If there is any one message the Bible delivers, it is the message that God loves outcasts and that Jesus was born into the world an outcast to rescue and renew outcasts from religion gone bad. He was born poor and died poor, yet the legacy of love he left us, the legacy of inclusion and acceptance and understanding, will endure forever.

My commitment to the Bible [is my] source of progressive values.

In my lowest moments, when I genuinely longed for death, I knew that Jesus would walk with me through that valley as well.

Real love cannot be silent in the face of injustice.

I am convinced that Christian fundamentalism is a far greater threat to this country than Muslim terrorists could ever be.

Fundamentalist Christians are my sisters and brothers, my family and friends, my oldest colleagues and coworkers. But I fear their love for the nation has become an obsession to reshape it in their own image.

When you stand with the outcasts, you stand with Jesus, and when you despise the outcast, you despise Jesus, as well. Becoming an activist is simply a matter of putting love into action.