Rob Sheffield Quotes

Religion that is contained only within a church building is a weekend hobby, not a personal faith.

I was raised Catholic and I have a lot of respect for the good in the Catholic Church. But I don't go to church.

I don't go to church on Sunday, don't get on my knees to pray, or memorize the books of the Bible, I got my own special way

Irish Catholics are more interested in the rosary beads than in the rosary.

Christianity is not about learning how to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring.

One of the reasons I write about religion is due to my own envy of people who truly feel the presence of god in their lives, good souls who believe devoutly in a supreme being and an afterlife.

From nine on I was forced to camp every summer. Not a volunteer. I played with the wrong kids so they made me go to camp to straighten me out.

... organized religion, in a dominating business society, can do only one of two things. It can either assure the communicant with uneasy bluster that God Himself likes money -- a theory which convinces nobody -- or it can give him an apologetic, halfhearted invitation to go out and get himself crucified.

I didn't mind giving up carnality, jewelry and red meat in return for comradeship and an afterlife.

Sacrifice is the first element of religion, and resolves itself in theological language into the love of God.

I've tried them all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.

When I think upon my God, my heart is full of joy that the notes dance and leap from my pen.

Although I am a pious man, I am not the less a man.

My one purpose in life is to help people find a personal relationship with God, which, I believe, comes through knowing Christ.

I long for nothing more earnestly than to serve God with all my might.

I love the church, the church that God is establishing, that Jesus died for, so I'll never have any negative things to say about His church.

I'm a lapsed Quaker. I don't go to meetings any more. But I'm very drawn to Catholicism - all that glitter. I'd love to be a Catholic. I think it would be fantastic - faith, forgiveness, absolution, extreme unction - all these wonderful words. I don't think anyone who was ever born a Catholic hasn't died a Catholic, no matter how lapsed they are.

Christians are like a thirteen year old kid who still believes in Santa.

Jesus and spirituality can easily become therapies that merely help us cope with life. They can serve us if we chose Him over other service providers. We even talk about "making Jesus my personal Lord and Savior," as if we could make Him anything!

Such self-denial 'may appear demanding,' but it will allow you, so to speak, to be and to breathe within the heart of the church.

I'm a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today.

A man does not serve God when he prays, for it is himself he is trying to serve

I love God and I follow Jesus but I just don't have much affinity for the organized folderol of the churches in the Western World.

I have a house that I bought 55 years ago. It's warm in the winter; it's cool in the summer. It has everything I wanted, plus it has all kinds of good memories. Like my kids, I have good thoughts about that. I can't imagine living any better.

Every time you walk a mile to church and carry a Bible with you, you preach a sermon a mile long.