ignorance & tears

I met with my friend Steve last night for dinner. He and I have been friends for 25 years, we worked together, I saw him through his divorce, his new marriage, and kids. He has a lovely wife who I adore. He is smart, funny, sarcastic - I adore him. His one flaw (in my eyes) is his undying BLIND faith - literally his faith. I've always known we differed on so many political issues and that is actually kind of fun and he has always listened to me and I him. But last night my heart broke in two.

He was commenting on how far "left" I am and I thought, "no I am not" and then I said, "no I am not". And before he could stampede on my beliefs I told him that the abortion issue does not get to be included in his definition of far left. That he needed to come up with something other than that because I'll NEVER waiver on that - EVER. So he went for the jugular - morals. Now, he never called me immoral but he said, in a round about way, that I don't have a moral foundation because I don't believe EXACTLY as he. He further said that one has to take the Bible in it's entirety or not at all - no picking and choosing - in other words, talking snakes and arks, the whole shabang!

He then continued on all these different points, gays being a hot topic - how they are sinning and need to "cure" themselves - that they choose to be gay. He continued with no other religion exists and is acceptable except Christianity and anyone who does not believe this is damned to hell for eternity.

My heart broke.

This is my friend. How can he be SO ignorant? I mean, he is SO smart. And then I thought, "this cannot be the God that is keeping our Hanna in his arms" and I broke down in tears. Silent, painful tears. One tear streamed down my face and christened the table - my heart actually hurt. I was slapped in the face with pure ignorance. I am still in disbelief.

I am now at a loss - what do I do with this?  How do I proceed? My new issue.