I just finished reading a wonderful book called American Savior by Roland Merullo.  It was recommended by a fellow book lover and was well worth the time.  It's a novel about Jesus running for president.  Very entertaining.

There is a paragraph tucked away in the middle of the book that I think is profound. 

"It was becoming clear to me that what Jesus wanted from us was not pious obedience to a narrow set of rules, but a smart, limitless, open-mindedness that allowed us - in real life, in actual day-to-day, modern American life - to treat the other person the way we would want to be treated.  Gay people, Jewish people, dumb people, rich people, poor people, women, men, right-wingers, liberals, soldiers, and antiwar protestors, maybe even animals - we were suppoed to see through the disguise they were wearing, all the way down to the I AM in them.  That was it.  That was the big commandment, I was almost sure."

Beautifully put.  I highly recommend the book.