The starting point is the recognition that throughout history, religion has been a cause of bloodshed, and it remains so today. Because religion has contributed to the world's problems, it must develop specific and practical ways to help solve those problems.

John C. Danforth

Categorized in : World Way Today

The loudest voices we hear are those who advocate conflict, divisiveness.

John C. Danforth

advocating conflict voice

Plenty of kind, decent, caring people have no religious beliefs, and they act out of the goodness of their hearts. Conversely, plenty of people who profess to be religious, even those who worship regularly, show no particular interest in the world beyond themselves.

John C. Danforth

caring religious heart

I have never seen more Senators express discontent with their jobs....I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been accomplices in doing something terrible and unforgivable to our wonderful country. Deep down in our heart, we know that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected.

John C. Danforth

money jobs country

The Federal Reserve bank buys government bonds without one penny.

John C. Danforth

banking pennies government

When we vest our personal opinions with the trappings of religion, we make religion the servant of our politics.

John C. Danforth

vests opinion personal-opinions

I think a lot of us share a fear that we and people we love will lose control of our own destinies at the end of life.

John C. Danforth

destiny people thinking

We are seekers of the truth, but we do not embody the truth. And in humility, we should recognize that the same can be said about our most ardent foes.

John C. Danforth

humility should said

The old adage that polite conversation should not include talk of politics or religion is understandable because both subjects are so heavily laden with emotion that discussion can quickly turn to shouting. Blood is shed over politics, religion and the two in combination.

John C. Danforth

emotion two blood

The problem is not that Christians are conservative or liberal, but that some are so confident that their position is God's position that they become dismissive and intolerant toward others and divisive forces in our national life.

John C. Danforth

conservative problem christian

It is concern that precedes and inspires agendas, and survives when agendas fail, and it causes us to try again, always trying our best, never certain about our own judgment. It is knowing that God's purpose exceeds whatever we can put in an agenda.

John C. Danforth

always-trying knowing inspire

I was to Japanese visitors to Washington what the Mona Lisa is to Americans visiting Paris.

John C. Danforth

visiting visitors paris

We have a God-given commission, but it is not a commission to be self-righteous know-it-alls- quite the contrary. Our work in God's world begins with the acknowledgment that we are not God, and that our most bitter rivals are made in God's image.

John C. Danforth

rivals self world

The Senate is indeed a deliberative body, and that quality serves the nation well. A slow-moving government helps us maintain a stable government. But slow moving is not the same as immobile.

John C. Danforth

quality government moving

Japan is a great nation. It should begin to act like one.

John C. Danforth

nations japan should

Many, if not most, Americans can imagine a fate worse than death, and it is a seemingly interminable process of dying. For them, it is frightening that politicians can find ways to interject themselves into this sad process.

John C. Danforth

fate dying way

As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around.

John C. Danforth

gay worry today

In the Middle East, Iraq, Sudan, the former Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland, and many other places in the world, religion has been so divisive that people have killed one another, believing they were doing the work of God.

John C. Danforth

yugoslavia world-religions believe

I have never seen more senators express discontent with their jobs. ... I think the major cause is that, deep down in our hearts, we have been accomplices to doing something terrible and unforgivable to this wonderful country. Deep down in our hearts, we know that we have bankrupted America and that we have given our children a legacy of bankruptcy. ... We have defrauded our country to get ourselves elected.

John C. Danforth