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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (11131)	6/4/1999 7:52:00 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Well now, it is true that religions in general are not terribly tolerant of heterodoxy. It is also true that you are flogging horses centuries dead, and putting front- and- center people who do not in any manner represent the mainstream of Christianity. Now, I know that EV can bring out the worst in people, but why let him? On a comparative basis, Christianity came to champion freedom of conscience, as it disentangled religion and politics, and sought to find a modus vivendi among competing denominations. This may have been somewhat incidental to the historical toll of the wars of religion occasioned by the Reformation, but it grew naturally enough out of the classic conception of the City of God and the City of Man as distinct entities, with separate destinies, and out of the injunction to "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God what is God's". That, and other trends, contributed to the growth of civil liberties, particularly in the colonies, where nonconformity to the established church was a prominent motive for emigration. So did the rise of deism, and the Enlightenment hostility to clericalism and censorship, as you pointed out. So did the rise of party politics as a factor in national life, as it encouraged public debate and the rise of newspapers and magazines. There were many historical contingencies that entered into the spread of liberty....