"I don't preach a social gospel; I preach the gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned with the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, 'Now is that political or social?' He said, 'I feed you.' Because the good news to a hungry person is bread."

- Desmond Tutu

"Although the Gospel invites us to stand with the blessed and become one of them, who among us wants to be poor, hungry, weeping, or persecuted? Who does not aspire to be rich, well-fed, laughing, and popular? Who dares love our enemies, bless those who persecute us, and do good to those who hurt us? This is the discipleship challenge of Jesus."

- John Dear, from Transfiguration: A Meditation on Transforming Ourselves and Our World

It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.

-- 2 Corinthians 3:5-6, NLT

Remember how you were when you didn't know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It's different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say "Jesus be damned!" Nor would anyone be inclined to say "Jesus is Master!" without the insight of the Holy Spirit.

-- 1 Corinthians 12:2-3 msg

"Peace for humanity is not only the absence of war, or the end of violence. … For us Christians, peace is based on a fundamental new relationship between [humankind] and God. That is why Christ said he brought peace, 'not as the world gives.' He brought a different peace."

- Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia

For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

-- Ephesians 4:4-6 nlt

"And the work of God is rarely dull, but it's not always necessarily what we think. Transformation is hard stuff. Seeking to bring about the kingdom of God -- caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, visiting prisoners, caring for the sick, renouncing demons in God's name -- you don't do that in a 15-minute lunch break."

- Enuma Okoro

"It is inevitable that in working for freedom some individuals and some families must take the lead and suffer: the road to freedom is via the cross."

- Albert Luthuli

"Get up and pray for help all through the night. Pour out your feelings to the Lord, as you would pour water out of a jug. Beg [the Lord] to save your people, who are starving to death at every street crossing."

- Lamentations 2:19, NRSV