Often not making it to the front page are the hints of light in the gloom—solitary flashes of good news that pry open the door to a more hopeful future.
If we keep enforcing the “my religion is better than yours” game—if we keep squashing the religious freedom of another by insisting on the exclusivity of our own—we’re not going to make it.
The Jews, then, were set apart in the ancient world, a factor that worked both for them—preserving a unique and imperishable identity—and against them, making them stand out as “different,” and hence a people to be watched closely and suspiciously.