Irreverence isn't bigotry, because ideas and beliefs are not people.

[tama]

57. I would say generally

that the us-against-them mechanism we all are familiar with and have experience from, is always potentially dangerous - but there is also important difference between potentially and actually dangerous.

I believe the message of universal compassion that is inherent in most of worlds religions has lot to do with liberation from us-against-them mechanism, socially and individually, but of course it also needs to be said that the (hierarchically) organized religions tend to rely very much on that mechanism.

PS: there is also lot of wisdom in the advice to turn the other cheek, and similar lessons about learning most from one's perceived enemies. I googled "metta bhavana", a meditation practice related to this matter, and this was the first link: http://www.wildmind.org/metta/introduction