Dear runner,

We define decency differently. I think bigotry and lack of acceptance of anyone whose lifestyle is inconsistent with yours is indecent. I think you are a very indecent human being. However, even very indecent human beings have rights so I accept your indecency even though I find it loathsome. If I want to have a free society I must accept that other people have the right to say what I find loathsome. So spew your bigotry. No doubt you will.

Well said, david f - as usual.

david f

typically tolerant of everything but the intolerable. Having CJ as an ally certainly weakens your case.

Dear runner,

Homosexuality did not cause the decline of the Roman Empire. The empire banned homosexuality when it became Christian under Theodosius. Christian oppression caused the decline and brought on the Dark Ages.

Charles Freedman’s “The Closing of the Western Mind” tells the story.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/15/books/when-the-lights-went-out-in-europe.html

“Freeman's main thesis has two parts. First, that the Greek intellectual tradition did not simply fade away but was actively suppressed by the rise of Christianity, especially in the fourth and fifth centuries. Second, that the main reason this happened was political. The Emperor Constantine and some of his successors thought that by throwing the weight of the state behind Christianity, and institutionalizing it, they could turn it into a weapon of mass distraction: it would act as a unifying force, at a time when the empire was under threat from marauding invaders, and be an effective means of social control. It was, according to Freeman, because the bishops acquired political power, and were given a rich and powerful institution to operate, that dissent and the tradition of free inquiry were crushed.”

The barbarian conversion: from paganism to Christianity by Richard A. Fletcher tells what came next. The book spans 371 to 1386. Christianity went on a rampage for centuries converting Europe by violence. Pagan Gauls were given the choice of Christianity or beheading. Christianity made many martyrs who were steadfast in their non-Christian faith.

With the Crusades, Inquisition and Wars of the Reformation Christian violence reigned supreme until the Renaissance and the Enlightenment came to free Europe from the dark night of Christianity.

The conflicts in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants and in the former Yugoslavia between Orthodox and Catholic Christians continued the tradition.

Centuries of Christian hate made fertile ground for the Nazis..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine's_Sword

The Church and the Jews - A History by James P. Carroll documents the role of the Catholic Church in the long European history of antisemitism and argues that this was the foundation for the hatred that led to the Nazi Holocaust.

Christian missionaries currently have persuaded Ugandans to condemn homosexuals to death.

Christianity has produced great evil