America’s religious divide: Can the peace be with us?

America has been characterized as a nation that tolerates many faiths and somehow keeps diversity from dividing her people.

Exactly how true that is may depend on the person you ask.

When Akron area people representing a variety of religious persuasions sat in focus groups recently to discuss their beliefs, tolerance became hard work.

Differences in core values surfaced immediately.

Are there common beliefs among all people?

“God is supreme.”

“Church and family.”

“Love.”

One person was shaking her head “no” to some of those answers.

Is there truth?

One person said no, another said: “There has to be a truth, there has to be a moral reference point. …”

Is this a Christian nation?

“Absolutely it’s a Christian nation,” was one quick response.

But another disagreed strongly: “It’s not a Christian nation, it’s not founded on the Bible, it’s founded on our two documents.”

As debate bounced from one side of the table to the other, one woman sat at the end, moving her head as if watching a tennis match — back and forth. Sometimes she smiled, sometimes she grimaced.

When the idea was broached that America perhaps is good because it is Christian, she broke her silence.

“When I hear that, it frightens me and hurts me because not so much that I’m Jewish, which I am, but I feel excluded by that.”
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