The truth is we are very, very different. Our biggest problem, though, isn’t our differences. Our biggest problem is that we build identity — whatever our religion — we build identity by enforcing hostility toward the other. In other words, I learn who I am by learning who I’m against. I learn who I am by learning who’s against me.
And so when your identity is oppositional — when identity is based in your fear of the other, then it doesn’t matter whether you put a label of Christian, Muslim, Buddhist on that, you have an inherently hostile identity.
My question is, can we find a way of holding Christian identity that sends us toward the other with love and hospitality rather than with fear and hostility?
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