It just seems helpful to admit that Christianity is as complicated and conflicted as any other religion, with groups of followers who can believe in the unity of their faith even as they refuse Communion to one another.

I am not sure whether the virtue of holy envy requires holy humility or creates it, but the two are clearly related. After you have allowed the other to define herself, listening carefully to all the ways in which she is not you, it is hard to overlook the fact that you and she are made of the same basic material. You are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Here is a law as reliable as gravity: The degree to which we believe our faith is makes us human is the same degree with which we will question the humanity of those who do not share our faith.

If someone walks by or speaks to you, you may find that your power of attentiveness extends to this person as well. Even if you do not know him, you may be able to see his soul too, the one he thinks he has so carefully covered up. There is something he is working on in his life, the same way you are working on something. Can you see it in his face? You are related, even if you do not know each other's names.

Reverence for creation comes easily to most people. Reverence for other people presents more of a challenge, especially if those people's lives happen to impinge upon your own.

The problem was that I could not teach other people's religions without loving them as I loved my own, or at least giving it my best shot.

We are certainly damaged people. The question is, finally, do we use that damage, that first-hand knowledge of oppression, to recognize each other, to do what work we can together? Or do we use it to destroy?

To me you cannot be fully human, fully civilised, unless you recognise humanity in everyone.

He was no longer an individual, functioning solely to satisfy his personal needs. Something now bound him to every other man and woman in this hangar. All

Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples - while judging ourselves by our best intentions. And this has strained our bonds of understanding and common purpose. But Americans, I think, have a great advantage. To renew our unity, we only need to remember our values. We have never been held together by blood or background. We are bound by things of the spirit — by shared commitments to common ideals.

Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone.

Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another though he were your enemy.