Principles are what people have instead of God.
To be a Christian means among other things to be willing, if necessary, to sacrifice even your highest principles for God's or your neighbor's sake the way a Christian pacifist must be willing to pick up a baseball bat if there's no other way to stop a man from savagely beating a child.
Jesus didn't forgive his executioners on principle, but because in some unimaginable way he was able to love them.
Principle is an even duller word than religion.
~originally published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words
