Rachel Maddow Quotes

I have always marveled that so many religions exact such revenge against dissenters. It only weakens the appeal of their faith and contradicts any claims they might have made that 'all religions are basically the same.' If all religions were indeed the same, why not let someone be 'converted' to another religion?

I do not like the reappearance of the Jesuits.... Nevertheless, we are compelled by our system of religious toleration to offer them an asylum.

Look not to the size of cathedrals or even to the words on the statute books for proof of the reality of religious freedom. Ask what is the fate of the Protestant in Spain, the Jew in Saudi Arabia, the Arab in Israel, the Catholic in Poland or the atheist in the United States?

It is the duty of every Catholic to persecute heretics.

A robust democratic society depends on its ability to uphold and protect religious freedom -- a basic right inherent in the very dignity of the human person. It is therefore essential to safeguard citizens who belong to religious minorities from acts of violence. Such protection not only accords with human dignity but also contributes to the common good.

No one shall be molested for any difference in opinion in matters of religion

The [Ottoman] Turks, having no idea of the sacred mysteries… were not accustomed to inquire into professions of faith or to persecute anyone on that account

As a nation, we must address the persecution of all religious minorities.

We are not going to be keeping a registry of Muslims in America, we are not going to be deporting Muslims, we are not going to be barring people from coming into our country because of their religion.

Freedom of religion requires not only freeing religion from undue government regulation and interference. It also requires freeing religion from discrimination and from vile acts of hatred and persecution.

Here we now have the freedom of all religions, and I hope that never again will we have a repetition of religious bigotry, as we have had in certain periods of our own history. There is no room for that kind of foolishness here.

If there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom, and it is an emphatic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religion before being willing to support him for office.

Resist this war on God, freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

No true believer could be intolerant or a persecutor. If I were a magistrate and the law carried the death penalty against atheists, I would begin by sending to the stake whoever denounced another.

Prohibiting a visible religious sign, which isn't a manifestation of militancy, would look like a fight against religions.

I think every religious person should have a deep sense of respect for other people's religious documents and religious symbols just as we were deeply opposed to the Taliban destroying the two historic buddhas which they blew up. So I think we ought to all oppose burning the Koran.

I believe that pluralistic secularism, in the long run, is a more deadly poison than straightforward persecution.

I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion.

I don’t see a bit of danger from us having an established religion.

Every adult is free to choose his own religion, but fanaticism has to be fought lest freedom perish.

The Catholics had the right secured to them by the Constitution of worshipping the God of their fathers in the manner dictated by their consciences.... This country is not prepared to establish an inquisition to try and punish men for their religious beliefs.

Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity in exclusion of all other religions may establish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christians in exclusion of all other sects.

... Jews, heathens, and other dissenters.

How many thousands of the subjects of Great Britain, at this moment labor under Civil disabilities, merely on account of their religious persuasions!

Congress should not establish a religion and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience, or that one sect might obtain a pre-eminence, or two combined together, and establish a religion to which they would compel others to conform