dealers , what Santorum is pushing is addictive , poisonous and a trigger to violence we see all around us . His anti-gay rhetoric justifies , for some people , the bullying in school , the senseless beatings of people perceived to be gay and the under-reported murders of transgender people . The truth is that the disrespectful tone in which Santorum talks about GLBT people , in the name of religion , gives permission for our lives to be equally disrespected . Disregarded . Sometimes , the impulse is to return the fire , matching name-calling with name-calling . I , too , have found myself so ticked off by Santorum 's words that I 've called him everything but a child of God . That 's when I come to my senses and try to remember the one thing he seems to forget . We 're all God 's children . We 're all brothers and sisters . And like brothers and sisters , we wo n't always agree . Sometimes we will fight . But we ca n't get so caught up in our disagreements that we forget that what bonds us is far more important than
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- When I was a youth pastor at a small , evangelical church in Kalamazoo , Michigan , I used to accompany my pastor and other members of our congregation into some of the city 's neighborhoods where gang activity and gun violence were most prevalent . We would stand on the corner next to the drug dealers and talk to them about why it was important to turn their lives around . Some would listen . Others would walk away . All gave us respect , even if they did n't agree with what we had to say . And I believe they did so because we respected them . We did n't call them names or discount how they felt . We met them where they were -- literally and figuratively . In a lot of ways , hearing Rick Santorum talk about social issues , particularly gay rights , reminds me of those days . Like those drug dealers , I 'm sure he ca n't see how he destroys his community . Like those drug dealers , Santorum is probably doing what he thinks he needs to do . And like those drug