I noticed people assuming that a social or political belief that was very unpopular in the general population would be universally held in that church...I had the same tendency myself, maybe because I felt so marginalized and foreign elsewhere during that war that I wanted my church to be a comforting haven of like thinkers.

Yes, exactly. I think that a lot of people with liberal religious beliefs feel very isolated as part of their day to day lives, and want church to be a place where the minority can be the majority. It's a natural feeling - if you feel challenged at every turn, you want some place to be free from challenges, where you can relax among the like-minded. A haven, as you say.

I find it much more difficult to work on accepting people and feeling in community with them in spite of deep philosophical or political differences between us. Unfortunately, I feel as though that's something that my church is supposed to be for, so I should be working on it. I have a long way to go, argh.