"Jesus sought to challenge and change Israel's expectations.  He was conceived by the Holy Spirit but out of wedlock.  He was born in Bethlehem but in the humblest of environments.  His arrival was announced by angels but to a bunch of shepherds.  He lived in Egypt as a refugee.  He grew up in an insignificant backwater town called Nazareth.  Jesus did everything he could to enter into the world in a way that communicated that while he was indeed the Messiah, he did not come in power to militarily or politically overthrow their Roman oppressors and establish another earthly kingdom.  But changing those expectations was one of the biggest difficulties that Jesus faced throughout his earthly ministry."

“To the extent that propaganda is based on current news, it cannot permit time for thought or reflection. A man caught up in the news must remain on the surface of the event; he is carried along in the current, and can at no time take a respite to judge and appreciate; he can never stop to reflect. There is never any awareness -- of himself, of his condition, of his society -- for the man who lives by current events.”

"I don’t want to mistake mere opposition for persecution. Nor do I want to harbor a persecution complex born out of my own arrogance, rudeness, stubbornness, or self-righteousness.  The only good I can see in persecution is if it means I am joining Jesus more deeply in his righteousness."

"The Church is not for ready-made saints. The Church is for sinners, doubters, half-brewed Christians, conversions-in-process, tipsy wagon-riders who tumble off and climb back on again."

“People need to be taught how to live as part of a body, how to understand and live out our roles as a member of a church, citizen of a nation, and resident of a community. In our self-centered, narcissistic, individuaistic, expressionist age, we are incompetent in the arts of living together.  We may be naturally social and political animals, but we still have to acquire the cultivated virtues of citizens. Churches must help form us into better political animals.”