Recall I said all conflict in life can be circumscribed into three conditions:
1. Power
2. Money
3. Sex
Here is one simple example. And I will start out with what sounds like an outrageous overstatement. I suggest to you that religion is an issue of power or control or influence. I have many friends who are religious. I will generally categorize them as Christians. Good people who try to live according to what they believe God wants them to do.
Now, my friends, I say that when it comes to religion you are like the extremist Muslim terrorists! Now the screaming denials begin. Was that a rock that just hit the back of my head? (“Kill the infidel”) Did I hear that?
A huge difference between my friends and the terrorists, of course, is the life/death thing, but the attitude about what God wants is the same. A person's religion dictates certain practices...and the person believes those are the practices God wants…Correct? You, Baptist, are not going to kill the next door neighbor who is Catholic, but you are going to say that his worshiping saints is not what God wants. Am I wrong here?
Here is my point: Until we allow all people the right to live as they choose, we are behaving as mini-terrorists, making some requirement upon them to live as we dictate. We may not kill their body, but we kill their spirit, their will, their self-worth when we undertake to steal their free agency. No matter how subtle is our "loving" effort.