptist, relates, "Children know that love is behavior, not romantic words.

Whereas militant Christianity triumphs over all, generative Christianity transforms the world through humble service to all. It is not about victory; it is about following Christ in order to seed human community with grace.

Hospitality is the practice that keeps the church from becoming a club, a members-only society.

While contemporary Christians tend to equate morality with sexual ethics, our ancestors defined morality as welcoming the stranger.

The deepest and most important spiritual lessons I ever learned came from a circle of drunks, fighting desperately not to drink today, whom I initially viewed as low-life losers, and who ultimately came to be for me the oracles of God. The Twelve Steps in no way diminished my appreciation for the gospel of Jesus Christ—quite the contrary—I am more convinced than ever of the reality of the gospel story.

It is just mortifying to be a Christian, except for the Jesus part. —Anne Lamott

Fear brings out the basest instincts," writes British political scientist Sue Goss, "and narrows our sense of belonging to self-preservation."16

Phyllis Tickle, Marcus Borg, Brian McLaren, Barbara Brown Taylor, Jim Wallis, and Lauren Winner for their encouragement, support, and friendship. Anne Howard, Joseph Stewart-Sicking, Linnae Himsl Peterson, Kathy Staudt, Jonathan Wilson, and Howard Anderson are good friends who offered insights along the way.

The biggest issue of the twenty-first century is not necessarily the "decline" of neighborhood. It may be that we have all moved to a new neighborhood and have not learned how to get along with the new neighbors.