Having Faith In The Power Of Love
Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.
For most of us, our religion - like our politics - is inherited. We generally grow up to be what our parents were.
My mother was a Baptist, so we went to the Baptist church ... that is until she got mad at the preacher - and then we became Presbyterians.
I remember adults arguing over the details, but it didn't seem all that different to me, or to one of my grandmothers who approved of neither denomination.
Had my mother been of a different faith, I am sure I would have been raised to be whatever she was - Christian, Jewish, perhaps Muslim. Reason enough for those of us of one faith to have respect for those of other faiths.
I thought about that when I saw the picture of President Obama and his Christian family holding a Passover Seder with their Jewish friends at the White House, but I thought of something else as well.
What a fine way to help his children understand that whatever our faith, all religions share the same great truths.
Yet, so often we forget. Families have been torn apart, wars have been fought, millions have died in the arguments over religion's details.
It's been said in another context that the devil is in the details, but in no case is it truer than in the case of religion - nor in any case more regretful.
We can take comfort in this season in the greatest of all truths that religions share, that love is more powerful than hate. But may we also remember as well: only if we allow it to be.