Noah Thomas

“I walk toward one of our ponds; but what signifies the beauty of nature when men are base? We walk to lakes to see our serenity reflected in them; when we are not serene, we go not to them. Who can be serene in a country where both the rulers and the ruled are without principle? The remembrance of my country spoils my walk. My thoughts are murder to the State, and involuntarily go plotting against her.

But it chanced the other day that I scented a white water-lily, and a season I had waited for had arrived. It is the emblem of purity. It bursts up so pure and fair to the eye, and so sweet to the scent, as if to show us what purity and sweetness reside in, and can be extracted from, the slime and muck of earth. I think I have plucked the first one that has opened for a mile. What confirmation of our hopes is in the fragrance of this flower! I shall not so soon despair of the world for it, notwithstanding slavery, and the cowardice and want of principle of Northern men. It suggests what kind of laws have prevailed longest and widest, and still prevail, and that the time may come when man's deeds will smell as sweet. Such is the odor which the plant emits. If Nature can compound this fragrance still annually, I shall believe her still young and full of vigor, her integrity and genius unimpaired, and that there is virtue even in man, too, who is fitted to perceive and love it.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Slavery in Massachusetts

“Three trillion trees.
They came to be
on the third day of creation.
That double-blessed day
of verdant goodness.

Three trillion trees,
one became the wood
upon which the son of God was hung.
A tree created on the third day.

The third day.
The day of three trillion trees.

And on the third day of new creation,
the stone was rolled away.
On the third day,
the gardener walked again in the garden.
On the third day,
the first born emerged from a cocoon called death.
On the third day
a new world was born.

There is the world that was,
and the world to come,
and between those two worlds
is the wood
upon which the son of God was hung.”
― Brian Zahnd, The Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross - Library Edition

“Evangelical leaders need to stand for truth, and putting homophobia to death is part of standing for truth. Jesus is truth, and Jesus is not adultererphobic, tax-collectorphobic, centurionphobic, and he is certainly not homophobic.

Jesus does not have a prejudice against any human being, but if he did, it would be against judgmental, homophobic, religious people. We need to destroy homophobia.”
― Preston Sprinkle, People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue

“If the gospel is not good news for gay people, then it is not good news.”
― Preston Sprinkle, People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue