Quotes about Influence

Sex-centered magazines litter our newsstands … each edition trying to escape new laws from the bottom of the sewers. We put lids on sewer holes. Ought we not to do something about the pornography which is spewing out a polluted river of filth which can destroy us faster than any chemical pollution we seem so worried about?7

Some may contend that the way for the Church to make the world a better place is to become like it. But whenever the Church does this, it ends up compromising its spiritual authority and losing its influence. Instead of changing the world, the world changes it.

Researchers have found that peer pressure exerted within a clique has caused every one of its members to experiment with drugs, to engage in murderous gang fights, to steal autos, and to violate the seventh commandment.

Our magazine shelves are filled with crime and sex pulp-magazines that are being read and devoured by millions of young people... Scores are seeing each week the trash that Hollywood produces. Truly our children are "movie mad".

Among young people... drinking is for getting drunk. And many go on to become alcoholics.

Marriage is not a reform school... Instead of you reforming [your spouse], [he or she] will instead influence you.

Thousands are killed and injured every year by teenagers driving too fast or under the influence of drugs and drink... others are killing [themselves] with alcohol or heroin overdoses.

I am becoming aware of the truth that people change people as much as ideas change people. The power of personality is strong... often personality is greater than the idea.

We act as if it doesn't matter how we live or what we think or say. We have moved in with the world, and we have allowed the world to penetrate the way we live. So the things that we used to call sin no longer seem to be sin to us.

As for the world system of evil, we are to be separated from it. This then is our problem: to associate with and love those who are involved in the world without being contaminated, influenced, or swayed by them. This distinction can be achieved only by a close walk with Christ, by constant prayer, and by seeking the Holy Spirit's leadership every hour of the day. We are in the world, but the world is not to be in us.

The lukewarm Christian can accomplish nothing with a whole life in which to do it. If you have lived for sin and self... your witness will have [a] telling effect on all who have known you.

The church in America has been deeply infiltrated by the "world," and in the process it is beginning to copy and resemble the world in many of its activities.