Religion and Tolerance: An Overseas Perspective

There are some interesting thoughts here as a European Christian writes for a British political/cultural magazine. Issues of religious freedom and intolerance regarding Christianity and Islam are brought up, and the flaws in both religious and atheist movements are included in stories of history of which some may not be aware.

"Diversity means respecting conscientious objections and making reasonable accommodation to let subcultures survive. Erasing God from the public square, and turning religion into a secret activity between two consenting adults in the privacy of their home, leads to what the poet Seamus Heaney calls the hollowing-out of culture. A no-God area can only sustain a fragile and brittle civilisation, a setting worthy of a broken people.

"The roots of today’s intolerance, however, run deep. Decades of totalitarian regimes instilled suspicion of authority; while the birth of ethical relativism taught that everything goes – just not judging others. Religion took no account of these historical developments. It was authoritarian, judgemental, and hypocritical to boot."

You can read the full article here.