@blatham,
blatham wrote:
She is doing the standard American Christianist move there. We have freedom of religion BUT there's only one true and legitimate religion. All the others are false and following them can lead only to submergence into the bowels of hell. I think your use of the term "Christianist" was perjorative and undeserved.
ps... this is insane. I have no idea whether she believes this or not. She may be merely repeating a mantra coaxed by advisers. But regardless, the idea forwarded is stark raving nuts.
She was certainly speaking to others who share her views in a fairly sectarian manner. However you yourself were doing exactly the same thing here. Does that make you "stark raving nuts" Are you even dimly aware of your hypocrisy here ?
On a larger scale her expressions might be mildly offensive to some, but it doesn't quite reach the level of intolerance. Given that Evangelical Christians so far haven't been caught decapitating or burning unbelievers alive and haven't called for religious rule (though they do resent the increasingly intrusive requirements of governments that they support and participate in things they consider wrong), your use of the term Christianist was unfair and in my view out of bounds. Frankly in all this you appear to be every bit as doctrinaire, narrow minded and intolerant as you accuse them to be.
Tolerance is an important word and an important part of civil behavior. One doesn't have to approve of or like everything out there, but tolerance, live and let live, are necessary elements of civil society. Intolerance, whether religious or secular, is still intolerance. What other people think or believe is not really our affair. Indeed we can't really know their thoughts. We can however know and within limits judge and restrain their actions in accordance with our constitution and the law. You appear in all this to be exceedingly interested in examining how you imagine others think, and in all of it, highly judgmental and intolerant.
