I don't pretend to be a historian, but I don't believe I have ever lived through a time of greater religious intolerance than the time we live in now. Christian denominations are at odds within their own ranks over social issues that bear great theological weight. One camp believes the church has become libertine and another that it has become reactionary. One hews close to a literal understanding of the Bible and another to the expansive possibilities of interpretation. Some camps — whether conservative or liberal — believe politics and religion should not mix, and others can't imagine how religion cannot be brought to bear on matters of war and peace, economic and gender injustice, or the creeping colonialism of the last remaining superpower. Differences have always existed. What is so chilling now, however, is the entrenchment of these views and the general unwillingness to seek common ground or respect those differences.

— Erik Kolbell, Were You There?