religious quotes

Abraham Lincoln: 

The United States government must not undertake to run the Churches. When an individual, in the Church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest he must be checked.

Barry Goldwater: 

Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives.

Colin Campbell: 

Indeed, the Founders mentioned the pagan authors in so many heartfelt speeches, pamphlets and letters that today's sweeping references to America's "Christian" roots and "Judeo-Christian heritage" ought to be amended. Maybe these terms should be reserved to explain the traditional religions and morality of individuals, families, congregations, small communities. Politically, our notions of virtue and vice have had another genesis. 
column in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution 


Dan Quayle: 

... I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior, for whose Kingdom it stands, one Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe.

David Barton: 

Whatever is Christian is legal; whatever is not is illegal. 
president of Wallbuilders, Inc. quoting William Penn's 1681 PA constitution 


Felix Adler: 

No religion can long continue to maintain its purity when the church becomes the subservient vassal of the state.

Isaac Asimov: 

Creationists make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.

James Madison: 

Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects? 
Memorial and Remonstrance


Jamie Raskin: 

People place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution. They don't put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.

Margaret Mead: 

We will be a better country when each religious group can trust its members to obey the dictates of their own religious faith without assistance from the legal structure of their country.

Pat Robertson: 

...There is no such thing as ... separation of state and church ... in the Constitution. It's a lie of the left.

Paul Weyrich: 

We are different from previous generations of conservatives. We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of this country.

Rabbi Sherwin Wine: 

There are two visions of America. One precedes our founding fathers and finds its roots in the harshness of our puritan past. It is very suspicious of freedom, uncomfortable with diversity, hostile to science, unfriendly to reason, contemptuous of personal autonomy. It sees America as a religious nation. It views patriotism as allegiance to God. It secretly adores coercion and conformity. Despite our constitution, despite the legacy of the Enlightenment, it appeals to millions of Americans and threatens our freedom.

The other vision finds its roots in the spirit of our founding revolution and in the leaders of this nation who embraced the age of reason. It loves freedom, encourages diversity, embraces science and affirms the dignity and rights of every individual. It sees America as a moral nation, neither completely religious nor completely secular. It defines patriotism as love of country and of the people who make it strong. It defends all citizens against unjust coercion and irrational conformity.

This second vision is our vision. It is the vision of a free society. We must be bold enough to proclaim it and strong enough to defend it against all its enemies.

Robert F. Kennedy: 

Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.

Sinclair Lewis: 

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.

Susan B. Anthony: 

I tell them I have worked 40 years to make the W.S. platform broad enough for Atheists and Agnostics to stand upon, and now if need be I will fight the next 40 to keep it Catholic enough to permit the straightest Orthodox religionist to speak or pray and count her beads upon.
on the Women's Suffrage platform


Thomas Jefferson: 

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. 
letter to Connecticut Baptists 


Thomas Jefferson: 

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg.

Ulysses S. Grant: 

Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate.

William O. Douglas: 

Religious experiences which are as real as life to some may be incomprehensible to others. 
opinion, United States v. Ballard, 1944