Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: NYer
The only way to ensure the Islamic faith, is through forced adherence. May God bless this minister for his witness to the "Truth".

In Geneva, church discipline was expressed, at the instigation of Calvin, in the establishment of special overseers, who, in the individual districts assigned to them, had to watch over the moral behaviour of church members. There likewise came about the creation of such social arrangements as ecclesiastically controlled inns and taverns, in which not only the consumption of food and drink but even the topics of conversation were subject to stern regulation.

Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Church herself isn't guilt-free in attempting to maintain faith by force. The various Protestant fiefdoms were religious dictatorships. This sort of thing is nothing new.

15 posted on 10/18/2004 6:35:20 AM PDT by Chemist_Geek ("Drill, R&D, and conserve" should be our watchwords! Energy independence for America!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]


To: Chemist_Geek
The Church herself isn't guilt-free in attempting to maintain faith by force. The various Protestant fiefdoms were religious dictatorships. This sort of thing is nothing new.

Societies evolve. Christians today are not "guilty" for what those who came before them did centuries ago.

How many majority-Christian countries *today* are "religious dictatorships?" How many still allow the burning of heretics at the stake? How many *today* execute people for blasphemy?

The point is, *none.* Christianity has *changed.* In some ways for the worse, perhaps, but Christians no longer call for the murder of those who leave or who disagree.

24 posted on 10/18/2004 7:18:44 AM PDT by valkyrieanne (card-carrying South Park Republican)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies ]

To: Chemist_Geek
There likewise came about the creation of such social arrangements as ecclesiastically controlled inns and taverns, in which not only the consumption of food and drink but even the topics of conversation were subject to stern regulation.

To us, that is a quaint backdrop to a history that also included the flowering of science.

To a Moslem woman in a burqua, that would be liberation, by comparison.

25 posted on 10/18/2004 9:01:08 AM PDT by eno_ (Freedom Lite, it's almost worth defending.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson