“WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!” The question was bellowed at me in condemnation of my failure to swerve my motion-challenged shopping cart out of the way fast enough to allow passage for the strident, trim, one-third-my-age Whole Foods shopper intent on beating all competition to the Christmas Brewers...
Would you honor these unbelievers for being religious in an otherwise materialistic world and respect their sincerely held beliefs? Or would you try to convince them to change their ways and accept the “right beliefs” out of concern for them and their ultimate fate?
Like setting your neighbor’s apartment on fire, it worked; but as historian Dan Carlin points out in his Blueprint for Armageddon VI, burning your neighbor’s apartment can set yours on fire too.
We are supposed to be living in an enlightened age, but instead we seem to be devolving into a society of bullies who, ironically, pride themselves on being “tolerant”— but only of what they deem fit to tolerate.
Perhaps I could tell her that the movie characters she admires—those who stand up for their beliefs, who overcome obstacles to find their own true way—are just imagination.
I believe that the Masterpiece opinion will make such bodies more aware of the need to produce decisions, however they rule, that are respectful to the rights of both sides and provide at least some hope for reconciliation.