Replies

> I'm not sure what I said that would indicate that's how I feel.

The fact that, in your view, what makes an idol is the significance you, personally, give to the item.

That's not the way the rules work in other religions.

I happen to think you're right, but I don't want the government deciding such things.

> It's not the government that's making this function off
> limits, it's the person's religion.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, some citizens of Rome used to hold that a person could show they were a "good citizen" (and avoid being torn apart by lions) by sacrificing to the emperor as if he were a god. They claimed that Christians' refusal to do so was a problem with the person's religion, not with the law.

That's a way too dramatic illustration, but it's the direction that thinking leads.

I don't much care for that direction, and I say that as an atheist.

I expect to have to make some sacrifices for my religious beliefs. If my church considered it wrong for me to enter another place of worship and that's where an event was being held I would have to seriously consider missing the event. Sure, I would rather everyone else have to violate their beliefs so that I could indulge mine, but that's not what my faith is about to me.

There's a great old gospel song, "This World Is Not My Home" and that's sorta how I see it. I am simply a traveler here, a pilgrim as it were just passing through. If I have to fore go some pleasure or comfort here it's only temporary.

After the discussion that's gone on here I guess I was a bit off in my original post.

I can't speak for others. In fact, the apostle Paul was very clear in his teaching that if something offends a person of another faith the Christian should avoid doing it. There was a big discussion in the early church about eating meat that had been offered to an idol. Paul said that as Christians we did not believe the idol was anything but an inanimate object, and eating meet that had been on the altar of the idol was no big deal. But, he went on to say that if it offends others then we as Christians should not eat it.

Thanks for the dialog, it is much appreciated.