Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00694)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl@s...> wrote:
> Andrew Smith wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>	No. What's your point?
> >>>
> >>>Bart, I was similarly abused in a Protestant church when a boy, 
> > and this kind of thing just makes me rage! I finally lost all 
faith 
> > in institutional religion and religion generally. Does "terror 
in 
> > the name of God" only have to be by al-Queda militants???
> >>
> >>	Did any of the people who abused you believe that they were 
doing so 
> > because that is what God wanted them to do?
> > 
> > Bart, Does that make any goddamn difference?!? The psychological 
> > effect is the same, unfortunately.
> 
> Of course there's a difference. If the religion teaches 
abuse, then the 
> religion itself is bad. If it is an individual acting against the 
> religion, then it is absurd to blame the religion. When the abusive 
> individual is acting in the name of the religion, then it is 
reasonable 
> to blame the religion.
> 
> Bart

I stand by my reply. The situation makes all the difference. Andrew 
Smith