It doesn’t matter to me what religious or political viewpoint you hold. What matters to me is that we each respect the other’s right to our own viewpoint. What matters to me is that I don’t have to listen to repeated criticism. Several years ago I lost a longtime friendship not because we had opposing political views, but because he would not let up. Every time we spoke he had to bring up politics and rant on and on about the one he hated.

I don’t want to hear that, no matter who it is. I didn’t even vote for that person. We’d known each other 30 years, discussed a myriad of topics yet now all of a sudden, this became his one topic. I have other friends with opposing views and we are so busy having a good time talking about mutual interests that the topic of religion or politics never comes up.