“When the prophets conceived Jehovah as the special vindicator of these voiceless classes it was another way of saying that it is the chief duty in religious morality to stand for the rights of the helpless.”

—  Walter Rauschenbusch

Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Ch.1 The Historical Roots of Christianity the Hebrew Prophets, p. 12

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When the prophets conceived Jehovah as the special vindicator of these voiceless classes it was another way of saying t…" by Walter Rauschenbusch?
Walter Rauschenbusch photo
Walter Rauschenbusch 83
United States Baptist theologian 1861–1918

Related quotes

Margaret Chase Smith photo

“The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character.”

Margaret Chase Smith (1897–1995) Member of the United States Senate from Maine
James A. Garfield photo

“The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

Letter to H. N. Eldridge (12 December 1869) as quoted in Garfield (1978) by Allen Peskin, Ch. 13
1860s
Variant: The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.

José Martí photo

“Men have no special rights simply because they belong to one race or another. When you say "men," you have already imbued them with all their rights.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Variant translation: Men have no special right because they belong to one race or another: the word man defines all rights.
My Race (1893)
Context: "Racist" is a confusing word, and it should be clarified. Men have no special rights simply because they belong to one race or another. When you say "men," you have already imbued them with all their rights.

Thomas Carlyle photo

“Paganism emblemed chiefly the Operations of Nature; the destinies, efforts, combinations, vicissitudes of things and men in this world; Christianism emblemed the Law of Human Duty, the Moral Law of Man. One was for the sensuous nature: a rude helpless utterance of the first Thought of men,—the chief recognized virtue, Courage, Superiority to Fear. The other was not for the sensuous nature, but for the moral.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Poet
Context: Paganism we recognized as a veracious expression of the earnest awe-struck feeling of man towards the Universe; veracious, true once, and still not without worth for us. But mark here the difference of Paganism and Christianism; one great difference. Paganism emblemed chiefly the Operations of Nature; the destinies, efforts, combinations, vicissitudes of things and men in this world; Christianism emblemed the Law of Human Duty, the Moral Law of Man. One was for the sensuous nature: a rude helpless utterance of the first Thought of men,—the chief recognized virtue, Courage, Superiority to Fear. The other was not for the sensuous nature, but for the moral. What a progress is here, if in that one respect only—!

Cristina Lizardo photo

“I wish to say that the right to life is not a religious question, but rather a moral and juridical one, and that is a commandment from God.”

Cristina Lizardo (1959) Dominican Republic academic

Source: Dominicans rally against abortion https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/10559/dominicans-rally-against-abortion (3 October 2007)

Roberto Clemente photo

“I like to see Maury in Pittsburgh uniform much better than watching him steal bases when I stand helpless in right field.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Looks Like Good Season; Clemente's Back Aches" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mBoNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=c2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3835%2C632416
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1967</big>

John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge photo

“It would not be correct to say that every moral obligation involves a legal duty; but every legal duty is founded on a moral obligation.”

John Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge (1820–1894) British lawyer, judge and Liberal politician

The Queen v. Instan (1893), L. R. 1 Q. B. [1893], p. 453.

Edward Carpenter photo

“Thus we see that though there are for instance in the England of to-day a variety of classes, and a variety of corresponding codes of public opinion and morality, one of these codes, namely that of the ruling class whose watchword is property, is strongly in the ascendant. And we may fairly suppose that in any nation from the time when it first becomes divided into well-marked classes this is or has been the case. In one age—the commercial age—the code of the commercial or money-loving class is dominant; in another—the military—the code of the warrior class is dominant; in another—the religious—the code of the priestly class; and so on.”

Edward Carpenter (1844–1929) British poet and academic

Defence of Criminals: A Criticism of Morality (1889)

Walter Rauschenbusch photo

“The prophets were not religious individualists. …they always dealt with Israel and Judah as organic totalities. They conceived of their people as a gigantic personality which sinned as one and ought to repent as one. …it was only when the national life of Israel was crushed by foreign invaders that the prophets began to address themselves to the individual life and lost the large horizon of public life.”

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian

Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Ch.1 The Historical Roots of Christianity the Hebrew Prophets, p. 8-9

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon photo

“All laws stand on the best and broadest basis which go to enforce moral and social duties.”

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon (1732–1802) British Baron

Pasley v. Freeman (1789), 3 T. R. 51.

Related topics