Religion must be used in furthering great works of justice and reform. It must be used to establish right relations between different groups of men, and thus to make a reality of brotherhood. It must be used to abolish poverty, the breeding ground of all misery and crime, by distributing equably among men the abundance of the soil. And it must be used to get rid of war and to establish enduring peace. Here is the supreme test of the effectiveness of religion.
Interpretation
Religion should promote justice and unity among people, addressing issues like poverty and war.
In this quote, John Haynes Holmes emphasizes the fundamental purpose of religion as a catalyst for social change and justice. He argues that religion should be leveraged to create meaningful relationships among diverse groups, eradicate poverty, and foster peace. According to Holmes, the true measure of religion's effectiveness lies in its ability to address and solve these pressing societal issues, ultimately working towards a more just and harmonious world.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech at a social justice rally to emphasize the role of religion in fighting for equality.
There must appear a spiritual and moral leadership rising above economic and political situations. Governments in both their domestic and foreign policies appeal for popular support by promises of material gain. We cannot make peace by mere appeal to greed. We must give the peoples of the world something to live for as well as something to live on.
Sometimes, waking early before the others, wandering the rooms wrapped in a blanket or drinking my tea in the empty kitchen, I had that most rare of feelings, the sense that the world, so consistently overwhelming and incomprehensible, in fact has an order, oblique as it may seem, and I a place within it.
But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created that a cat should play with mice.
Politicians are forever coming up with 'solutions' to virtually every imaginable imperfection in life. But, if we give them more power and more of our money, we are very unlikely to end up better off on net balance.
The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.
When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.
Those who talk of the bible as a monument of English prose are merely admiring it as a monument over the grave of Christianity.
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