Consider. . .

This is a brief excerpt (very lightly edited) from an article by a priest of my acquaintance (not my parish priest), which captures, in a kinder way than I might be inclined to, a lot of my thinking. . .

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"I worry that we become so wrapped up in our opinions and ideas that we tie them to our identity.  So, any time someone disagrees with us, we get wildly angry because we've lost track of the fact that they are disagreeing with us, not attacking our value or worth.

"I also worry that we allow ourselves to be very useful tools for political parties.  Politicians spend a lot of time and money fighting each other and trying to get us to fight for them.  They convince us that 'those people' are the enemy.  I have friends with whom I completely disagree on politics, but I know that they love our country and want it to be a better place; we simply disagree on how it should be accomplished.  I urge us all to consider whether we allow people who don't care about us to convince us to hate those who do."

                         - Father Joe Krupp