A Circle of Quiet, p. 189

"In Two Cheers for Democracy E.M. Forster says, 'I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betryain my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.'

This is a statement no good Communist should accept; a Communist will-or should-betray any friend, parent, child, for the party. When we choose a generality, an idea, a cause, instead of a person, when this becomes accepted, the required thing to do, then it doesn't matter if villages are destroyed by bombs; traffic deaths become statistics; starving babies can be forgotten when the television is turned off; and thre will no longer be anybody who will read or write a poem or story, who will look at or compose a symphony. No young man will walk whistling up the street. No young gril will sing about the love in her heart."

-Madeleine L'Engle

When we make Christianity our cause, when we forget the man, Christ, and think of 'the church,' then crusades and inquisitions and slaughters become the means justified by the ends---ends that are never reached---for such means could never attain the ends they claims to pursue.

Paraphrasing D. Willard in Knowing Christ Today, Christ did not come to form a religion, but he came that we might know him, be transformed by love, and share love and life with others---Not champion a denomination or vague ideology---but that we might love one another and show we are his disciples.