John Jewel Quotes

I go out into America, and I am literally navigating a minefield. Godliness has become abnormal.

As soon as beauty is sought not from religion and love, but for pleasure, it degrades the seeker.

The pride of life hath corrupted the judgment of others, and perverted them in the way of religion.

Verily, there are many of the [Jewish] rabbis and the [Christian] monks who devour the wealth of mankind in falsehood, and hinder [them] from the Way of Allah

Pomp corrupts church officials

Behind the façade of robes and incense, clerical privilege was allowed to trump the Gospel

Nor were the laity only guilty of these things, but even our Lord’s own flock, with its shepherds, casting off the easy yoke of Christ, gave themselves up to drunkenness, enmity, quarrels, strife, envy, and other such sins

Never will there be grief enough over the corruption of morals so extensively increasing and promoted by irreligious and obscene writings, theatrical spectacles and meretricious houses established almost everywhere; by other depraved arts and monstrous portents of every error disseminated in all directions; by the abominable impurities of all vices and crimes growing constantly and the deadly virus of unbelief and indifferentism spread far and wide; by contempt for ecclesiastical authority

How many priests, pray, are free from whoredom? Nay, how many of their houses are infamous for daily acts of lewdness? How many honorable families do they defile by their vagabond lusts? For my part, I have no pleasure in exposing their vices, and it is no part of my design; but it is of importance to observe what a wide difference there is between the conduct of the priesthood of the present day, and that which true ministers of Christ and his church are bound to pursue.

Don’t get too wrapped up in the flag because every flag is superseded by the cross.

The priests, either from indulgence or carelessness, have allowed the wicked to give loose reins to their lusts

For most people reform meant relief from ecclesiastical extortions.

Priests, Bishops, and Popes … are neither different from other Christians nor superior to them.

Because of our sin, we as individuals and as a nation continue to experience a decline in moral values and beliefs. Our sinful behavior has resulted in increasing rates of unmarried adolescent and adult sexual activity, the birth of children to unwed mothers, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and decreasing marital fidelity. These are all signs of the decline of our culture.

Gaming is among the surest means to debauch a people, and draw them from God and his worship to superstition and idolatry.

Rather than seeking to stem the tide, our educators, politicians, and judges aid the advance of godlessness. This cannot continue if our children and grandchildren are to live in a country that still recognises God and upholds religious liberty.

With shame be it spoken: by her fall, the Church's liberties have been sacrificed for the sake of temporal advantages. The road to her ruin lay through the sinuous paths of riches: she has been prostituted in the streets to princes; she has conceived iniquity and will bring forth oppression to the undeserving.

Religion increasingly is tending to degenerate into a decent formula wherewith to embellish a comfortable life.

It is my conviction that the fundamental trouble with the people of the United States is that they have gotten too far away from Almighty God.

The church has been brought into the same value system as the world: fame, success, materialism and celebrity. We watch the leading churches and the leading Christians for our cues. We want to emulate the best known preachers with the biggest sanctuaries and the grandest edifices. Preoccupation with these values has perverted the church's message.

I believe that organized religion is an ornament to the truth, and that aesthetics are part of its power.

Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith.

A religion, that is, a true religion, must consist of ideas and facts both; not of ideas alone without facts, for then it would be mere Philosophy; - nor of facts alone without ideas, of which those facts are symbols, or out of which they arise, or upon which they are grounded: for then it would be mere History.

Priests and conjurors are of the same trade.

Priests ... these turkey-cocks of God.