Greg Boyle Quotes

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Greg Boyle

Profession : Clergyman

Birth : May 19, 1954

I'm the priest who has been mistaken for an ATM machine.

Greg Boyle

People have started to see that 'smart on crime' rather than 'tough on crime' makes sense.

Greg Boyle

Young people can change and grow. Every parent knows that.

Greg Boyle

Homeboy Bakery is an alternative to kids who have found themselves, regrettably, in gangs and want to redirect their lives.

Greg Boyle

The Church should say, 'I'm frightened that women will be ordained;' that's honest, say that. But don't say, 'It's a grave sin,' because that's nonsense.

Greg Boyle

I'm not opposed to success.

Greg Boyle

We need the disruption of categories that lead us to abandon the difficult, the disagreeable, and the least likely to go very far.

Greg Boyle

All politics are local, and so in church.

Greg Boyle

At its best, an injunction creates a kind of vigilant heat that moves kids toward the light.

Greg Boyle

The arms of God reach to embrace, and somehow you feel yourself just outside God's fingertips.

Greg Boyle

God seems to be an unwilling participant in our efforts to pigeonhole Him.

Greg Boyle

Businesses have come and gone at Homeboy Industries. We have had starts and stops, but anything worth doing is worth failing at. We started Homeboy Plumbing. That didn't go so well. Who knew? People didn't want gang members in their homes. I just didn't see that coming.

Greg Boyle

The poor evangelize you about what's important and what is the Gospel, and that that's where the joy is.

Greg Boyle

Ours is a God who waits. So who are we not to?

Greg Boyle

I know two L.A.s. Half my life was around the house my folks had for 46 years at 3rd and Norton. The other half was in Boyle Heights on the Eastside, working with gang members.

Greg Boyle

I work with gang members, and I feel a kind of affinity and gift, even. But who would've thunk it, you know? I mean, I didn't anticipate it.

Greg Boyle

You don't really get Jesus saying very often there'll be pie in the sky when you die. He's really talking about now and today, and it's supposed to be like that. You're supposed to delight in what's right in front of you.

Greg Boyle

I think that any program that's born from below rather than on high is going to survive.

Greg Boyle

Most employers just aren't willing to look beyond the dumbest or worst thing someone has done.

Greg Boyle

We lose our right to be surprised that California has the highest recidivism rate in the country if we refuse to hire folks who have taken responsibility for their crimes and have done their time.

Greg Boyle