Those that have had children know how different they can be- usually are.

It's not just their behavior, attitudes, and habits, but even how they look- their physical features. And yet they belong to the same nuclear family. We can easily accept those differences; so, why is it that we who are ALL children of god have so much difficulty accepting one another?

Since  I am coming  from a Christian community, let me pose the question from this side of the isle.

Can mainline Christianity come to the place where it can drop its exclusive claims to salvation (through Jesus) and join the spiritual community on the planet as fellow sojourners without all the claims that denigrate those of different opinions. We all have the same father and we are all born of the Spirit (as well as water).

So, what would the world look like IF we acted as if we were our brother's keepers?

How about if we just treated people as if we wanted to enjoy their presence, hear how they see and interpret life, and learn something that we don't already know-regardless of the topic. When's the last time you listened to someone with radically different religious, or maybe even political beliefs and looked into their eyes and not their head?

When's the last time you heard a person's heart beat, and that was enough?

If we're going to see anything like the Kingdom of God that Jesus so often spoke, we're going to have to learn to accept what and who a person is regardless of what they believe because in the end it's about LOVING people- not trying to convince them that we are right and that they are wrong.