because we are thought-filled creatures

or, I wish I could write so:

• autobiography of dr. martin luther king jr.
  The Kingdom of God is neither the thesis of individual enterprise nor the antithesis of collective enterprise, but a synthesis which reconciles the truths of both.
  [ ... ]

  The worst disservice that we as individuals or churches can do to Christianity is to become sponsors and supporters of the status quo.
  [ ... ]

  The gospel deals with the whole man – not only his soul but his body; not only his spiritual well-being but his material well-being. It has been my conviction ever since reading Rauschenbush that any religion that professes concern for the souls of men and is not equally concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion only waiting for the day to be buried. It well has been said: “A religion that ends with the individual, ends.”

• christianity and the social crisis in the 21st century by walter rauschenbusch
  Walter Rauschenbusch believed that the function of the Christian life was to bring the kingdom of God to a world far too satisfied, it seemed, to live in a godless kingdom here on earth and to wait quietly, sanctimoniously, for the kingdom of God to come later, and somewhere else.Rauschenbusch called the Church beyond the politics of the Church to the purpose of the Church: the bringing of the kingdom – here, in our own time, and to the poorest of the poor. Why? Because the early Church, he reminded modern society, had a reputation for upsetting social mores, for irritating social systems, for breaking down social, sexist, and political boundaries to such a degree that it became legendary, even in its own time, for both its generosity and its justice.
  
• grace (eventually) by anne lamott
  There is not much truth being told in the world. There never was. This has proven to be a major disappointment to some of us.[ ... ]A free public library is a revolutionary notion, and when people don’t have free access to books, then communities are like radios with batteries. You cut people off from the essential sources of information – mythical, practical, linguistic, political – and you break them. You render them helpless in the face of political oppression.
  
• the door by magda szabo
  This book is written not for God, who knows the secrets of my heart, nor for the shades of the all-seeing dead who witness both my waking life and my dreams. I write for other people. Thus far I have lived my life with courage, and I hope to die that way, bravely and without lies. But for that to be, I must speak out. I killed Emerence. The fact that I was trying to save her rather than destroy her changes nothing.
  
• walking the Bible by bruce feiler
  It had never occurred to me that that story [Abraham sacrificing Isaac] – so timeless, so abstract – might have happened in a place that was identifiable, no less one I could visit. It had never occurred to me that the story was so concrete, so connected to the ground. To here. To now.