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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.

Desmond Tutu

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Desmond Tutu
Age: 92
Born: 1931
Born: October 7
Activist
Anglican Priest
Non-Fiction Writer
Archbisphop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu
Turn
Sinner
Turns
Demon
Perpetrator
Hate
Theology
Perpetrators
Deeds
Diabolical
Filled
Condemn
Sin
Distinguish
However
Reminded
Compassion
Deed

More quotes by Desmond Tutu

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It is for real that injustice and oppression will not have the last word. There was a time when Hitler looked like he was going to vanquish all of Europe, and where is he now?
Desmond Tutu
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We are going to have to be very careful that we give people the hope that freedom is actually better than unfreedom.
Desmond Tutu
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I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven.
Desmond Tutu
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When a chap is in love, he will go out in all kinds of weather to keep an appointment with his beloved. Love can be demanding, in fact more demanding than law. It has its own imperatives - think of a mother sitting by the bedside of a sick child through the night, impelled only by love. Nothing is too much trouble for love.
Desmond Tutu
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Restorative justice says No, the offense affected a relationship and what you are seeking for is to restore the relationship, to heal the relationship.
Desmond Tutu
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Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity - or because of their sexual orientation.
Desmond Tutu
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Forgiveness does not mean condoning what has been done. It means taking what happened seriously...drawing out the sting in the memory that threatens our entire existence.
Desmond Tutu
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Ubuntu tells us that we can create a more peaceful world by striving for goodness in each moment, wherever we are.
Desmond Tutu
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Some people are able to use Bible as a means of opposing injustice, whereas others are able to find justification.
Desmond Tutu
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Now that they talk about Islam as being a violent faith, when you look at the history of Christendom, the Crusades and the many wars of religion that were fought, the cruelty of Christians in burning what they believed to be witches and burning heretics, and then very recently they were responsible for the Holocaust... it was Christians.
Desmond Tutu
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In God's family, there are no outsiders, no enemies.
Desmond Tutu
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Catharsis returns us to the purpose for which were originally intended - to be called by God to do good - and thus ultimately returns us to ourselves.
Desmond Tutu
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My message to the international community is that our silence and complicity especially on the situation in Gaza shames us all. It is almost like the behaviour of the military junta in Burma
Desmond Tutu
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Of course, you've got to reckon with the burden of the past. You can't just easily dismiss it. It is a legacy and often you have to carry an albatross. And it won't happen until people are able to have a certain level of trust and try to speak to each other, not as caricatures but as people.
Desmond Tutu
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One of the things we might want to learn when considering the failings of others is not to gloat because someone else has tripped up.
Desmond Tutu
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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.
Desmond Tutu
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Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.
Desmond Tutu
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It's a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela.
Desmond Tutu
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Don't raise your voice, improve your argument. [Address at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 November 2004]
Desmond Tutu
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You don't have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you.
Desmond Tutu