Zach Lambert > Zach's Quotes

“Rather than fearing that American racism would discredit the country globally, Falwell insisted that civil rights agitation was inspired by communist sympathizers. He saw Marxism at the root of the movement, not a Christian social justice tradition.”
― Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

“Shalom is what love looks like in the flesh. The embodiment of love in the context of a broken creation, shalom is a hint at what was, what should be, and what will one day be again. Where sin disintegrates and isolates, shalom brings together and restores. Where fear and shame throw up walls and put on masks, shalom breaks down barriers and frees us from the pretense of our false selves.”
― Jamie Arpin-Ricci, Vulnerable Faith: Missional Living in the Radical Way of St. Patrick

“Let me be clear: If the way we read the Bible produces poisonous fruit rather than the fruit of the Spirit, we are reading it wrong.”
― Zach W. Lambert, Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing

“Justice is divisive only to those benefitting from injustice.”
― Zach W. Lambert, Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm Into a Tool of Healing

“When it comes to those who have left the church as adults, only 9 percent say they are open to returning. But do you know what the percentage of LGBTQ+ folks who say they are open to coming back to church is? Seventy-six percent!26”
― Zach W. Lambert, Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing

“If someone receives money, power, or political gain from injustice, then demonizing justice is the most effective way to ensure the perpetuation of those benefits. That’s why it’s such a red flag when people say it’s “divisive” to talk about racism, sexism, nationalism, homophobia, ableism, or any other form of oppression. Justice is divisive only to those benefiting from injustice. Or to put it more bluntly, the only people standing against liberation are the ones who benefit from oppression.”
― Zach W. Lambert, Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing

“Jesus chastised folks who weaponized Scripture and elevated it above love of neighbor. He repeatedly denounced those who used sacred texts to divide rather than unite, incite violence rather than make peace, and exclude rather than include.”
― Zach W. Lambert, Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing

“Christians spend so much time arguing about what is “biblical” and “unbiblical” when we really should be distinguishing between what is Christlike and what is un-Christlike.”
― Zach W. Lambert, Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing

“We cannot read the Bible for our own liberation while caging others. Reading the Bible in ways that justify oppression and marginalization is the gospel of slaveholders.”
― Zach W. Lambert, Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing

“They called themselves Christians, but they didn’t follow Christ. They knew about Jesus, but they didn’t pursue the way of Jesus. They read from the very same Bible we do, but they interpreted it through a lens of hierarchy.”
― Zach W. Lambert, Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing