David Cross Quotes

I think that religious culture and the industry of religion pretty much deserves most of the heat that it gets.

I believe a personal relationship with God is healthy, but organized religion has potential for danger, in whatever faith.

The institutions of Churchianity are not Christianity. An institution is a good thing if it is second; immediately an institution recognizes itself it becomes the dominating factor.

Organized religions by their very natures are misleading.

Organized religions have all the facets of organized crime, except the compassion of organized crime.

My objection to organized religion is the premature conclusion to ultimate truth that it represents.

Organized religion: the world's largest pyramid scheme.

I think most of our religious institutions are pretty corrupt, so they're not reliable. I think the Christian religion that I was brought up with has very little to do with Christ, really, and more an institutions that have built up around the church.

The religious people in Saudi Arabia are very powerful and don't allow anyone to step on their toes.

I've never had a problem with Jesus. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's just the kind of guy you'd always want to have around. But I have had a big problem with his agents, publicists, and managers. They've abused his message for power and converted moldable, excited people into bullied believers and followers.

The Church controlled so much in Ireland for so long. I'm not going to get into whether or not religion per se is a bad thing, but my point is the political aspect in Ireland was way out of kilter, and it wasn't right.

Ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption

One who lays claim to special privilege through the priesthood doesn't understand the nature of his authority.

I"m often accused of being irreligious, and I suppose it's for this very reason. Whether it's Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Judaism, or any other ism, when a religioin is created on the subtle premise that God withholds his love and you must submit to the system to earn that love, I consider it the worst of corruptions... For centuries, the church has been telling us that if we want God to love us, we need to follow the rules. It's been far more important to focus on the sin problem than the love problem.

We cannot hope for a society in which formal organized religion dies out. But we can stop behaving as if it was worthy of our collective respect.

Clericalism: the habitual confusion between that which is of Caesar, and that of God.

When the church takes affairs of the state more seriously than they do Jesus, Pax Romana becomes its gospel and the president becomes the Son of God.

I think that of most leaders in religion as power brokers. They give orders, in a sense, to an audience every week, and that's where the definition of God starts.

We may not agree with what religions are trying to teach us, but we can admire the institutional way in which they're doing it.

When you say you don't get religion, you're just saying that you don't get organized religion.

The greatest enemy to the movement of Jesus Christ is Christianity.

I think institutions will inevitably substitute a rite or a ritual for the authentic, for the real McCoy, because then priests can control the pipeline to god, and the parishioner can approach with offerings. But if everybody can have a pipeline to deity, why then the whole priest scam is put out of business.

Most kings and priests have been despotic, and all religions have been riddled with superstition.

I hate religion. I think it's a neurological disorder.

We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God. You've probably heard the expression 'I believe in God, just not organized religion'. I don't think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to live.