Saturday, July 27, 2002

This sounds familiar.
For you Dad: “Most of what I perceive as the negative aspects of Christianity (or any other religion) manifest when a single faith comes to dominate in a society. At that point, like all other human institutions, it begins to become obsessed with power and control and empire building; it begins to interfere in areas I don't believe it belongs, and it starts trying to use its muscle to coerce non-believers into either becoming believers or living by the precepts of the church even if not a member, and in particular to trying to suppress other religions. The most extreme manifestation of that in recent memory was the Taliban, but a study of history makes clear that religious authorities will usually try to manipulate temporal events if they think they can, and various Christian churches have a long and glorious history of such behavior.”
Sadly relevant to Israeli society with regard to the relationship between religious and secular Jews.