We tried this at one point. It was called "I'm okay, you're okay" and it was a 1970s mantra. It didn't work then and it will never work. People are different. People think in different ways. Stupid, empty gestures like lighting candles makes no difference whatsoever and it's beyond naive to think it will.

At one point the Vatican even tried to embrace ecumenism. It was abysmal - one cardinal reported, "People were all praying to different concepts of God all in the same room and the result was just chaos. No one understood or appreciated anyone else at the end of it." (slight paraphrase despite quotes)

NO. We need to stop this crap. This won't stop one Islamic State fanatic from murdering people, it won't heal any wounds, it won't bring people together. If you want to do that, then what we need to do is be willing to have a painful, gut-wrenching discussion about who we are and what we believe and be willing to say things that hurt other people and challenge them, and let them challenge us. That level of honesty has the potential to make people appreciate other viewpoints in a real and substantive way, rather than just making everyone feel good about themselves.

I'm not trying to attack you in particular but I felt the extreme need to push back against this sort of thing. People have said similar things for a long time and it goes nowhere. Be honest, be brutally honest. Confront, challenge, respectfully but forcefully. Otherwise everyone is just doing their own thing in one place. That's not being together. That's like a room of people all looking at their own iphones and their own Facebook feeds. Interact, dispute, listen. THAT is what works. Not this "light a candle and meditate in the same room as people with radically different beliefs" bullshit. Sorry. It's the truth.