Patti Smith Quotes
Wisdom was a teapot, pouring from above. Desolation angels, served it up with love.
Smith, Patti, and Fred "Sonic" Smith. "Up There Down There." Dream of Life, Arista Records, 1988.
Protesters in the Senate gallery were outraged that a Hindu would be allowed to lead a prayer opening the Senate. They disrupted the proceedings and were arrested. See {583752}.
Husayn Ali Nuri. This quotation illustrates one of the reasons that the Muslim Iranian fundamentalists are so fearful of Bahai, a reform offshoot of Islam. For the orthodox Muslim there must be no separation of church and state—they are one and the same. The Bahai minority of Iran have been hunted down and in many cases killed on the grounds that they were heretics and blasphemers.
At that time, and in much of the world today, religious preaching and those who do it are licensed by the state. Lucian’s response was one of the first statements that governments and temporal powers endorsement was not required, nor was any formal ordination or grant of authority from a formal church as existed among the pagans of the time where the religion was seen as another extension of the state. Even in America there is some ambivalence on this point. Many religions require not only training but a grant of authority from the religious hierarchy. Others such as some Baptists and many Protestant Fundamentalist groups believe that no specific authority is needed other than the “calling of god.” Lucian was apparently the first person to claim the authority as an individual. He was burnt alive for his position. There is a second Saint Lucian. To distinguish the latter is often referred to as Saint Lucian the Syrian.
Patricia Lee Smith is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and poet who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.
