I hate the holiday season because all of the holier than thou/ I know better than anyone else/ my religion is better than yours/ people are on full display.
Sadly, I have found that people do the most un-God like things in the name of God. Not just the Islamocultists, but Christians and Jews as well, in many other less obvious ways.
Also, I find that religion more often than not tends to separate people rather than bring them together.
Some of things I have heard said about Jewish people by "Chruch going people" would make even the most violent skinhead blush. I have also heard some things from some of my Jewish friends that make me just want to hit someone. I am Catholic but have many many Jewish friends.
I am not an atheist by any stretch, but believe G-D could never ever intended or hopes mankind would act is does in his name.
Good Catholics are never atheists
No kidding. Here's what the un-PC Christ actually has to say about this:
Matthew 10:34-35 : "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword."
"For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And man's foes will be those of his own household."
All the other "limitations" of Christianity that you point out may actually be the limitations of people who call themselves Christians but really aren't.
No true Christian would ever say anything offensive about Jewish people, but Christians are decidedly different than people who are "Church going". Going to Church is a cultural distinction. Being a Christian is a spiritual distinction. I hope you'll take the time to really understand the difference and actually hear the Message for what it is, not for what some "Church going" idiots tell you it is.
Unless you plan on being the next Stalin, you cannot control what other people do or don't do in the name of God. You can only control what YOU do.
Religion WILL seperate people, but only when the focus of the religion is different. The vast majority of Christians get along just fine except when the focus of the church wanders into political correctness rather than the Word.
Don't you hate it when people make sweeping generalizations and judgements?
"I am not an atheist by any stretch, but believe G-D could never ever intended or hopes mankind would act is does in his name."
I like the way you think- up to this point ...
In other words, "Huh?"
You ask some good questions. I wish I had the answers. But, you know what - nobody does. We all act like we have it figured out, and our particular brand of religion is the right one (or mostly right). I'm willing to promise you that when we pass over and meet our Maker, we will find out that much, if not most, of what we accepted as dogma simply isn't true, or is so simplistic that is does not begin to describe what is. God makes it very clear in the Bible that we do not have the ability to understand God and the universe, beyond the little that we (think) we know.
So, what's important? I think a shared set of beliefs is very important to us, because that's the way we are made. Shared because that has many benefits, too many to state here.
Me - I just try to keep it simple. God is, the Bible is God's word to us, Jesus is the Messiah, and the Ten Commandments rule. Most of the rest is open for debate, in my opinion.