I have the greatest admiration for two friends of ours. Robert and Debby are both from medium size Midwestern towns where they lived most of their lives and raised five daughters. Both were raised in the Catholic faith; Robert attended parochial school and Debby went to public schools. Debby has a great aunt who was a nun. Their religion is important to them and all their daughters attended Catholic schools. Although their daughters are adults now, the family remains very close. Robert and Debby visit the girls frequently and they are always available to help out in emergencies, such as the premature birth of twins to one of their daughters.
Debby and Robert 's daughters ' have chosen different paths in their personal lives. All of them are working at professional jobs and two are married and raising children. A third daughter, who has two children, was married to an Indian/American man who followed the Hindu faith. However, that marriage failed and she is presently living with a partner. The fourth daughter is gay and a year ago, the entire family traveled to her home to celebrate her marriage to her long-time
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But still, I am hopeful, at least for the United States of America. Donald Trump is losing and more and more influential people are speaking against him. Perhaps, in our country and in parts of Europe, we have learned from history that to do nothing is to allow the worst to happen. And today there is even more to celebrate and that is the amazing and wonderful ethnic and religious mixtures of our families.
In their book, American Grace - How Religion Divides and Unites Us, Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell write: "As Americans have come to live by, make friends with, and wed people of other religions, their overlapping social relationships have made it difficult to sustain interreligious hostility. While not every religion escapes hostility, interreligious tensions are far more muted today than in the America of yesterday or in many other