In an earlier post I covered the procession “Renewing Our Legacy” which will go from St. Mary Canandaigua to the Ontario County Courthouse this coming Friday, March 23rd. What I wanted to share now (and ask for your input) is that a Freedom Square is being set up with signage of quotes for Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience. The event is ecumenical; so the source doesn’t have to be Catholic. There may be many quotes below from people with whom I’d disagree on many points, but we can unite on Freedom of Religion and of Conscience.
Just wanted to share some of my favorites, and maybe stimulate some ideas from others. This list started out to be my top 3, or maybe 5. 🙂
“It is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the U. S. come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s moral witness presented by a radical secularism….” Pope Benedict XVI
“We did not ask for this fight, but we will not run from it.” Timothy Cardinal Dolan
“This debate is about coercion, not Catholics; conscience, not contraception; and freedom, not fertility.” Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
“Man hath no power to make laws to bind conscience.” Roger Williams, Baptist Minister & founder of Rhode Island.
“…to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.” Thomas Jefferson
“Religious freedom … constitutes the very heart of human rights.” Pope John Paul II
“Let it be henceforth proclaimed to the world that man’s conscience was created free; that he is no longer accountable to his fellow man for his religious opinions, being responsible therefore only to his God.” — John Tyler
“The framers of our Constitution meant we were to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.” Billy Graham
Cross in Rubble of Sept. 11th
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Benjamin Franklin
“Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.” Nelson Mandela
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“You can protect your liberties in this world only by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can be free only if I am free.” Clarence S. Darrow
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it.” John F. Kennedy
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must … undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” Thomas Paine
“The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.” Eric Hoffer
“Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither is safe.” Edmund Burke
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams
“Those who want the government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide.” Harry S Truman
“The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow”. – Jim Hightower
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.” Abraham Lincoln
“Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.” Holocaust Museum, Washington, D.C.
“The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.” Izaak Walton
“For Freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1.
Do you have some favorite quotes on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience? Please share and we’ll try to add them into the signage!
Tags: Freedom of Religion and HHS Mandate, News and Media, Politics
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These are good. Here are favorites (from these you provided) for me:
“Religious freedom … constitutes the very heart of human rights.” Pope John Paul II
“This debate is about coercion, not Catholics; conscience, not contraception; and freedom, not fertility.” Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln
“The person that loses their conscience has nothing left worth keeping.” Izaak Walton