The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.
Interpretation
The church should serve as a moral compass for the state, not be controlled by it.
This quote emphasizes the role of the church in society, suggesting that it should act as a moral guide and critic to the government rather than submit to its authority. Martin Luther King, Jr. warns that if the church loses its passionate commitment to social justice and moral guidance, it risks becoming insignificant in the eyes of society.
In practice
During a sermon, a pastor might use this quote to inspire congregants to advocate for social justice.
This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.
Music is the best consolation for a despaired man
We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.
We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.
Israel... is one of the great outpost of democracy in the world
One of the greatest casualties of the war in Vietnam is the Great Society... shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam.
No state of society or laws can render men so much alike but that education, fortune, and tastes will interpose some differences between them; and though different men may sometimes find it their interest to combine for the same purposes, they will never make it their pleasure.
He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasteth of it, is a devil.
We have all had the experience of finding that our reactions and perhaps even our deeds have denied beliefs we thought were ours.
The Torah is the foundational text for Jewish law, but the Haggadah is our book of living memory. We are not merely telling a story here. We are being called to a radical act of empathy. Here we are, embarking on an ancient, perennial attempt to give human lives - our lives - dignity.
Be one of the crowd? It went against everything a wizard stood for, and a wizard would not stand for anything if he could sit down for it, but even sitting down, you had to stand out.
What kind of people do they [the Japanese] think we are?
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.