Islam doesn’t represent ISIL. Italy doesn’t represent spaghetti or coffee, nor does Seattle, for that matter. A cockroach does not represent Earth nor Earth the cockroach. I don’t represent America nor does America represent me. Sunday morning doesn’t speak for Jesus nor do pro-Lifers nor pro-Choicers.
Strange and unusual as it may seem, we answer not for each other, but to each other and to God. We all represent ourselves, speak for ourselves, answer for ourselves. Children answer to their fathers just as fathers will one day have to answer to their children.
What’s so hard about that to understand?