It must have taken a whole lot of courage to write this, Rhyd, and my heart goes out to you. The point you make about political theologies is well-made, and I appreciate you are making it in a Western/American context; but competing Christianities are by no means the only game in town when it comes to persecutions, excommunications and m…
It must have taken a whole lot of courage to write this, Rhyd, and my heart goes out to you. The point you make about political theologies is well-made, and I appreciate you are making it in a Western/American context; but competing Christianities are by no means the only game in town when it comes to persecutions, excommunications and moral fanaticism down the millennia, I think. Pick a religion, any religion; pick a political party, any political party; pick a group of "grown ups" on a committee, pick a group of kids in the playground - they'll all break down into in-groups and out-groups, us and them, true-believers and heretics, unimpeachable angels and the very devils. Sad to say that the haters always shout the loudest and get away with both metaphorical and literal murder. Unless until, of course, enough folk like you start to speak out against them. "Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing". I thank you for refusing to be silenced.
It must have taken a whole lot of courage to write this, Rhyd, and my heart goes out to you. The point you make about political theologies is well-made, and I appreciate you are making it in a Western/American context; but competing Christianities are by no means the only game in town when it comes to persecutions, excommunications and moral fanaticism down the millennia, I think. Pick a religion, any religion; pick a political party, any political party; pick a group of "grown ups" on a committee, pick a group of kids in the playground - they'll all break down into in-groups and out-groups, us and them, true-believers and heretics, unimpeachable angels and the very devils. Sad to say that the haters always shout the loudest and get away with both metaphorical and literal murder. Unless until, of course, enough folk like you start to speak out against them. "Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing". I thank you for refusing to be silenced.