Humor & Life Quote by Victoria Jackson

“Bind himself back” is a tidy little piece of theology smuggled into a self-help-sounding sentence, and it shows the comedian’s instinct for compression: one verb (“bind”) does the work of an entire origin story. Jackson leans on the popular etymology of religion as re-ligare, to re-link. Whether or not linguists fully buy it, the phrasing lands because it frames faith less as belief in propositions and more as repair work, like tying off a frayed rope. That’s emotionally legible even to people who don’t share the creed.

The intent is clarifying and gently corrective. It pushes back on “religion” as mere rulebook, tribal marker, or political identity. In her framing, religion is the human side of the equation: an attempt, not a guarantee. That word choice quietly preserves humility (people reach; God remains God) while also asserting that the reaching matters. It’s a definition designed to make religious practice sound relational rather than institutional, spiritual rather than bureaucratic.

The subtext is also defensive, in a culture where “I’m spiritual, not religious” has become a default posture. By rebranding religion as reconnection, Jackson tries to reclaim a maligned word without conceding the modern critique outright. Coming from a comedian, it reads like a clean, disarming line meant for a broad audience: minimal jargon, maximum moral framing. The joke isn’t on religion; the joke is on the idea that religion is only about control. Here it’s cast as longing with structure, an ache given habits.