When the female voice is repressed and stifled, the entire community can easily find themselves cut off from the sacred feminine, depriving themselves of the full image of god.
Rob BellRead
Often the people most concerned about others going to hell when they die seem less concerned with the hells on earth right now, while the people most concerned with the hells on earth right now seem the least concerned about hell after death.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the contrast between concerns for the afterlife and immediate suffering in the world.
Rob Bell draws attention to the disparity between those who prioritize eternal salvation and those focused on alleviating current hardships. It suggests a critique of the focus on spiritual matters at the exclusion of addressing the pain and suffering that exist in the present world. This duality challenges the reader to consider the balance between caring for the spiritual well-being of others and the immediate, tangible challenges they face in their lives.
Themes
ConcernHellEarthSufferingAfterlifeLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing social issues, this quote can emphasize the importance of focusing on human suffering today rather than solely on spiritual concerns.
More from Rob Bell
All quotes βTake faith, for example. For many people in our world, the opposite of faith is doubt. The goal, then, within this understanding, is to eliminate doubt. But faith and doubt aren't opposites. Doubt is often a sign that your faith has a pulse, that it's alive and well and exploring and searching. Faith and doubt aren't opposites, they are, it turns out, excellent dance partners.
Rob BellRead
The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God.
Rob BellRead
If the gospel isn't good news for everybody, then it isn't good news for anybody. And this is because the most powerful things happen when the church surrenders its desire to convert people and convince them to join. It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display.
Rob BellRead
Similar quotes
In order for sensation to accede to the objectivity of things, it must itself be changed into a thing. The agent of change is language: the sensations are turned into verbal objects.
Octavio PazRead
The secret of realizing the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships out into uncharted seas! Live in conflict with your equals and with yourselves! Be robbers and ravagers as soon as you ca not be rulers and owners, you men of knowledge! The time will soon past when you could be content to live concealed int he woods like timid deer!
Friedrich NietzscheRead
I don't want a future, I want a present. To me this appears of greater value. You have a future only when you have no present, and when you have a present, you forget to even think about the future.
Robert WalserRead
There is no peace more wonderful than the peace we enjoy when faith shows us God in all created things.
Jean-Pierre De CaussadeRead
The West may collapse very suddenly. Complex civilizations do that, because they operate, most of the time, on the edge of chaos.
Niall FergusonRead
Even those who claim the Bible's inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages - the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ's divinity - are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life.
Barack ObamaRead