It matters in most matters what you believe. It shapes your understanding of time and eternity. Healthy belief in God can be and is a transformative experience of grace, peace, and joy.

It can, when unhealthy, the toxic to oneself and to others.

It can even kill.

There can be contexts where what you believe is not as important as how you believe.

God is Spirit and those who worship God, Jesus said, must worship Him in spirit AND in truth.

Stuck somewhere between stages 2 and 3 of Fowler's Stages of Faith, an old religion is reemerging, morphing, and crossing lines of doctrine, ideology, worldview, and historical faith. It is a religion of intolerance and hate that expresses itself in repression and violence.

People in targeted groups may affiliate, but tend to see the opposition as those who also embrace this approach, but from the motif of another historic faith.

This "religion" is a way of thinking and dealing with the world from a safe box.

It disguises  itself in multiple cloaks.

It's chief doctrine is intolerant hatred of anything that is not of them.

It's liturgy is to attack "the other" with words, deeds, pious pronouncements, ostracizing, restrictive laws, persecution, and sometimes, death and torture.

It's cultus is seclusion and isolation from anything or anyone that may challenge their way of thinking, In fact, the practice of thinking deeply and critically even within one's own faith context is discouraged.

It's ethos is a combination of narcissistic anger and selective empathy. Those who follow this path are empathetic with the persecution of their own, but always feel that "the other" gets too much attention and sympathy.

When there is a critical mass of followers, they cry out for privileges.

It's ethic is to not over think it's ethic. It is pervasive and takes many forms while having endless targets.

In the case of violence, it finds texts and reasoning to justify the most horrific acts against perceived enemies and innocents.

Sometimes, it is condoned by the state, but most often, the state seeks to suppress it.

It can be political or manipulated by people seeking political power.

In recent weeks, we have seen dramatic examples around America and the world against Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

Historically, almost every religious minority has been persecuted by people with religious motives and almost every group has engaged in religious persecution when able … not as a whole, but by those who embrace the narcissistic religion of Intolerance and Hatred.

Sikhs, Baha'i, Buddhists, Falun Gong, Hindus,and Rohingya are among the many who have been targeted.

It takes a very small percentage of adherents of any historic religion to color the image of the whole religion and feed the suspicion, hate, and mistrust of the rest, thus perpetuating the problem and the attitude of retaliation. The texts of the other faiths are cited as evidence and justification for a propensity for violence. But this requires ignoring the tools of context, literary-historical criticism, and hermeneutics as well as what Christians call "progressive revelation."

We are generous with our own texts in these matters, but not so much with other folks.

This is not about which traditional faith is superior, makes the best case, is most believable, or closer to the truth.

It is not about doctrine.

It is about a distorted religious mindset that suggests that killing people, bombing and setting fires to places of worship, torture, hate speech, and incitement to suspicion are acceptable responses to one's scriptures. 

They are not.

What should our response be?

What it should it not be is retaliation. It should also not be about defeat or retreat. 

It should not be about despair as if, without our advocacy, truth will not prevail or that God will fail. God will not fail and truth shall prevail.

I can only speak from my own belief system, but it might find some overlap in others.

Jesus taught us to love and pray for our enemies, to practice non-retaliation, and to serve people.

He taught us to care more about others than ourselves and to look outside of our own boxes and communities of self-interest to advocate for all who are oppressed.

And, He taught us to be true to our faith and loyalty to God even when we were persecuted.

Let us stand with all who are targeted, whether they are "our people" or not. Because all are, ultimately, the object of God's affection, care, and suffering.