– Consider the Old Testament laws regarding apostasy (Deut. 13:6-9, 17:3-5). Some on the far (far, but not all that far) Religious Right have called for the death penalty for certain OT laws in the past; apostasy isn't as chic as homosexuality to condemn, but it would surely crop up if they got to passing laws about it.
– Off in the New Testament, Paul acknowledged (Romans 1:20-32) that d was the righteous judgment for turning to other gods (as well as homosexuality, gossip, and not respecting parents).
– Read the history of Christendom until, oh, the Enlightenment or so (here's a short list of burnings for heresy http://goo.gl/zIx7Yb). How many apostates or heretics were put to death, individually or as entire groups? (Look up the Albigensian Crusade for one sterling example.) The last person formally executed by the Church was in 1826 (http://goo.gl/CbM4SE).
– And short of execution, how many people to this day in the US believe that freedom of religion (and lack of religious test for public office) only applies to Christians, that those of other faiths (or certain other faiths) should be forced to convert or be expelled? How many people feel that their personal religious conviction should be allowed to trump civil law in their treatment of others?
It's all part of the same cloth.
What's happening in Sudan here is horrible. But it's a horror that's hardly exclusive to Islam or Sudan.
(More on the story here: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27424064)
Reshared post from +Rachid Otsmane-Elhaou
The times where most of us can agree Religion got it wrong.
“What’s happening in Sudan here is horrible. But it’s a horror that’s hardly exclusive to Islam or Sudan.”
Well, for 188 years it’s a horror that doesn’t actually happen in the Christian dominated countries. Or secular, formerly Christian dominated countries. How likely is it that sharia law countries will stop the horror in another century? How can sharia possibly change?
To be fair, sharia countries typically ignore parts of The Law of God. Or enforce them selectively. Most do.
Newt Gingrich once said in an interview that freedom of religion should indeed extend to all religions… but not atheism. We don't need them. (This was quite a while ago, when he was The Big Thing in Congress, so, like, mid-Clinton.)
+Kingsley Lintz Goes right with George H W Bush commenting at a 1987 news conference, "No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."