“The Mosaic law as given to Israel in the wilderness was holiness in a kit. The laws were hard-edged, cut and dried, God was present with them, they had prophets on scene, and God’s purpose was to define and defend a holy people called by His name. That law was, pure and simple, rough-cut justice.”

Mere Christendom, p. 176

“When you pass something like the Patriot Act, with much fanfare, in order to enable patriots to spy on the bad guys, what winds up happening is that the act is used to enable bad guys to spy on patriots.”

Mere Christendom, p. 174

“The biggest blasphemy culprits in human history have consistently been these so-called lords of the earth—and not the mental patient who got off his meds and is saying erratic things in aisle 7 at Safeway. The state has always been the principal blasphemy threat, in other words.”

Mere Christendom, p. 172

“So I don’t believe in free speech because I think that everybody has something valuable to say. No, I believe that all men and women are bad sinners, and it shows up in their speech. The trouble is that as soon as you start talking about regulating their free speech, because it is bad, all the possible enforcers and regulators are rock hewn from that same quarry. Censors are sinners too.”

Mere Christendom, pp. 171-172