It's almost inevitable that we become religious people. The question is, what kind of religion is it?

Human wholeness can never be found in the denigration of another

Oh the Christian church has encouraged enormous immaturity among the peoples who are its primary adherence.

I began to read [Bible] as a critic, an in-house critic. So I got to a place where when I got to the university, I just couldn't reconcile that book and some of its points of view with stuff I was learning in my academic career. And so then you have a choice: either you give up your academic career and close your mind and become a constant fundamentalist, or you give up your religion and become a citizen of the modern world and get a modern education, or just spend the rest of your life balancing the two things together, forcing them into a dialogue.

Some people think prayer is telling God what to do. I don't think that's the case.

I think one of the things we've got to look out for is human beings claiming that they know how God operates.

I want to see Christianity enhance our humanity instead of rescue us from some fall. I don't want us to be depending on this supernatural God up in the sky; I want us to recognize that God is part of who we are and that we have to live out the meaning of God with other people. That means we must live in mutual respect and interdependence; it means we have to limit our own desires in order for the body politic to survive.