The forgetting of the history of marginalized groups is both a cause and effect of their marginalization. Susan Jacoby More Quotes by Susan Jacoby More Quotes From Susan Jacoby The more intelligent and competent a woman is in her adult life, the less likely she is to have received an adequate amount of romantic attention in adolescence. Susan Jacoby adults intelligent sex There could be no more powerful argument against mixing religion and government than the success of independent African American churches in placing racial segregation and discrimination on a reluctant nation's social agenda. Would black churches have been able to take the lead in the struggle had they been dependent on funds doled out for 'faith-based initiatives' . . . ? Susan Jacoby independent powerful struggle Religious education is only valuable intellectually, if the child is educated in a religion versus [just] about a religion. I don't believe you can have both. Susan Jacoby women religious children I have always regarded the development of the individual as the only legitimate goal of education. Susan Jacoby development goal education Real-life discussions involve a great many bores and boors who have never learned that the art of conversation demands listening as well as talking. Susan Jacoby women real art Every brand of religion maintains, and is, a permanent mechanism for transmitting ideas and values - whether one regards those values as admirable or ridiculous. Secularist organizations, with their generally looser, nonhierarchical structures, lack the power to hand down and disseminate their heritage in such a systematic way. Susan Jacoby organization hands ideas If enough money is involved and enough people believe that two plus two equals five the media will report the story with a straight face always adding a qualifying paragraph noting that mathematicians however say that two plus two still equals four. Susan Jacoby media two believe My atheism doesn't define my day-to-day life at all. But I realize - and maybe it is because, unlike people who sort of stay comfortably in a religion, I had to do a lot of thinking and reading before I realized that I was an atheist. Susan Jacoby atheist reading thinking It is easy to forget, since the Catholic Church is now the only large American religious denomination whose ecclesiastical hierarchy continues to oppose birth control, that only a century ago the leaders of nearly all churches were united in their resistance to any public discussion of the subject. Susan Jacoby catholic leader religious It is hard to think of conversion as a blinding light on the road to Damascus, or as a highly spiritual or intellectual process, when the light comes from a flickering television; the voice of the deity is Bishop Sheen and you have drilled your father on his catechism answers...I was troubled at a young age by the idea that pouring water over someone's head could change both his relationship to God. Susan Jacoby women spiritual father hope is not a plan of action. Susan Jacoby hope action thinking I can no more imagine falling in love with someone who believed that than I can imagine falling in love with someone who believes that blacks shouldn't be able to vote and are inferior to whites. Susan Jacoby falling-in-love able believe Feminists who want to censor what they regard as harmful pornography have essentially the same motivation as other would-be censors: They want to use the power of the state to accomplish what they have been unable to achieve in the marketplace of ideas and images. The impulse to censor places no faith in the possibilities of democratic persuasion. Susan Jacoby feminist motivation ideas I can't imagine falling in love with a devoutly religious person. Susan Jacoby falling-in-love imagine religious I think people who love each other and live together and have children together need to agree on the things that are most important in life. Susan Jacoby children people thinking For one thing, the Catholic Church in particular has this one thing - confession - in which you could go, confess to a priest and obtain absolution of your sins. And there was a routine and a ritual and I think - I think that it did help. Susan Jacoby catholic church thinking Once the Roman Catholic Church in the West became the church most closely connected with the state, the Roman Catholic Church did not recognize the validity of any religion other than its own. Susan Jacoby catholic church west If during the Reformation you were a Catholic who lived in a part of Germany in which Lutheranism was the ascendant religion and the ruler of the province or the region was Lutheran, to stay a Catholic, you either had to be a dissenter or you had to leave. Susan Jacoby regions germany catholic One of the reasons there are largely Catholic and largely Protestant regions of Germany today is that people did sort themselves out geographically. Susan Jacoby germany catholic people I think very few people realize how much the separation of church and state has to do with the fact that Americans are not only more religious than a lot of other people in the world but that conversions are much more common here. Susan Jacoby religious people thinking
