Garrison Keillor Quotes

My mother was Catholic, my father was Protestant. There was always a debate going on at home - I think in those days we called them arguments - about who was right and who was wrong.

My wife and I have what's known as mixed marriage. I am a Methodist, she is a Muslim. So we're keeping it in the M's.

This is one of the factors that also made me very much want to make this film, apart from the fact that I loved it. If the boy hadn't been Jewish and the man hadn't been Muslim, it wouldn't have made any difference to the film. I don't think it's relevant, really.

The danger facing American Jews today is not that Christians want to persecute them but that Christians want to marry them.

If a Jewish group sat down with a Christian conservative group, and there was a so-called Messianic Jew at the table, that would be the end of the meeting.

My mother, a nonpracticing Jew from Delaware, had married a non-practicing Protestant in California. Sometimes, certainly not always, Jew + Protestant = Unitarian, and that is what we were - 'Jewnitarians,' as I like to say.

A fully positive relationship between Christians and Jews is one that would elide all differences.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it.

I am very grateful to our Muslim population. One of the things we've been doing is stepping up our inter-faith dialogue with the Muslim population. And I think that helped very much in their support for me.

Out-marriage is an issue religious groups have been wrestling with for some time. Of course men and women fall in love. Of course it's not always convenient to their respective cultural and spiritual norms.

If God wanted, he could have created all mankind as one religion. He created many different ways so we will cooperate.

Each settlement was a little world by itself. They remained as much divided in their interests and affections as Christians and Turk.

The best way for people to understand each other's faith is to share experiences.

As mainstream religious leaders of different faiths get together, it strengthens the voice of moderation.

As forces of hate in this country and worldwide try to pull Muslims and Christians apart, we are in desperate need of a unifying force that can bridge the widening gap of interfaith misunderstanding and mistrust. That force could be the message of love, peace, and forgiveness taught by Jesus and accepted by followers of both faiths.

When my mother left home, her family sat shivah for her, more because my father was not Jewish than because he was black.

We in Canada are not going to say Muslims are worse than Christians or are worse than Jews or are worse than atheists.

My father worked as a mechanical draftsman at Mazagaon Docks and is a Catholic. My mum was a Muslim, so my parents broke quite a few rules to get married.

The arrogance of secular Jews regarding the ultra-Orthodox community and their attempt to impose on it a different lifestyle is inappropriate.

Being raised by a Catholic father, a Protestant mother, and marrying the Muslim father of my three children, I encourage people to respect and at least try to understand different religions.

When my cousin sister got married to a Muslim boy, my family was baffled. All the brothers had abandoned her. But I said there is nothing wrong in it. We have not lost our sister. In fact, we got another family member in the form of that boy.

Although my family attended the same church as everyone in our town, our religion was not the same. I could stand with my family or with the gentiles... but there was no foothold in between.

I believe that this is the land of religious freedom and that that applies to Muslims. And if I have to make it apply to Muslims with the work that I do, I'm going to do that.

When we decided to marry, we had two ceremonies - one was more bureaucratic for the sake of the Swiss authorities,then a church service in Florence, and I wrote the music for the church service. The challenge in that was that Iman's [Abdulmajid] family are Muslim and mine are Protestant. I had to be careful about the prayers that we chose and the music I wrote because I didn't want to offend either side.

In 1954, Pope Pius XI, of all people, sent some Vatican delegates on a trip to Libya with these written instructions: "Do NOT think that you are going among Infidels. Muslims attain salvation, too. The ways of Providence are infinite.