“The Bible is a record of people struggling, with mixed results, to believe that God loves people that I find it hard to. The truth of the waterside is the voice from God to each and every one: ‘I’ve made you, look, you’re beautiful, you make me happy, now, don’t forget this when they act like animals against you, even you act like an animal because you are frightened.’ When the Church believes this it works hard to ensure that in the ark every weird and wonderful creature has to budge up a bit to make a bit more space in the hay for another one.”
–Mark Oakley, as quoted in Samuel Wells, “Where Love and Sorrow Meet,” in Liturgy on the Edge, pg. 60
