Swift Observation

" 'We have just enough religion to make us hate on another,' Jonathan Swift once observed, 'but not enough to make us love one another.' Because we are human, which is to say essentially self-interested, we are always looking for ways to add a little more authority to our causes, to come up with better reasons to fight for what we want than 'Because I want it, that's why.' If we can convince ourselves that God wants it too--even if that means making God in our own image so we can deny that image of God in our enemies--than we are free to engage in combative piety. We are free to harm others not for our own reasons but in the name of God, which allows us to feel holy about doing it instead of just plain bad."

Barbara Brown-Taylor
An Altar in the World, pg 99