Des Moines Register guest columnist Mike Wellman has a point so simple it’s easy to overlook when he speaks of the power of religion to create infectious, internecine conflict.
My background is in the Anglican tradition… But my church attendance has lapsed. Before Easter Sunday, I hadn’t been since Ash Wednesday, when I sampled the Lutheran approach.
I’ve gotten weary of ducking under the cross-fire of thrown stones and the off-putting mix of faith and politics. Some of that is unavoidable. Much of it is not. Congress isn’t the only institution where people have stopped reaching across the aisle.
Even so,
[I]t’s possible to admire on a spiritual level someone with whom you disagree about dogma… [F]idelity to a value system cannot be compulsory any more than you can require people’s happiness.