If we can't face our losses, we can't be present either fully to everything that is. When people have cut off or not made peace with some part of themselves, they miss out on other aspects of life.
For every shrill and violent voice that throws itself in front of microphones and cameras in the name of God, there are countless lives of gentleness and good works who will not. We need to see and hear them, as well, to understand the whole story of religion in our world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the contrast between loud, aggressive expressions of faith and the quieter, more benevolent acts of kindness that often go unnoticed.
In this quote, Krista Tippett emphasizes the importance of recognizing the quieter, compassionate aspects of religion that often overshadowed by more aggressive and sensational voices. She suggests that while some may dominate public discourse about religion, there exists a vast, unseen community engaged in acts of gentleness and service that truly reflect the essence of faith. By acknowledging both sides, we can gain a more complete understanding of the role of religion in society.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about community service, one might reference Tippett's quote to highlight the importance of recognizing unsung heroes.
More from Krista Tippett
All quotes →Depression can kill you. It can also be a spiritually enriching experience. It's really an important part of my theology now and my spirituality that life is not perfect, and I grew up wanting it to be and thinking that if it wasn't, I could make it that way, and I had to acknowledge that I had all kinds of flaws and sadnesses and problems.
In many ways, religion comes from the same place in us that art comes from. The language of the human heart if poetry
Humanity needs this technology as much as it needs all other technologies that have now connected us and set before us the terrifying and wondrous possibility of actually becoming one human race.
Similar quotes
On the one hand, faith is a profoundly personal contact with God, which touches me in my innermost being and places me in front of the living God in absolute immediacy in such a way that I can speak with Him, love Him, and enter into communion with Him.
All I wanted and all Neal wanted and all anybody wanted was some kind of penetration into the heart of things where, like in a womb, we could curl up and sleep the ecstatic sleep that Burroughs was experiencing with a good big mainline shot of M. and advertising executives in NY were experiencing with twelve Scotch & Sodas in Stouffers before they made the drunkard's train to Westchester---but without hangovers.
We are flawed creatures, all of us. Some of us think that means we should fix our flaws. But get rid of my flaws and there would be no one left.
If people have to put labels on me, I'd prefer the first label to be human being, the second label to be pacifist, and the third to be folk singer.
It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to figure out what's cruel and what's kind, what's environmentally destructive and what's sustainable. Cruel and destructive food products should be illegal. We don't need the option of buying children's toys made with lead paint, or aerosols with chlorofluorocarbons, or medicines with unlabeled side effects. And we don't need the option of buying factory-farmed animals.
I don't want to be immortal through my works. I want to be immortal by not dying.