To dig our heels in and say no to a present madness is a good thing, but to walk a new path and say yes is a better thing.

I don't think we should discriminate against an organization or congregation because they're religious, if they're doing good work. But government can't subsidize proselytizing or worship or religious activity. It can't.

Faith reminds us that change is always possible.

But when we place God on our side of things, that we are now ridding the world of evil - that's very dangerous, that one nation has this role to rid the world of evil. What about the evil we have committed, that we are complicit in?

The people who have more money and goods than any people in the history of the world spend most of their time worrying about not having enough.

The disciplines of prayer, silence, and contemplation as practiced by the monastics and mystics are precisely that - stopping the noise, slowing down, and becoming still so that God can break through all our activity and noise to speak to us. Prayer serves to put all parts of our lives in God's presence, reminding us how holy our humanity really is.

Spirituality becomes a commodity to be bought and sold. So spirituality has to be disciplined by social justice.