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warshawlawThe Soviets outlawed the free expression of religion, as all who study history would know--that's why the panicky Congress here added "under God" to the pledge of allegiance in the 1950s, because the Soviets were "Godless Communists". Which is pretty funny if you think about it, because it wasn't their pledge of allegiance that was amended.
I did not tar all Christians with the atrocities I cited; that allegation is typical straw man argumentation. I blamed Christians for the Inquisition, the Crusades and the Holocaust because it was avowedly Christian governments and avowedly Christian people who participated in these events. Not all Christians, as anyone with even a modicum of sense would realize, but the ones in power aided by hundreds of thousands of willing "normal" people. The actual historical facts are irrefutable. Poland, a 90%+ Catholic country, enthusiastically helped murder over 3 million Jews. My family's ancestral town in Poland is a good example of what happened. The Polish locals voluntarily and enthusiastically rounded up their Jewish neighbors, herded them into a barn, and burned it. Those who tried to run out were shot or beaten to death. A few escaped to tell the story. The Catholic Church, to John Paul II's consternation, stood by while all of this happened. There were many Catholic clergymen who tried to help, but the official position of the church was silence. In countries that refused to participate in the Nazi atrocities, like Denmark, where the King flatly refused to turn over Jews and instead ordered everyone to wear the yellow stars, few Jews were murdered.
I'm not pushing any particular position; to the contrary, I am pushing only freedom as a "position". The most precious freedom of all, which is freedom to be left alone. I posted the initial post only because I was offended at having someone else's religious beliefs thrown in my face as part of a baseball card purchase. I posted the quotes of intolerant idiots because they are intolerant idiots who do not believe in freedom. The fact that some of them claim to be religious Christians should be as offensive to Christians as it is to me. Where in the Gospels does Jesus tell you to hate other people?
Ted, go read, learn and then speak.