Today's world is loud. And messy. And much like the current election season, has a tendency to bring out the worst in people.

It's a funny thing, the muddle that ensues when someone questions our beliefs or even -- dare I say it -- disagrees. Our opinions are so strong that they govern and shape our lives, but what happens when our beliefs fail to shape someone else's life?

A whole lot of temper tantrums, that's what. Screaming, crying, fighting and maliciousness aimed at making everyone else seem as dirty as your own mud-stained hands.

What could've been a beautiful disagreement met with critical conversation, level-headed logic and a humane heart has now turned into the villainizing of everything that doesn't align with our own narrow view. Somehow, difference has come to represent all that is wrong. And it seems that this difference has become a justification for hatred. But I just have one question...

Why are we hating and harming instead of loving and listening?

You see, if you're going to stick the label of your religious affiliation on your political preference, then you have quite a high standard to live up to. And if you're going to write in "Christian" on your own name tag, you're going to have to be constantly aware of your actions. If you're going to carelessly fling around the phrase "What would Jesus do," you better be able to see a portrait of Jesus that wasn't painted in your own image.

I mean, imagine Jesus looking at a transgender person who is struggling to understand himself/herself and saying "You're disgusting." Last I checked, we were called to love everyone (even our so-called enemies), no? If we hold this roadmap to life, so to speak, should we not walk alongside those looking for the path? Jesus ministered to the outcast and the unlikely. To my understanding, he was the ring leader of a band of rag-tag misfits. And who are we if not a bunch of broken, blemished, oddballs looking for love and acceptance? Are we all not still lost, little sinners at the end of the day? We need to rise above the deafening degradation of those we disagree with. We should not seek to vilify that which we don't first care to understand.

Why are we yelling in the faces of those who disagree with us when we know the only voice with real power is the one which is still and small.

"You see, all I need's a whisper in a world that only shouts." - Passenger