Yet they cemented a unique friendship that bridged decades as well as deep political and religious chasms.
Ten years after the Al Qaeda attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, amid a climate of suspicion of Arab and Muslim Americans, the partnership between Mr. Hall and Sam Botwin serves as a gleaming, redemptive example — an anomaly, to be sure, but one that shows that ethnic and religious chasms can be breached.
That, too, explored the chasm between religious cultures, but it did so with the aid of teen-agers — two Muslim boys and a Christian girl, who bonded in their intent to have a good time.
This is not to say that De Botton is unmindful of the yawning chasm between what religious people hope to do and what they actually achieve, but he does think that there is credit in having a go.
And then, suddenly, we're back in the falafel shop, with a wrecked body and the breath-exchanging kiss that bridges, unknowingly, chasms of ethnic and religious hatred.
This chasm isn't news to religious or political leaders.
The tensions between their families are mirrored in Ava's own turmoil as she tries to negotiate the chasm that separates secular Jews from their religious counterparts, and also to come to terms with her own past.
But those beliefs, she said, were caused by differences in perception — a cultural chasm between the church hierarchy and women religious.
We must do our part in our workplace, in our religious institutions, and in our communities to close the chasm between the ambitions of undocumented youth and the opportunities they need to actualize those ambitions.
The controversial investigations of U.S. women religious by the Vatican — and resulting tensions — stemmed largely from a "cultural chasm," the group's president said Wednesday.
