You touched on a lot of areas there

Not sure I can address them all ....

I'm not looking for personal answers, Gerard; I pose(d) questions within a probing/reasoning framework so that -in and by answering the questions- a bigger picture becomes self-evident.

My aim is NOT to find fault with other people. Christians believe what they believe, as sincerely as I believe what I believe. While they may appear to "us" to be hypocritical, they don't see themselves as being anything but honest, fair, good persons who are doing their best to love everyone.

Their attitude toward persons outside of their faith is no less loving than a farmer's attitude is to his livestock: he takes very good care of his livestock SO THAT the livestock will serve him well on the market or on his dinner plate. Yet, it's a different love than he holds for his own daughter because he wouldn't sell his daughter or butcher and eat her either.

Perhaps my biggest goal is to get people to see (regardless of their religious perceptions) that humanity is ALL of the same species. If God made all humans from the same gene-stock -which evidently he did, or people of all races wouldn't be able to interbreed and produce offspring- then it's totally illogical to put barriers in place which try to declare that one grouping of persons is preferable to another in God's view ........ based on beliefs ............ because beliefs in themselves, produce absolutely nothing of value.

As for a standard of judgment, I hold myself to the same standard whereby I judge others. Yes, I judge all right but I'm willing to be judged by the same standard by which I judge. This then, is equivalent to "do unto others as you would have them do to you." The difference between that and "do unto others AS they do to you" is that .............. there is a premeditation to the former process, whereas, the latter process is merely reaction. Reaction brings retaliation and retaliation is an endless loop of senseless anger and violence.

If I put forward a "judgment" on someone else, it will (almost always) result in anger. If that person has full permission to judge me in reverse and can find something wrong with me ........ I'm forced to fix my own problem or shut up. If he finds nothing to "get" me on ........ he is forced to fix HIS problem ......... or quit propagating his own attitude and behavior.

Thus, the process of "discovery" can -and DOES- produce positive results all around.

-Vince