I can't for the life of me imagine that God would say, 'I will punish you because you are black; you should have been white. I will punish you because you are a woman; you should have been a man. I punish you because you are homosexual; you ought to have been heterosexual. I can't, I can't for the life of me believe that that is how God sees things.
Desmond TutuThere is nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.
Desmond TutuThere will be no future without forgiveness. Any process of peace is bound to collapse if this is missing. There is no way peace and stability can come through the gun of vengeance.
Desmond TutuOur Christian faith is actually very subversive of the conventional notion of success - the notion that what invests a person with worth is something extrinsic.
Desmond TutuGod says "This is what I would love you to be, but I am not going to constrain you. I want it to be your choice." And it is a fantastic thing because even at the moment when I am making the choice to reject God, I would depend from moment to moment, you know that beautiful image of God creating by breathing God's breath into this lump of clay, making it a human being.
Desmond Tutu