Quote

There are different kinds of justice. Retributive justice is largely Western. The African understanding is far more restorative - not so much to punish as to redress or restore a balance that has been knocked askew.

Desmond Tutu

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Desmond Tutu
Age: 93
Born: 1931
Born: October 7
Activist
Anglican Priest
Non-Fiction Writer
Archbisphop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu
Kind
African
Retributive
Kinds
Askew
Western
Restorative
Balance
Redress
Justice
Punish
Understanding
Knocked
Different
Restore
Much
Largely

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We are living in an historic moment. We are each called to take part in a great transformation. Our survival as a species is threatened by global warming, economic meltdown, and an ever-increasing gap between rich and poor. Yet these threats offer an opportunity to awaken as an interconnected and beloved community.
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We have an extraordinary God. God is a mighty God, but this God needs you. When someone is hungry, bread doesn't come down from heaven. When God wants to feed the hungry, you and I must feed the hungry. And now God wants peace in the world.
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In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.
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Those who invest in South Africa should not think they are doing us a favor they are here for what they get out of our cheap and abundant labor, and they should know that they are buttressing one of the most vicious systems.
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Most of the leading figures of the Old Testament were polygamists. Abraham had several wives and concubines. If they wanted, they could say this was approved in the Bible.
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Theology reminded me that, however diabolical the act, it did not turn the perpetrator into a demon. We had to distinguish between the deed and the perpetrator, between the sinner and the sin, to hate and condemn the sin while being filled with compassion for the sinner.
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Too frequently we think we have to do spectacular things. Yet if we remember that the sea is actually made up of drops of water and each drop counts, each one of us can do our little bit where we are. Those little bits can come together and almost overwhelm the world. Each one of us can be an oasis of peace.
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I wish that we did have a magic wand which we could wave and hey presto! Magic! Unfortunately life is not like that.
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I'm absolutely, utterly, and completely certain that God wouldn't be homophobic. I'd much rather go to hell - I really would much rather go to hell - than go to a homophobic heaven.
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Suffering is part and parcel of the human condition, but suffering can either embitter or ennoble us. It can ennoble us and become a spirituality of transformation when we find meaning in it.
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There is no peace precisely because there has been no justice. As painful and inconvenient as justice may be, we have seen that the alternative allowing accountability to fall by the wayside is worse.
Desmond Tutu
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For both the offender and the victim, the pain is there, often unacknowledged and that is when it can cause harm through festering. When I ignore a physical wound, it does not go away. No, it festers and goes bad.
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Once you have women liberated, it's amazing how many other problems get resolved--pover ty, education, health. Women are the key in any community.
Desmond Tutu
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Brothers and sisters of Egypt, you have given the world the most precious gift: the belief that ultimately right will prevail.
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Laugh more. Don't forget to enjoy the blessings that God bestows on this beautiful planet.
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If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
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Mother Teresa, you could say many things about her, but certainly you would not say she was macho. Anything but.
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We must stop climate change. And we can, if we use the tactics that worked in South Africa against the worst carbon emitters.
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All people would really want peace and all would want to be sure that they would not be taken advantage of.
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Catharsis is about cleansing and healing at one and the same time - healing memories and attitudes, healing the spirit and the heart.
Desmond Tutu