Leaping Religious Rifts in a Single Bound

I spent the weekend with a number of longtime men friends. And amid the hiking and cooking and guitar jams we had some deep and sometimes heated discussions. One of the questions that came up was “Is it possible for me to commune on a deeply spiritual level with someone who believes God wants me to burn in hell for eternity because I haven’t accepted Jesus as my personal savior?”
I expressed doubts about the prospect. First of all, anyone who accepts whole cloth a doctrine that Jesus himself never put forth in the first place, is not likely to be a critical thinker, is not a contemplative whose thoughts would have a lot of value to someone who is delving sincerely into the deeper nature of spirit. If you won’t even question doctrines that seem preposterous at the outset like “It’s God’s will to hurl billions of new souls every year into the cauldrons of never-ending agony because they happen to have been born in non-Christian cultures.” then I’d be an idiot to inquire about the deeper nature of spirit through a discussion with you.
One of my friends said this sentiment revealed a prejudice toward Christians. I had to wonder. If I’d have said that it would be fruitless to have a discussion about the deeper nature of spirit with a person who believes that it’s God’s will to torch all Jews, would he say I’m prejudice against Nazis? I don’t think so. Just because you slap the label Christian on your forehead doesn’t mean anyone who detects a defect in your thinking is a bigot. Is a Muslim a bigot to question the thinking of Islamic extremists for blowing up innocent people deemed “infidels”? Just because a fire-and-brimstone Christian’s parallel rational is not as overtly violent, doesn’t mean he’s not unclear on the concept of what constitutes a loving God. Call me a prejudice rat bastard but I’ll be seeking counsel on such issues as compassion and unconditional love elsewhere.
Still, upon further reflection I amended my opinion on a number of levels. “Is it possible for me to commune on a deeply spiritual level with someone who believes God wants me to burn in hell for eternity because I haven’t accepted Jesus as my personal savior?”Yes.
One doesn’t have to be blocked from an insight into another’s or one’s own Buddha nature by the half-baked ideas that come out of a person’s mouth, We are not our thoughts and beliefs The deeper nature of spirit may be revealed through our generosity, grace, capacity to love (despite the restrictions put on that practice by our dogmas.) Our natural radiance, the music we make, the light in our eyes when we are excited, the tender ministrations we give to a pet are the true revelations of essential spirit regardless of any mean-spiritedness that may have been drummed into our heads. We are all emissaries of the light despite our “selves.” We just have to remember that we can share in deep spiritual inquiry better with some people by talking to them about the weather than by talking to them about God.