Any religion which will sacrifice a certain set of human beings for the enjoyment or aggrandizement or advantage of another is no religion. It is a thing which may be allowed, but it is against true religion. Any religion which sacrifices women to the brutality of men is no religion.
Interpretation
True religion upholds the dignity and rights of all individuals, rather than sacrificing some for the benefit of others.
This quote by Julia Ward Howe emphasizes that any religion that permits the harm or subjugation of certain groups of people, particularly women, for the benefit of others is fundamentally flawed. True religion should promote equality, justice, and compassion, rejecting practices that devalue human life in any form.
In practice
During a speech on women's rights, this quote can be used to emphasize the importance of equality.
The flag of our stately battles, not struggles of wrath and greed, _x000D_ Its stripes were a holy lesson, its spangles a deathless creed: _x000D_ 'T was red with the blood of freemen and white with the fear of the foe; _x000D_ And the stars that fight in their courses 'gainst tyrants its symbols know.
When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord -
I think nothing is religion which puts one individual absolutely above others, and surely nothing is religion which puts one sex above another.
I shall stick to my resolution of writing always what I think no matter whom it offends.
I know not why there is such a melancholy feeling attached to the remembrance of past happiness, except that we fear that the future can have nothing so bright as the past.
There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.
Consciousness ... is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known.
Bart Giamatti did not grow up (as he had dreamed) to play second base for the Red Sox. He became a professor at Yale, and then, in time president of the National Baseball League. He never lost his love for the Boston Red Sox. It was as a Red Sox fan, he later realized that human beings are fallen, and that life is filled with disappointment. The path to comprehending Calvinism in modern America, he decided, begins at Fenway Park.
It especially annoys me when racists are accused of 'discrimination.' The ability to discriminate is a precious faculty; by judging all members on one 'race' to be the same, the racist precisely shows himself incapable of discrimination.
Only a very few can be learned, but all can be Christian, all can be devout, and – I shall boldly add – all can be theologians.
The world is a reflection of who we are and if we don't like the reflection, it doesn't really help to break the mirror.
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