#or

Religious belief, like history itself, is a story that is always unfolding, always subject to inquiry and ripe for questioning. For without doubt there is no faith. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#belief #doubt #faith #history #inquiry

The attacks of September 11 - and subsequent acts of terror from London to Madrid to Fort Hood, Texas - embody the most repulsive of human instincts, the will to power at the price of the lives of others. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#attacks #embody #fort #hood #human

World War II ended the Great Depression with one of the great public-private industrial collaborations in the history of man. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#depression #ended #great #great depression #history

The bringing-about of order is the first and fundamental task of government. We accept limits on our rights for the sake of a larger social compact all the time. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#compact #first #fundamental #government #larger

The decline and fall of the modern religious right's notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#believers #calmer #christian #creates #decline

The fact is that America has been at her most prosperous when government and the private sector have been not at war, but in a wary, if often underplayed, alliance. History is unmistakable on this point. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#america #been #fact #government #her

The past always seems somehow more golden, more serious, than the present. We tend to forget the partisanship of yesteryear, preferring to re-imagine our history as a sure and steady march toward greatness. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#forget #golden #greatness #history #march

The power of the American system of republicanism lies in its capacity to allow religious belief to be a competing, not a controlling, factor in American life. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#american #american life #belief #capacity #competing

Whether one believes or not, religion is as real a force in the life of the world as economics or politics, and it demands fair-minded attention. Even if you think the entire religious enterprise is at best misguided and at worst counterproductive, it remains vital, inspiring great good and, sometimes, great evil. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#believes #best #counterproductive #demands #economics

With the perspective afforded by the passage of time, where does 9/11 rank as a turning point in our national history? For the victims and their families, innocents going about their lives, suddenly and brutally murdered, no other day can ever matter as much. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#afforded #brutally #day #does #ever