Different Strokes For Different Folks, As The Saying Goes

If you live in an open society, as we do, where its citizens are free to think what they choose about all of the weighty subjects and question that come up or are posed in various religious texts, churches, and traditions, then we should welcome newcomers of demonstrably different faiths and traditions because that is a feature of the American way of life.  I know that this open generosity of spirit seems trying in small towns where the varieties of faith and thought are few and far between.  But it should be a goal in any community.  It is easier for me to say this because I spent my life as teacher where discussion groups are the foundation of the classroom and for all kinds of reasons one hears the wackiest ideas put forth that deserve attention and discussion.  So we must always welcome it. But at the same time reject persons who grow angry when confronted with objections or alternatives to what they have to say.  I will always treasure Pope Francis responding to a question on homosexuals with"Who am I to judge?"  I am sure his handlers blanched, and if you look on the internet there are all kinds of explanations ("it was the devil speaking through him"), although what came to my mind immediately was Jesus saying "Judge not that ye be not judged," something I have always tried to live by, and very often failed miserably, as I have been judged and reviled again and again since my youth.  Those who believe inflexibly in the utter inerrancy of their religious texts need to develop the psychologically healing power of faith to counteract the inevitable arguments against the truths they hold.  I do not welcome into my community persons who cannot accept living among others holding alternative views   I will always be suspicious of aggressively religious persons, but at the same time, struggle to offer them love and trust and ask for that in return.  The current tensions over receiving religious Muslim refugees in our midst makes me think of the Book of Acts where Peter and Paul are described as being like young Mormons out on the road doing their preaching of the new truth, and the villagers rejecting them and saying "shut up," and often driving them out of town.  T'was ever thus.