North American Christians are trained to believe that they are capable of reading the Bible without spiritual and moral transformation.

Consider the problem of taking showers with Christians. They are, after all, constantly going on about the business of witnessing in the hopes of making converts to their God and church. Would you want to shower with such people? You never know when they might try to baptize you.

Christians know that Christianity is simply extended training in dying early. That is what we have always been about.

Christianity is not a set of beliefs or doctrines one believes in order to be a Christian, but rather Christianity is to have one's body shaped, one's habits determined, in such a way that the worship of God is unavoidable.

For Christians do not place their hope in their children, but rather their children are a sign of their hope . . . that God has not abandoned this world.

To be a Christian is to be obligated to be charitable. This is true whether you are rich or poor, healthy or ill, old or young, male or female, oppressed or free, established or disestablished.

I have no doubt that for some to become a Christian may involve an experience of ecstasy. Yet I do not think such an experience is necessary for someone to be a Christian.

Christian nonviolence must be embodied in a community that is an alternative to the world's violence.