#s

If a person is homosexual by nature - that is, if one's sexuality is as intrinsic a part of one's identity as gender or skin color - then society can no more deny a gay person access to the secular rights and religious sacraments because of his homosexuality than it can reinstate Jim Crow. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#because #color #crow #deny #gay

I am a southerner who grew up with and around guns. I own some still. My father gave me a .22 rifle when I was 9 and a single barrel .410 shotgun when I was 10. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#around #barrel #father #gave #grew

An unexamined faith is not worth having, for fundamentalism and uncritical certitude entail the rejection of one of the great human gifts: that of free will, of the liberty to make up our own minds based on evidence and tradition and reason. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#certitude #entail #evidence #faith #free

Cynically but accurately put, Americans oppose public intervention or regulation if it helps others, but favor it if it helps them - take social security, disaster relief, public works projects, for example. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#cynically #disaster #example #favor #for example

If heaven is understood more as God's space on earth than as an ethereal region apart from the essential reality we know, then what happens on earth matters even more than we think, for the Christian life becomes a continuation of the unfolding work of Jesus, who will one day return to set the world to rights. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#becomes #christian #christian life #continuation #day

The way to put oneself in a position to take the harder, more honorable political path is to argue for one's virtues in a vigorous way. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#harder #honorable #more #oneself #path

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. ↗

— Sun Tzu

#battles #enemy #fighting #hundred #skill

The more we can do to support and promulgate the intellectual traditions of the Abrahamic faiths - of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - the better armed we will be to fight fundamentalism. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#better #christianity #faiths #fight #fundamentalism

The problem for those who assert biblical authority in support of traditional definitions of marriage is that one could, with equal validity, assert that the lending of money or certain kinds of haircuts are forbidden by God, or that slavery and the subjugation of women are authorized by the Lord. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#authority #authorized #certain #certain kinds #could

A lot of people, including business leaders, think the future belongs to China. Globalization is not a zero-sum game, but we need to hone our skills to stay in play. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#business #business leaders #china #future #game