Heretics Anonymous

Just because it’s not about you or me doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant.

The only thing more dangerous than someone who doesn't care about the rules is someone who does - and wants to break them anyway.

You don't have a monopoly on suffering, okay?" I say, my voice rising. "Other people get to be mad about their lives. Your broken leg doesn't make my sprained ankle hurt any less.

When you hurt people," he says, "even if you didn't mean to, you don't get to choose where they go from there. When you hurt someone, it stops being about you, or what you want.

You can decide you were wrong about something, and it doesn’t mean you were stupid. You just know more now. If I still thought the same as I did in seventh grade, I’d be worried.

The Anonymous Creed We believe in one God, and many gods, and the possibility of none, And also that the existence of the almighty is largely irrelevant, Because regardless of who is maker of heaven an death, It is our duty to care for all of creation, both visible and invisible. We believe in one fundamental truth: That all people, regardless of what they worship, who they love, and what they think Have a right to exist, and a right to be heard. We strive to make faith consubstantial with reason and compassion, Through which all good things are made. We believe in the goodness of humankind (with a few notable exceptions), The worth of listening to our friends and understanding our enemies, The power of a single voice in a silent room, And the practicality of cloaks and other assorted historical outerwear. We do not all believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church But are nonetheless grateful that it brought us together. We strive to remember that high school will not last forever And look forward to graduation day And the life of that world to come. Amen.

My personal motto has always been if you've already dug yourself a hole too deep to climb out of, you may as well keep digging.

I believe in love. I believe in the love Lucy shows me, the kind I'll try hard to give back to her in full. I believe in things I can't put into words, but things I know to be true. I believe in us. I believe in this. Amen.

I don't believe in God, but that doesn't mean I believe in nothing.

Good intentions don't excuse destroying somebody's culture. Good intentions don't excuse anything. We can't judge dead men by our standards, fine, but we choose who we canonize, and we can do better. Shouldn't we want to do better?

I don’t understand how the St. Clare’s library can ban so many books for being “inappropriate” when they have a whole row of Bibles. Harry Potter might be a wizard, but I’m sure he never hacked a woman to pieces.

I don't know why people assume shit like that. Like being an atheist requires some sort of tragic backstory.

Straight white boy destroys everything, world stops to listen?...That’s the history of the Western world.

Same idea!" he says. "I'm Jewish because everyone before me was, and you're Catholic because Spanish assholes forcibly converted your ancestors. How's that a choice?

THE BEST FEELING in the world is popping bubble wrap. The second-best feeling in the world is waking up at seven thirty a.m. as usual, realizing it's Saturday, and diving back under the covers.

Well if you're going to ignore the fact that most of those women chose to die rather than do what other people told them to, then I think you're pretty close to blasphemy.

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people in order to be noticed by them. (Matthew 6:1) Lucy doesn't have a note for that, but I think it means you should do what's right because it's right, not because you want people to see and praise you for it.

That girl's visible collarbone is distracting me from calculus." - No Person Ever

just because a person says something is true doesn't mean it is, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to keep you from doing something fun.

Nuns are great, but they aren't priests. Nuns can't celebrate Mass. They can't hear confessions or consecrate the Eucharist. They can't become bishops or cardinals or popes, they can't become the people who make the big decisions. How do you change a church that doesn't listen to you?

A heretic is someone who has belief, but not the right kind. At least according to the Catholic Church. A heretic might believe in God, but some of the other things she believes don't match up with the party line.

It's theology. Were you expecting sex, drugs, and rock and roll?" "One out of the three would be nice.

I should have known, before I even knew your name, that you were going to be important.

What do you want to swear to?" she asks. "Science? Deductive reasoning? The ghost of Friedrich Nietzsche?

For J.J., God is something warm and innocent, Christmas presents and stories from his big sister. Lucy’s God is one of revolution and justice, someone who can set a damaged, difficult world right. But they’re the same God, from the same book—the same unbending, authoritarian God that Theresa believes in. Can one God be all those things to all those people?

I believe in God because I believe in what I feel. And when I'm in church or praying, I feel loved. I feel safe. I feel like someone knows me.

I know why this is Lucy's favorite song. Lucy believes in a world that's fair. As she recites, clear and crisp, I realize I believe in that world, too. I just don't believe in a god who will create it for us. I think we'll have to do it on our own.

Lucy is not one or the other, pure or dirty. Lucy is Lucy. She could swim in a sewer, have sex with every single person in the world, and she would still never be dirty. I hate him for trying to tell her she could be.

[...] all people, regardless of what they worship, who they love, and what they think have a right to exist, and a right to be heard.