Quotes By Tony Campolo

President Bush once said that marriage is a sacred institution and should be reserved for the union of one man and one woman. If this is the case - and most Americans would agree with him on this - then I have to ask: Why is the government at all involved in marrying people?

I contend that it's impossible to read the Sermon on the Mount and not come out against capital punishment.

Prior to ROE V. WADE, abortions were common even though they were illegal. I don't think making them illegal again is going to solve the problem.

I contend that, in spite of all that might be said about Watergate, Richard Nixon was good for the poor people of America.

Clinton's successor in the White House, George W. Bush, was committed to expanding government spending for faith-based initiatives.

I'm a minister, and I serve as a minister in addition to being a university professor.

Those issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change.

Women have the same privileges and opportunities as men, given the New Testament.

There is no doubt that religion had already waned under the onslaught of the Enlightenment, but it was Freud who provided the radically new understanding of human nature that made any religious explanation of the whats and whys of our personhood seem naive.

In the past, the Republican Party has depended on unified support at election time from Evangelical Christians. But times are changing!

My theology is such that the God who loves Israel and will not forsake Israel - which is why I want to see Israel have a secure nation with secure borders - also loves the Palestinians.

A strong case can be made for religious leaders to speak out on political issues.

Because of the increase in life longevity, America can now assume that at any given time three, and perhaps four, former presidents will still be alive, even when the current president is occupying the White House.

I don't know of many evangelicals who want to deny gay couples their legal rights. However, most of us don't want to call it marriage, because we think that word has religious connotations, and we're not ready to see it used in ways that offend us.

I propose that the government should get out of the business of marrying people and, instead, only give legal status to civil unions.

The Gospel is about grace and we all know that grace is about us receiving from God blessings that we don't deserve.

When you talk about evangelicals, don't forget that a significant proportion of the evangelical community is African American. And most African Americans - well over 90 percent, thoroughly evangelical, thoroughly biblical - will probably vote Democratic.

Christianity isn't the only group that has fundamentalists.

I think there are other issues that the Democrats could use to rally evangelicals. There are a lot of us, for instance, who believe that the Bible calls us to be environmentally responsible.

The traditional spokespersons for the Evangelicals, such as Chuck Colson and James Dobson, have become alarmed about this drift away from the 'Family Values' issues that they believe should be the overwhelming concerns of Evangelicals. They have expressed their displeasure in letters of protest circulated through the religious media.

So I really would like to see both parties respond to the poor with greater commitment. But I've got to tell you, the Democrats, I feel, are doing a better job in that respect than Republicans are.

What if Barack Obama established a Presidential Advisory Committee that would meet once every couple of months, bringing together the former presidents for a conference in order to seek their collective wisdom? There is a wealth of experience in former presidents that generally goes untapped.

While a case can be made for intelligent design, I can't figure out why some Christians are so thrilled about that possibility. First of all, it doesn't prove there's a God. If anything, intelligent design lends support to some form of pantheism that defines God as immanent within nature.

I don't doubt that God can bring good out of tragedies, but the Bible is clear that God is not the author of evil!

Marriage should be viewed as an institution ordained by God and should be out of the control of the state.

I've got some repenting to do.

When you were born, you cried and everybody else was happy. The only question that matters is this - when you die, will you be happy when everybody else is crying?

Of the 22 industrialized nations of the world, we're dead last in per capita giving to poor people.

Lies and distortions can be spread, via the Internet, in an inexpensive way, and the effects are astounding.

From the beginning, there have been some religious leaders who greeted the funding of faith-based social services by government with ambivalence.