The wages of work is cash.

The wages of cash is want more cash.

The wages of want more cash is vicious competition.

The wages of vicious competition is the world we live in.

 (D.H. Lawrence)

The Seven Social Sins according to Mohandas Gandhi …

Politics without principle

Wealth without work

Commerce without morality

Pleasure without conscience

Education without character

Science without humanity

Worship without sacrifice

“We have some bad habits that only God can cure!”

 (A Los Angeles gang leader, quoted by Jim Wallis)

We need to be on fire again,

for our hope is no longer an easy one.

We live in a culture of despair

pentecost can no longer be taken for granted.

We must refuse to make the Holy Spirit a piece of private property,

but a spirit that matters. (Mary Jo Leddy)

The religious right thinks that to be religious you have to be extremist and fundamentalist … and the radical left agrees. It is time for the religious left to be more religious than left. And it is time for both the left and the right to admit that they have run out of imagination, that the categories of liberal and conservative are dysfunctional, and that what is needed to bring about justice is a radicalism that leads beyond both the right and the left. That radicalism can only be found in the gospel which is neither liberal nor conservative but compassionate. (Jim Wallis)

Edward Galeano … The Nobodies

We are not, but could be.

We don’t speak languages, but dialects.

We don’t have religions, but superstitions.

We don’t create art, but handicrafts.

We don’t have a culture, but folklore.

We are not human beings, but human resources.

We do not have face, but arms.

We do not have names, but numbers.

We do not appear in the history of the world,

but in the police blotter of the local paper.

The nobodies, who are not worth

the bullets that kill them.

“Lost is a place, too.” (Christina Crawford)

“We don’t want your money: we can steal that from you when we need it. We need you to lead us back to God … and to give us some jobs.” (Gang leader to a group of church and business leaders, Spokane, Washington.)

“Preach the gospel wherever you go, even use words if necessary.” (Francis of Assisi)

The moral majority has forged God’s signature on a contract with America! (A Southern Baptist minister)

“In the world’s schema of things, survival of the fittest is the rule. In God’s schema, survival of the weakest is the rule.  (Alphonse Keuter, OMI)

“Seeing injustice is not what makes you just. Crossing over to the other side, as did the Good Samaritan and as did God in the incarnation, is what gives birth to justice.” (Erik Riechers)

Strength without compassion is violence

Compassion without justice is sentiment

Justice without love is Marxism

And … love without justice is baloney!

 (Cardinal Sin)

It is not possible to create a world in which no innocent people suffer, but it is possible to create a world in which fewer innocent people suffer. (quoted by Bryan Hehir)

Truly, we have some bad habits that only God can cure!