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Barbara Brown Taylor Biography

Barbara Brown Taylor (born September 21, 1951) is an American Episcopal priest, professor, author and theologian and is one of the United States' best known preachers. In 2014, the TIME magazine placed her in its annual TIME 100 list of most influential people in the world.

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Barbara Brown Taylor Quotes

Contrary to popular opinion, Christians are not nice polite people who never get angry with one another. Those are not the virtues of God's people. Our virtues are truth-telling, kindness, forgiveness and yes, even anger-as long as it is the anger that is part of true love-through which we move closer to one another and to the God who has shown us how it is done.

Christian, Kindness, Move, Nice, People, Yes

Wisdom is not gained by knowing what is right. Wisdom is gained by practicing what is right, and noticing what happens when that practice succeeds and when it fails.

Fails, Happens, Knowing, Practice, Practicing, Succeed

I decided I got to say whether I was Christian or not, and so I've relaxed enormously since then. I'm the one who gets to say that, and not someone else.

Christian, Relaxed, Decided, Say, Enormously

I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to them.

Mistake, Book, Reality, Describe, Special, Bible

The great thing about civility is that it does not require you to agree with or approve of anything. You don't even have to love your neighbor to be civil. You just have to treat your neighbor the same way you would like your neighbor to treat your grandmother, or your child.

Child, Children, Grandmother, Love You, Thing

Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, which is always a deadly mix. Beware those who claim to know the mind of God and who are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform. Beware those who cannot tell God's will from their own. Temple police are always a bad sign. When chaplains start wearing guns and hanging out at the sheriff's office, watch out. Someone is about to have no king but Caesar

Caesar, Down, Gun, Jesus, Kings, Order

I can't help but note that God is being useful to a lot of people trying to do harm to one another.

Helping, Note, People, Trying, Useful

Most of us like thinking we are God's only children. . . At least one of the purposes of church is to remind us that God has other children, easily as precious as we. Baptism and narcissism cancel each other out.

Baptism, Children, Like, Purposes, Remind, Thinking

No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.

Consent, Missing, Red, Spiritual, Wise

The effort to untangle the human words from the divine seems not only futile to me but also unnecessary, since God works with what is. God uses whatever is usable in a life, both to speak and to act, and those who insist on fireworks in the sky may miss the electricity that sparks the human heart.

Effort, Fireworks, Heart, Life, Sky, Unnecessary

Most of us will have more than one job in our working lives, which means we will have more than one opportunity to seek meaningful work at different stages of our own deepening humanity.

Different, Job, Jobs, Meaningful, Opportunity, Working

I became so attentive to the souls of other people that I was not as attentive as I might have been to my own.

Attentive, Became, Might, People, Soul, Souls

The church grew, and I gained a reputation for preaching, and people came, and it was a wonderful community. But we had a building that seated 82 people, and with a congregation then approaching 400 we were up to four services on Sunday, and everyone was tired.

Came, Congregation, People, Sunday, Tired, Wonderful

Salvation happens every time someone with a key uses it to open a door he could lock instead.

Door, Doors, Keys, Locks, Salvation, Time

The value for me being in a mainline tradition is history and memory, which is not just Christian tradition but denominational tradition, and characters, you know, with real distinct flavors of ways to be Christian.

Christian, Memories, Real, Tradition, Ways

It's difficult for me to ignore how many conflicts locally and worldwide have religion tagged to them.

Conflict, Difficult, Tagged, Worldwide, Conflicts

To get God on your side is a great way to feel powerful.

God, Powerful, Side, Way, Your Side

I love being alone. I learned that from my father, I think, who loved his own company.

Alone, Father, Love Is, Think, Thinking

If God is about putting God ahead of myself then I've just quit being religious, because that's what got me into such deep trouble.

Religious, Quitting, Trouble, Putting, Deep

I am always surprised by people who speak of faith as if it happens in the air somewhere. Our bodies are God's best way of getting to us. Revelation begins in the flesh.

Air, Body, Flesh, People, Speak, Way

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