All Religious Radicalism?

Submitted by Chris (United States), Oct 2, 2002 at 14:14

Gary,
Our "religious radicals", as you call them, do not go around killing "infidels". It has been a very long time since any Christian or Jew (at least in the West) killed anyone in the name of God. Anyone who has committed violence in the name of the Christian God is not a true Christian and has been widely and continually denounced by every Christian denomination. Furthermore, there are very few of these false Chrsitians around. They are literally an insignificant fringe. The same goes for Orthodox Judaisim (to which I really cannot speak, since I harldy ever encounter it). Militants within Islam are not an insignificant fringe. While they may (arguably) be a minority, they are a large, vocal, and active one. However, "evangelical and fundamentalist [American] Christians" are not threats to the safety and lives of other Americans that militant Muslims/Islamofascists are.

The founders did not create a secular government in an attempt to reduce faith or religious devotion among the citizenry. In fact, most (even Jefferson) believed faith and religious devotion to be essential to democracy. The only point of not creating a state church was to make sure Americans could worship as they saw fit.

It is a mistake to equate militant Islam with evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity and Orthodox Judaism.

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