Charles Spurgeon Quotes
Time was when they that feared the Lord spake often to one another; I am afraid that now they more often speak one against another.
Spurgeon, Charles H. The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons. Vol. 40, Passmore & Alabaster, 1894, p. 481.
He works were banned and he was banished by both the North Vietnamese and the South Vietnamese during the Vietnam War where he tried to be a mediator and was present at the Paris Peace Talks. As late as 2007 he was still not allowed into Vietnam.
Toleration of diversity of all kinds is a major tenet of the Bahai faith. As it is a relatively new religion its founder and early leaders had observed the history of religious, ethnic and ideological intolerance in the world and were determined to try and stop it. The Bahai for example are one of the few religions who do not discourage religious intermarriage and they encourage racial intermarriage.
The Vietnam War was raging and the country was polarized by it. The real issue of the time, as we were in the war, was whether we could better obtain peace by winning victories in the field causing the enemy to want to negotiate or to withdraw and produce peace unilaterally. In the end we tried a little of both reflecting the division in the nation. We succeeded at neither strategy and the polarization continued for many decades.
Explaining his practice of not engaging in public debate over historical policies and disagreements that occurred when he was in office:
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, among whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers". He was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day.
