Faith & Spirit Quote by Jack Kevorkian

Kevorkian’s genius here is strategic vagueness: a soft-edged sentence built to carry a hard-edged life. By saying his religion "centers in different areas", he keeps the protected word - religion - while quietly refusing the gatekeeping that usually comes with it. The line isn’t an argument about doctrine; it’s a claim to moral jurisdiction. In a culture where religious language often functions as a credential, he’s insisting he has one too, even if the issuing authority is his own conscience.

The subtext is defensive and aggressive at once. Defensive, because Kevorkian knew he’d be painted as godless, mechanistic, a grim technician of death. Aggressive, because he flips the accusation: maybe conventional religion is the one missing the point. "Centers" is doing the work. It suggests an ethical core, a gravity that organizes his choices, not a list of beliefs to recite. He’s asking to be judged by where his compassion is aimed rather than by which pew he sits in.

Context makes the line sting. As a physician-activist who became the public face of assisted suicide, Kevorkian operated in America’s most combustible zone: medicine, law, and faith all fighting over who owns suffering. This sentence is a bridge for the persuadable - an attempt to translate radical autonomy into a language the mainstream can’t easily dismiss. It’s also a provocation: if mercy is holy, who gets to decide what mercy requires?