The first obligation of religion is to maintain the sense of the value of human beings. If you had to summarize the Old Testament, the summary would be: stop doing this to yourselves. But it is not in our nature to stop harming ourselves. We don’t behave consistently with our own dignity or with the dignity of other people. The Bible reiterates this endlessly.
(Pulitzer winner, Marilynne Robinson)
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5863/the-art-of-fiction-no-198-marilynne-robinson