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COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
A poll found that 82% of Americans feel that it is very important for Christians to be allowed to practice freely, while only 61% reported that Muslims deserved religious freedom.
TOLERANCE
Perhaps it was reticence or a lack of confidence in my young self that John seized upon, but his reaction was instant. He jumped on my offer with the fervor of an offended politician.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
The very bottom of the money-making barrel, in my mind, would be selling drugs or people. I don’t know whether Ortega has done the former, but he has definitely had a big hand in the latter.
SCIENTOLOGY RELIGION
I never heard about Scientology when I was in high school. Most likely because news didn’t travel so fast back when I was a teenager. I didn’t have a cell phone or a personal computer with which I could freely jump onto the communication lines of the world and pull information from whatever sources were out there. I was more of an outdoorsy kind of guy and didn’t watch a whole lot of TV, but I definitely listened to the radio.
TOLERANCE
What hatred and intolerance look like: The charred remains of 4-year old Melissa Morrison, recovered from the ashes of the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas, after the inferno of April 19, 1993 ended the FBI’s 51-day siege.
TOLERANCE
If you complain long and loud to a Scientologist about your spouse, your boss, your church or your kids, the Scientologist may ask you an interesting question: “Have you done something they almost found out about?”
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
Turns out they were attending a meeting of Baptist pastors at the hotel. Once we straightened out our respective denominational preferences, we quickly realized we had something in common. Both of us had observed that religion in general—whether Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Scientology or other—was under attack by secular forces.
TOLERANCE
I’ve driven urban professionals, reformed criminals, burlesque dancers, angel investors, families with groceries, people with baggage. Some are in a hurry to get the hell out of wherever I picked them up from.
TOLERANCE
Laugh if you want, but he seriously felt like a friend. He came in the door singing. He changed his sweater and his shoes. He fed the fish. He dog-sat for a neighbor, got mail delivered, and showed me all around his neighborhood. He invited me to join him, via his trolley, in a land of make-believe.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
It was one of those moments in which every single second seems to last a painful eternity.
