Two Types of Religious Hostilities

I was looking at the Pew Report on Religious Hostilities (http://www.pewforum.org/2014/01/14/religious-hostilities-reach-six-year-high/) and something dawned on me -- there are really two distinct issues here. There is hostility toward religion in general and than there is a hostility toward a specific religion. The two are distinct because of the motivation. The former may be based on a challenge to the concept of a deity in general -- pitting atheist against theist -- while the second may be based on a challenge of one's religious views against another's -- pitting theist against theist. These are two very different constructs.

To be honest, I only briefly skimmed the report and I don't know if the report acknowledges this distinction let alone discusses it. I may only be highlighting something that is already identified. If not, though, it is something that does need to be. It impacts us in a very specific way for not identifying this distinction also does not identify any potential specific negativity in relating negatively to Jews.

Rabbi Ben Hecht