{"quotes":[{"text":"Loving, of enemies is another dogma of feigned morality, and has besides no meaning. It is incumbent on man, as a moralist, that he does not revenge an injury; and it is equally as good in a political sense, for there is no end to retaliation; each retaliates on the other, and calls it justice: but to love in proportion to the injury, if it could be done, would be to offer a premium for a crime. Besides, the word enemies is too vague and general to be used in a moral maxim, which ought always to be clear and defined, like a proverb. If a man be the enemy of another from mistake and prejudice, as in the case of religious opinions, and sometimes in politics, that man is different to an enemy at heart with a criminal intention; and it is incumbent upon us, and it contributes also to our own tranquillity, that we put the best construction upon a thing that it will bear. But even this erroneous motive in him makes no motive for love on the other part; and to say that we can love voluntarily, and without a motive, is morally and physically impossible.Morality is injured by prescribing to it duties that, in the first place, are impossible to be performed, and if they could be would be productive of evil; or, as before said, be premiums for crime. The maxim of doing as we would be done unto does not include this strange doctrine of loving enemies; for no man expects to be loved himself for his crime or for his enmity.Those who preach this doctrine of loving their enemies, are in general the greatest persecutors, and they act consistently by so doing; for the doctrine is hypocritical, and it is natural that hypocrisy should act the reverse of what it preaches. For my own part, I disown the doctrine, and consider it as a feigned or fabulous morality; yet the man does not exist that can say I have persecuted him, or any man, or any set of men, either in the American Revolution, or in the French Revolution; or that I have, in any case, returned evil for evil.","author":"Thomas Paine","tags":["american-revolution","crime","dogma","enemies","feigned-morality","french-revolution","hypocrisy","injury","intention","justice","love","love-thy-enemy","loving","maxim","meaning","morality","motive","persecution","preach","premius","proverb","revenge","vague"],"id":4846,"author_id":"Thomas+Paine"},{"text":"There is one element in Christianity which was not borrowed from Paganism -- religious intolerance. Referring to Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, a writer on China says: 'Between the followers of the three national religions there is not only a total absence of persecution and bitter feeling, but a very great indifference as to which of them a man may belong.... Among the politer classes, when strangers meet, the question is asked: 'To what sublime religion do you belong,' and each one pronounces a eulogium, not on his own religion, but on that professed by the others, and concludes with the oft-repeated formula 'Religions are many; reason is one; we are all brothers.","author":"John E. Remsburg","tags":["atheism","buddhism","china","confucianism","intolerance","paganism","persecution","religious-intolerance","taoism"],"id":6896,"author_id":"John+E.+Remsburg"},{"text":"Throughout the world today there are people who are enduring cruelties and persecution because of their Christian faith. We must pray for them, and for ourselves, so that in our own dying hour God will give us grace to endure until the end, anticipating the certainty of His glory to come.","author":"Billy Graham","tags":["billy-graham","persecution"],"id":9163,"author_id":"Billy+Graham"},{"text":"The longer he remained on this earth, the more he was sure that mankind had no clue about God or heaven. Not when they used him as an excuse to kill, to punish, to discriminate.","author":"Amy Harmon","tags":["evil","god","persecution","war"],"id":19261,"author_id":"Amy+Harmon"},{"text":"Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.","author":"Voltaire","tags":["conformism","disregard","ignorance","innovation","persecution","reformers","trailblazers"],"id":25555,"author_id":"Voltaire"},{"text":"If we look back into history for the character of present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practised it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England, blamed persecution in the Roman church, but practised it against the Puritans: these found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here and in New En.","author":"Benjamin Franklin","tags":["bishops","church-of-england","history","intolerance","new-england","pagans","persecution","protestants","puritans","religious-persecution","roman-catholic"],"id":30868,"author_id":"Benjamin+Franklin"},{"text":"... How terrible is the pain of the mind and heart when the freedom of mankind is suppressed!","author":"E.A. Bucchianeri","tags":["catholic-","depression","free-choice","free-will","freedom","gadfly","heart","heartache","liberty","mind","pain","persecution","suppression","tyranny"],"id":35584,"author_id":"E.A.+Bucchianeri"},{"text":"We cannot hope to change a nation without facing trials and persecution in the process.","author":"Sunday Adelaja","tags":["change","hope","nation","persecution","process","trials"],"id":36429,"author_id":"Sunday+Adelaja"},{"text":"No Christian has the right to go around wringing his hands, wondering what we are to do in the face of the present world situation. The Scripture says that in the midst of persecution, confusion, wars, and rumors of wars, we are to comfort one another with the knowledge that Jesus Christ is coming back in triumph, glory, and majesty.","author":"Billy Graham","tags":["billy-graham","persecution"],"id":43616,"author_id":"Billy+Graham"},{"text":"Persecution for Christians is not a possibility, it's a promise, it's not a maybe, it's a surely! Following Jesus can mean finding the trouble you've been looking for!","author":"Kingsley Opuwari Manuel","tags":["christianity","church","discipleship","following-jesus","missions","persecution","persecution-of-christians","sermons","spiritual"],"id":47995,"author_id":"Kingsley+Opuwari+Manuel"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":111,"pages":12,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}