John Shelby Spong Quotes

What we often take to be family values--the work ethic, honesty, clean living, marital fidelity, and individual responsibility--are in fact social, religious, or cultural values. To be sure, these values are transmitted by parents to their children and are familial in that sense. They do not, however, originate within the family. It is the value of close relationships with other family members, and the importance of these bonds relative to other needs.

I think most non-Christians who try to be good people are probably better Christians than Christians.

Protestant Christianity ... tutored the first generations of Americans. It provided what we today would call the value system of the society.

It is difficult for me to regard anyone who obeys no moral principle in his conduct to be a religious man.

Sin in this country has been always said to be rather calculating than impulsive.

The conceptions which any nation or individual entertains of the God of its popular worship may be inferred from their own actions and opinions, which are the subjects of their approbation among their fellow-men.

A person of “good character” was one who acted in accordance with the expectations of his community

I think that ethical behaviour is another feature of the kind of inner discipline that leads to a happier existence.

We have our values from the church, the temple, the mosque. Do not rob, do not murder. But our behaviour changes the minute we go into the corporate place. Suddenly all of this is irrelevant.

The great difficulty about keeping the Ten Commandments is that no man can keep them and be a gentleman.

And that whole do-able/undo-able thing? Yeah. Need I point out that neither Ruth nor I have ever "done" anybody in our lives?

The world is ashamed of being virtuous.

Whenever one refuses to admit such a self-evident truth, for instance, as that it is wrong to steal, don't argue with him-search him; the reason may be found in his pocket.

There is a sense of decency that's like a barometer to a man's or a country's health.

Without "ethical culture", there is no salvation for humanity.

These practices - non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, chastity, and non-receiving - are to be practised by every man, woman, and child; by every soul, irrespective of nation, country, or position.

Respectability is joining chastity in the museum of dead issues.

I'm not a religious person. I don't have any desire. To me it's imitative of a conventional culture. I'm all for it for anybody. I totally have a free and open feeling about how other humans want to live their lives. It's just not something that has any real significance for me.

The truest test of civilization, culture and dignity is character and not clothing.

What is morality but immemorial custom? Conscience is the chief of conservatives.

Just laws are no restraint upon the freedom of the good, for the good man desires nothing which a just law will interfere with.

Ethics, as has been well said, are the finest fruits of humanity, but they are not its roots

Traditional Judeo-Christian values literally hang in the balance in America. They can be 'forgotten' in a single generation if they are not taught to children and teenagers... It could happen here if we don't defend what we believe.

They can say that abortion is alright. They can vote to sustain gay marriage. And that will take western civilization, indeed other nations because people look to our country as one nation as under God and whenever we legislate sin and we say abortion is permissible and we say gay unions are permissible, then average citizens who are not Christians, because they don't know better, we are leading them astray and it's wrong.

Morals - all correct moral laws - derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level.