Faith & Spirit Quote by Peter Marshall

Resentment, in Peter Marshall's framing, isn't just a private ache; it's an act of spiritual sabotage. The line works because it turns a familiar moral exhortation into infrastructure: your inner life contains a bridge, and every grudge is a demolition charge. That metaphor is doing heavy lifting. It shifts the problem from "be nicer" to "don't cut off your own supply line". Forgiveness becomes less an altruistic gift to the offender than a hard-nosed protection of access to grace.

Marshall, a prominent mid-century Presbyterian minister and U.S. Senate chaplain, preached in a culture steeped in Protestant practicality: faith as something lived, not merely professed. The postwar moment made that practicality urgent. Americans were grappling with grief, dislocation, and ideological enemies abroad; resentment had plenty of fuel. In that context, the quote reads like pastoral triage. He's warning that the habit of nursing injury can become a spiritual identity, and identities are sticky.

The subtext is also quietly theological: God is assumed to be willing to come close, but the human heart can refuse the encounter without ever saying "no" out loud. Resentment becomes a way to stay in control - moral superiority as a substitute for vulnerability. By insisting the bridge is "destroyed", Marshall denies the comforting fantasy that we can cling to bitterness and still enjoy the consolations of faith. It's a clean, severe sentence designed to make self-righteousness feel expensive.