When I grew up in the South, I was taught that segregation was the will of God, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was taught that women were by nature in inferior to men, and the Bible was quoted to prove it. I was taught that it was okay to hate other religions, and especially the Jews, and the Bible was quoted to prove it.
You can't have a world where 50 percent of the people are dieting and 50 percent of the people are starving if you want stability.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True stability in society requires addressing the inequalities between those who have excess and those who lack basic needs.
This quote emphasizes the importance of social equity for maintaining global stability. It points out that having a significant portion of the population in a state of deprivation, while another part is focused on dieting and managing their intake, creates an unsustainable and unjust situation. The quote suggests that true peace and stability can only be achieved when the basic needs of all individuals are met, highlighting the necessity of a more balanced and fair distribution of resources.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about social justice and economic disparity.
More from John Shelby Spong
All quotes βThe church is like a swimming pool. Most of the noise comes from the shallow end.
Christianity is not about the divine becoming human so much as it is about the human becoming divine. That is a paradigm shift of the first order.
I would like the church to be a place where the questions of people are honored rather than a place where we have all the answers. The church has to get out of propaganda. The future will involve us in more interfaith dialogue. ... We cannot say we have the only truth.
It appears to be in the nature of religion itself to be prejudiced against those who are different.
The cross reveals that we're called to a deeper, fuller experience of what it means to be alive and open to new dimensions of life which our religious boundaries - creeds, atonement theologies - have kept us from experiencing.
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When you love a city and have explored it frequently on foot, your body, not to mention your soul, gets to know the streets so well after a number of years that in a fit of melancholy, perhaps stirred by a light snow falling ever so sorrowfully, you'll discover your legs carrying you of their own accord toward one of your favourite promontories
Realize that illness and other temporal setbacks often come to us from the hand of God our Lord, and are sent to help us know ourselves better, to free ourselves of the love of created things, and to reflect on the brevity of this life and, thus, to prepare ourselves for the life which is without end.
One of the earliest resurrection scenes in the Bible is that of Thomas demanding evidence - he wanted to see, to touch, to prove. Those who question and probe and debate are heirs of the apostles just as much as the most fervent of believers.
Democracies are indeed slow to make war, but once embarked upon a martial venture are equally slow to make peace and reluctant to make a tolerable, rather than a vindictive, peace.
There's certainly nothing original about the observation that conscious experience poses a hard problem.
Belief is a moral act for which the believer is to be held responsible.