We'd prefer our religion in animated sitcoms or in saccharine sentimentality. W e smile and nod approvingly when Art Buchwald or Andy Rooney tells us he's tired of hearing all this talk about God in the presidential campaigns. But we're really supporting the wish to have serious and in-depth discussion of our philosophical and theological differences put out of the public arena. More often than not, those guilty of this disdain are journalists. Perhaps if we better understood the interactions of politics and religion we wouldn't harbor such erroneous and misplaced hostilities to each other's beliefs and practices.
True bigotry begins with a refusal to listen or an attempt to keep differences from being aired.
Allan R. Andrews is an editor in Washington, D.C., and a freelance writer. The American Reporter. All Rights Reserved.