Religious tolerance, for example, is extended to all religions, and the more backward, oppressive, cruel, and savage it is (e.g. Islam) the more it is tolerated. There is one religion that is not tolerated, however, and that is Christianity. This fact is becoming more apparent every day.
Ping.
Wow...thanks for the ping. I read some, but will print it out and finish it later on.
For greater clarity, the life of society could be divided in three more or less autonomous areas [albeit they influence and interpenetrate one another]:
1. Economics;
2. Culture [everything man-made [excepting economics and sociology] in the life of that society - from national cuisine and architecture to song, dance and pottery shards - the stuff of ethnologists and archaeologists.
3. Sociological [i.e. civilization proper] aspects - how that society exists and self-perpetuates as a sociologically distinct entity, i.e. how its members relate to one another and to their groups in socially important situations. Sociological aspects of "national character", value systems [weltanschauung] and dominant religions come right here. This is merely an elaboration of Huntington's thesis - he used the whole religion [and not only its sociological side] as a convenient marker. Such an elaboration is perfectly justified - Huntington did not split the Western Civ into several Protestant civs and a Catholic civ, after all.
Now, the objectionable [or praiseworthy] parts of any religion are to be found in its sociological/civilizational aspects. This boils down to what kind of a society the particular religion favors or helps to promote - in the here and now, on this earth. These are the fruits by which one knows the tree, and not the immaterial parameters like 'filioque', the number of prescribed daily prayers or whether its clergy is married or celibate, wears beards or shaves, and whether their ritual headgear resembles overturned chamberpots or not. The Western Civ grew out of Western christianity, but outgrew it when the civilization assumed its secular orientation. This orientation and the Western individualistic focus have been the cause of all Western progress since the Renaissance at least.
Thanks for the very interesting ping! Excellent topic. I just reserved "Our culture, what's left of it : the mandarins and the masses" by Theodore Dalrymple and "The case for Christ : a journalist's personal investigation of the evidence for Jesus" by Lee Strobel at my local library. I look forward to reading both.