Atheism Quote by H. L. Mencken

The clergy profession is fundamentally self-defeating. Its stated purpose is to nurture spiritual maturity in the church - a valuable goal. In actuality, however;…

— Christian Smith

Clergymen almost necessarily fail in two ways as teachers of morals. They condemn acts which do no harm and they condone acts which do…

— Bertrand Russell

“The typical clergy/laity system practiced among most churches is detrimental to believers. In this system only a professional class of people teaches and preaches,…

— Henry Hon

Clergymen tend to be unreliable and pompous figures. Seldom Jewish rabbis, less often Catholic priests, but Protestant ministers tend to be... not really very…

— Charlton Heston

I do deeply deplore, of the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion or by…

— Anonymous

The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.

— Pope Francis

If people don't know their pastor, it's easy to put the pastor on a pedestal and depersonalize him or her. It's also easy for…

— Eugene H. Peterson

The problem is that, regardless of what our theologies tell us about the purpose of the clergy, the actual effect of the clergy profession…

— Christian Smith

The clergy earns its living from religion. If your interests are secured through religion, then you will defend your interests first, and religion will…

— Abdolkarim Soroush

The seminaries must face the fact that they are not turning out well-trained professional clergy. They must realize that preaching is creative work and…

— Andrew Greeley

“Many pastors have been reduced to secular "mentors" and "coaches" in exchange for authentic disciplers of men.”

— John Paul Warren

Clergy are men as well as other folks.

— Henry Fielding