---
title: "2 Critique Quotes By Ross Douthat"
description: "2 Critique quotes by Ross Douthat. Plus more from Ross Douthat and more Critique sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/518/ross-douthat-2949_america_independent-of-the-critique-i-m-making-i_369032.jpg"
---

> [Independent of the critique I'm making, I'm just trying to paint a more comprehensive portrait of American religion than you get from a right versus left, religious conservatives versus secular liberal, believer versus atheist, binary. Too often, we just look…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/independent-of-the-critique-i-m-making-i-m-just-trying-to-paint-a/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/518/ross-douthat-2949_america_independent-of-the-critique-i-m-making-i_369032.jpg)

> [Institutional Christianity has had clear secular benefits to American life for hundreds of years. It's played both a prophetic role in terms of generating moral critiques of American excesses, and so on, and also a communal role, in terms of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/institutional-christianity-has-had-clear-secular-benefits-to-american/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/979/ross-douthat-2949_american-life_institutional-christianity-has-had-clear_871089.png)

## Other authors on Critique

- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b005/author-bell-hooks-16868.jpg) bell hooks 10 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/bell-hooks/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b018/author-noam-chomsky-71799.jpg) Noam Chomsky 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/noam-chomsky/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b011/author-henry-giroux-41521.jpg) Henry Giroux 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/henry-giroux/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b007/author-cornel-west-25169.jpg) Cornel West 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/cornel-west/)

## More by Ross Douthat

> [Human beings seek community, and permanent openness is hard to sustain.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/human-beings-seek-community-and-permanent-openness-is-hard-to-sustain/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [The American intelligentsia has been pretty secular for a long time. There have always been figures like Oprah Winfrey, let's put it that way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/the-american-intelligentsia-has-been-pretty-secular-for-a-long-time/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [On the evidence we have, the meritocratic ideal ends up being just as undemocratic as the old emphasis on inheritance and tradition, and it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/on-the-evidence-we-have-the-meritocratic-ideal-ends-up-being-just-as/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [“The physical vanity of the diet-and-exercise obsessive is recast as the pursuit of a kind of ritual purity, hedged about with taboos and guilt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/the-physical-vanity-of-the-diet-and-exercise-obsessive-is-recast-as/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [There were times at Harvard when I actually longed to hang out with a few more Trotskyists, rather than yet another set of future…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/there-were-times-at-harvard-when-i-actually-longed-to-hang-out-with-a/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [Many things about American life, that even secular people consider good, have flowed from the presence of a robust, resilient institutional Christianity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/many-things-about-american-life-that-even-secular-people-consider/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [“What he felt during his Spanish encounter with left-wing anti-Christianity was similar to his reactions to the anti-Christianity of the right. The "novelty and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/what-he-felt-during-his-spanish-encounter-with-left-wing-anti/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [“In an age of stagnant or declining birthrates, too, these communities’ willingness to heed the admonition to be fruitful and multiply has led to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/in-an-age-of-stagnant-or-declining-birthrates-too-these-communities/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [America's problem isn't too much religion or too little of it. It's bad religion: the slow-motion collapse of traditional Christianity and the rise of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/america-s-problem-isn-t-too-much-religion-or-too-little-of-it-it-s/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [I do think you can see, throughout American history, this temptation, and it's both a liberal and a conservative temptation, to take a healthy…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/i-do-think-you-can-see-throughout-american-history-this-temptation/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [Where conservative Catholics have the power to resist what seem like false ideas or disastrous innovations they must do so.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/where-conservative-catholics-have-the-power-to-resist-what-seem-like/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [It is not white nationalism to believe that countries like the United States would be better off with more babies. That belief can be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/it-is-not-white-nationalism-to-believe-that-countries-like-the-united/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [Most people want the convenience of the Internet far more than they want the private spaces that older forms of communication protected.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/most-people-want-the-convenience-of-the-internet-far-more-than-they/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [If you live under a system that claims to have high ideals but seems ineradicably opposed to your own people's flourishing, the desire for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/if-you-live-under-a-system-that-claims-to-have-high-ideals-but-seems/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

> [Our crisis of the house divided was a Christian civil war.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/our-crisis-of-the-house-divided-was-a-christian-civil-war/)

[Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/ross-douthat/#itemlist",
            "name": "2 Critique Quotes By Ross Douthat",
            "numberOfItems": 2,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Independent of the critique I'm making, I'm just trying to paint a more comprehensive portrait of American religion than you get from a right versus left, religious conservatives versus secular liberal, believer versus atheist, binary. Too often, we just look at religion in America through that kind of either/or lens. I think it's much more complicated than that.",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Ross Douthat"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/independent-of-the-critique-i-m-making-i-m-just-trying-to-paint-a/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/518/ross-douthat-2949_america_independent-of-the-critique-i-m-making-i_369032.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/518/ross-douthat-2949_america_independent-of-the-critique-i-m-making-i_369032.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/518/ross-douthat-2949_america_independent-of-the-critique-i-m-making-i_369032.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Independent of the critique I'm making, I'm just trying to paint a more comprehensive portrait of American…” — Ross Douthat",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "Institutional Christianity has had clear secular benefits to American life for hundreds of years. It's played both a prophetic role in terms of generating moral critiques of American excesses, and so on, and also a communal role, in terms of building community as the country moved westward to the role my own Catholic Church played in assimilating generations of immigrants.",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Ross Douthat"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/institutional-christianity-has-had-clear-secular-benefits-to-american/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/979/ross-douthat-2949_american-life_institutional-christianity-has-had-clear_871089.png",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/979/ross-douthat-2949_american-life_institutional-christianity-has-had-clear_871089.png",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/979/ross-douthat-2949_american-life_institutional-christianity-has-had-clear_871089.png",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Institutional Christianity has had clear secular benefits to American life for hundreds of years. It's…” — Ross Douthat",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/ross-douthat/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/ross-douthat/",
            "name": "Critique Quotes by Ross Douthat",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/ross-douthat/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/518/ross-douthat-2949_america_independent-of-the-critique-i-m-making-i_369032.jpg"
            },
            "description": "2 Critique quotes by Ross Douthat. Plus more from Ross Douthat and more Critique sayings from other authors.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/ross-douthat/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/ross-douthat/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Critique",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "name": "Ross Douthat",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/critique/ross-douthat/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
