Faith and Governance Quotes

We want the church and state to be separated. Only then will religion be able to fulfill its purpose — to comfort the misery, to console the grieved.

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

Some people say to me, "My God, but Fidel Castro is a communist!" I say: "No, he was a messenger of God."

My political life has been informed by the view that if there was any truth to religion there wouldn't really be any need for politics.

We must embrace the power of faith, but we must never confuse politics and piety. For me, may I say that it is against my religion to impose my religion.

I was nurtured in the church; I went to a Catholic school; I was an altar boy; I went to a Catholic university; I was steeped in the moral tradition of the Catholic Church. My Catholicism plays a very strong role. But I thought President John F.Kennedy answered rather well when he said that ultimately my conduct as a public official does not come ex cathedra from Rome; it comes from my conscience.

A Christian cannot fail of being a republican.

I don't think that John Kerry is the Messiah or the Democratic Party is the answer, but I don't like the evangelical community blessing the Republican Party as some kind of God-ordained instrument for solving the world's problems.

We [the Ennnahada Party] believe that no political party can or should represent religion and that the religious sphere should be managed by independent and [politically] nuetural institutions.

The media challenged me. 'You're not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?' My simple answer is, 'Yes, they are.'

My first act as president is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads: Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love. Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make us strong to do Your work, willing to head and hear Your will, and write on our hearts these words: 'Use power to help people." For we know that we are given power, not to advance our own purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it Lord, Amen.

Lastly, our ancestors established their system of government on morality and religious sentiment. Moral habits, they believed, cannot safely be trusted on any other foundation than religious principle, nor any government be secure which is not supported by moral habits.... Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.

I believe that George Washington knew the City of Man cannot survive without the City of God; that the Visible City will perish without the Invisible City.