22. I'm not sure why Christmas is celebrated in Christianity, but anything to do with religion is good because all religions want to be peaceful. I definitely believe in God. Once, I went into the mosque - I was going out with a girl - and prayed that I'd get married. I came out, lost my job, my woman, and my dad kicked me out of home.
I said, "Fine God, I'll be a bad person." Two years later, everything I'd prayed for happened. I realised that I hadn't been ready for marriage. God knew, and made me ready. Now I am married to her. God is all-forgiving, merciful, all-compassionate. Christianity and Islam are different only because we believe Jesus was a prophet and they believe he was the Son of God. Politicians don't understand this.
People say troubles today are about religion - that's just an excuse. You're not even supposed to cut down a tree if you're Muslim. Killing people, slicing their throats? That's disgusting.
- Iraqi Builder, Mohsan Mahmood, 28, in the Guardian
23. We're your friends. You may not have noticed us because most of us don't proselytize for our faith; we hope to be the body of Jesus, not talk about it. And we aren't actually out to convert you to our religion, although we will try to convert others to our work for the poor and the oppressed. In fact, the only time Jesus is recorded as having said anything about who is going to be rewarded and who punished, he gave the good word to anyone who saw the poorest of the hungry and gave them something to eat, the thirsty and gave them something to drink, strangers and invited them in, those needing clothes and clothed them, those who were sick and looked after them, those in prison and came to visit them. It doesn't really matter whether you "praise the Lord" or, in fact, what you say about what you believe. What counts for us is what you do for the poor and oppressed.
I'm as frustrated as you by the Christian right. Any Christian who believes that homosexuality is a more important issue than justice for the poor just hasn't read his Bible straight. But religion (of any stripe) has always been hijacked to support the Establishment; God is made captive to the King, and the poor have to approach God on the King's terms. That's not the faith that Jesus proclaimed.
So, give us a break. Not all Christians are alike, and more of us, I suspect, are on your side than on the other.
- Onward Christian Organizers, by David Hilfiker, in Tomdispatch.com
24. On secrets of his marriage success: "I never ask my wife about my flaws, instead I get her to ignore them and concentrate on my sense of humour"
On infidelity: "Why fool about with hamburger when you have steak at home?"
- Paul Newman, in the Guardian
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