EthixBytes
A Collection of Quotes, Comments, Statistics and News Items

“I have been fed from fields I did not till. I have crossed bridges I did not build. I have sat in the shade of trees I did not plant. I have received knowledge I did not research.”
Baptist ethicist Henlee Hulix Barnette.

“An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda is less inclined to put up a fight, ask questions, and be skeptical.”
Veteran PBS newsman Bill Moyers, saying the public bears some of the blame for problems in the media at a conference on media reform in St. Louis.

“Today, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned Iraq’s new leaders against hiring their friends and family members for government jobs . . . then Majority Leader Tom DeLay gave the rebuttal.”
Jay Leno, The Tonight Show.

“Don’t send your kids to Baylor. And don’t send your kids to A & M.”
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tx), at a Worldview Weekend meeting at the FBC of Pearland, TX, April 12, urging parents to send their children where they will get a “godly” education. DeLay himself was kicked out of Baylor because of his fondness of drinking and carousing as a student.

“We know that when we look to Representative DeLay, we see not only a man of God but a man who is willing to sacrifice, whatever the cost, simply to do what is right.”
Ed Young, pastor of SecondBaptistChurch, Houston, at the Tom DeLay Gala event.

“Activist courts, aided by liberal interest groups . . . have been quietly working under the veil of the judiciary, like thieves in the night, to rob us of our Christian heritage and our religious freedoms.”
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council on the “Justice Sunday” telecast from HighlandBC in Louisville, KY, on May 1, which Colbert I. King, editor at the Washington Post termed “an unmitigated lie that should not be allowed to stand.”

“A casino-rich tribe [Coushatta Indians in Louisiana] wrote checks for at least $55,000 to House Majority Leader Tom Delay’s political groups, but the donations were never publicly disclosed.” The tribe was directed to divert the money to “more obscure groups [including] Christian voter outreach.”
Adam Nossiter, Associated Press June 22, 2005.

“People try to make a sharp distinction between interpreting the law and legislating from the bench. But which one that is, is often in the eye of the beholder.”
Brent Walker, Executive Director, Baptist Joint Committee.

“The separation of church and state became a concept in the law in 1947. Until then, it never existed. It’s not in the constitution. It came out of a letter that Jefferson wrote. . . . I think it was an effort to keep the church from using its influence in the arena of politics and public policy.”
James Dobson, child psychologist and leader of Focus on the Family.

“I first thought we were fighting for God, but then I learned we were fighting for wealth and land.”
Tiberius in the epic Crusades movie Kingdom of Heaven.

“I met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns, and to give him maps the better to target those guns.”
George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, before a U. S. Senate Hearing May, 2005.

“The ethics of war—when we go to war, how we go to war, and whether we tell the truth about going to war—are central to religious ethics.”
Jim Wallace, Sojourners, May 2005.

“Religious groups who want to erect religious symbols in public places must only keep their mouths shut about the religious reasons for doing this, pretend they’re all secular, and they have a good chance of getting away with it.”
Douglas Aycock, University of Texas constitutional law professor commenting on the Supreme Court June 27 decision.

“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Letter to his brother, 1954.

“Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors—in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.”
Dr. James Kennedy, godfather of biblical literalists who believe God has called them to take over the U.S. government.

“Consumerism is not so much about having more as it is about having something else. . . . What marks consumerism as something new is its tendency to reduce everything, both the material and the spiritual, to a commodity able to be exchanged.”
William T. Cavanaugh in Sojourners, May 2005.

“President Bush said most of his tax cuts are for low and middle-income Americans. In fact, most—53%—will go to people with incomes in the top 10% over the first 15 years of the cuts. More than 15% will go just to the top 0.1%.
David Johnston, The NY Times.

“Growing at a rate of about 900 inmates each week [since mid-2003], the nation’s prisons and jails held 2.1 million people, or one in every 138 U.S. residents . . . [due to] laws and practices that have focused on punishment and prison as our primary response to crime.”
Associated Press and Malcolm Young, director of the Sentencing Project.

“After seven years of marriage, I’m sure of two things—first, never wallpaper together, and second, you’ll need two bathrooms, both for her. The rest is a mystery, but a mystery I love to be involved in.”
Comedian Dennis Miller.

Updated Monday, October 24, 2005