Schleiermacher's got beef with the French...

"For other reasons I turn from the French. On them, one who honours religion can hardly endure to look, for in every act and almost in every word, they tread its holiest ordinances under foot."

First of all I just want to say that I definitely didn't understand a whole lot of what Schleiermacher said, so this may just be completely ignorant to what he was actually trying to say, I hope not, but just in case, consider yourself warned.

When I first read this part I almost laughed because I thought he was going to make a joke or some metaphor or something. The last thing I expected was a very enthusiastic and in depth explanation of why he actually doesn't like french people. I couldn't help but thinking that this whole paragraph wasn't really a christian mindset for a guy making a ridiculously long speech about religion.

Matthew 9:36 "But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd."

Something that organized religion has always had a hard time of doing is meeting people where they are. Far too often, we as christians will pass judgement on other people before so much as meeting them. And in doing so, we immediately abandon any semblance of a Christ like mindset. This is an extremely challenging practice to take hold of. However, we also have to realize the importance of doing so in order to be able to meet people where they are. Whenever I don't know how to handle certain situations with my non-christian friends, its always an extremely challenging thing for me to realize that Jesus was friends with the worst of the worst in his society. He lived his entire life absolutely contrary to societies judgements and preconceived notions about people.