Joseph Lowery Quotations

I think the Montgomery bus boycott initiated an era of self-determination.

It's ironic that the Bible belt is the killing belt - Texas, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, and so forth, Georgia. Chief executioners.

Rosa Parks was an unlikely person, but she became an instrument of the people's will in that community who were tired. They said she was tired from working and perhaps she was - but she herself said later that she was spiritually tired and weary of being humiliated by being asked to move back so that a white person could occupy her seat.

Public policy today is favoring the rich, not the poor. It's not addressing the needs of the poor.

By reserving the penalty of death for black defendants, or for the poor, or for those convicted of killing white persons, we perpetrate the ugly legacy of slavery-teaching our children that some lives are inherently less precious than others.

I am in the valley of prayer on the issue of gay marriage, and I will err on the side of inclusiveness and not exclusion. I'm going to follow Jesus and say, Whosoever will, let them come. And I'm going to extend rights to all of God's children and if I am wrong, God will have to judge me.

It's interesting to me that killing damages the image of God when it's done by a person, but it doesn't damage it when it's done by the state.

We've got nearly 50 million people in America with no health insurance. That's a weapon of mass destruction.

Everything has changed and nothing has changed.

I'm neither Democrat nor Republican. I'm Methodist. I have grievances with both parties.