False choice: it's possible to have NEITHER: we can resist abortion, sodomites, euthanasia, divorce, "free" sex, violent video games, et al, and yet also not burn those we perceive as "heretics". America of several generations ago was this way.
Now I think if you really study history you will see that plenty of Catholics were burned and tortured by Protestants for heresy
Yes, I know this. I consider it just as wrong as the reverse. In fact I find it appalling that--
My Irish ancestors were persecuted by Protestants, for being Catholic....
My Huguenot ancestor was persecuted by Catholics, for being Protestant....
My Scottish ancestors were persecuted by Protestants for being Dissident Protestants....
Then in Ulster, my Irish and my Scoto-Huguenot ancestors horribly persecuted each other.
None of it seems very Christian to me. How about "do unto others as ye would have them do unto you?"
Well you have some good points but I think that you are overlooking some things. I guess you probably think that the early Church Fathers weren't very Christian either because they did not think any different than St. Thomas Aquinas. If Jesus said that "It is better if anyone harm one of these little ones of mine that a millstone be tied around his neck and he be cast into the sea." That sounds pretty harsh. Capital punishment was never regarded as intrinsically evil as was abortion or contraception and murder nor was a just war. Read the old Testament.
Heresy kills the soul and there are many souls who are being destroyed by this every day. What constitutes harming of a soul? Many things are involved. The world was better off when there was only one Church and not multiple denominations and sects and the fact of the matter is that Jesus only founded one Church and the see of Peter as its head.