Since the Pilgrims came to our shores in 1620, religious freedom and religious tolerance have been the single most important principle of American life.

That is what religious liberty was and is. The government essentially said, Yes, be religious. We will not only tolerate it; we will respect it and we will encourage it. But we cannot take sides or put our thumbs on the scales. But the understanding of this has been lost to many in modern America.

That country where they wouldn't be told what to think or how to live or even whether or how to worship.

They understood that freedom was not merely the freedom to be left alone; it was the freedom to do what was right.

The Americans speak so much about freedom in their sermons. Freedom as a possession is a doubtful thing for a church; freedom must be won under the compulsion of a necessity. Freedom for the church comes from the necessity of the Word of God. Otherwise it becomes arbitrariness and ends in a great many new ties.

It is a question of the freedom of God, which finds its strongest evidence precisely in that God freely chose to be bound to historical human beings and to be placed at the disposal of human beings. God is free not from human beings but for them. Christ is the word of God's freedom.

Describing Bonhoeffer's demeanor on returning to danger in Germany rather than safety in America, with "with a strong and joyful firmness such as only arises out of realized freedom.

Eventually, each individual will not only own their data, but it will be secured in a personal cloud or system, with the owner granting rights for others to access. Now that's a flip.

Obedience is detachment from the self. This is the most radical detachment of all. But what is the self? The self is the principle of reason and responsibility in us. It is the root of freedom, it is what makes us men.

I'm an independent conservative. And what I mean by that - when I think we're right, I'm with us all the way, and I am a conservative. And I think my record reflects that.

I do have a political agenda. It's to have as few regulations as possible.

Restricting the religious impulses of Americans is precisely like killing free enterprise with too many regulations.