At the sermon today the priest echoed (I believe) Pope Francis’ request to put aside our differences and work together. This struck me as a lack of understanding. The differences are honest differences. I am not convinced by my opponents’ arguments, but surely they are sincerely held. To say, “Let’s put aside our differences” is to say, “You are not really sincere in your belief, and are deliberately choosing your point-of-view to be mean” (or spiteful, or difficult, or malevolent). It fails to understand how people can think.