Parallels.

The current state of nationalistic Islam has curious and somewhat disturbing parallels to the state of the church in the 1500s. If history repeats itself, this time the world is in far deeper trouble than mere Jewish subjugation, inquisition, schisms, and Protestantism.

The church and the state have to be separated. Combined, governance comes with the charge of converting the populace to a specific religious perspective or practice. That nations today can justify actions via religion, or condone specific actions via their religious nature, or even subscribe to antiquated religious laws in settling civil disputes without reference to logic or reason… that deeply concerns me.

A civil government who will do nothing when a rape victim is killed for ‘dishonouring the family’ is condoning murder. A government which clearly have one set of rules for believers and another for infidels is clearly biased.

Let’s examine the church in the middle ages. The non-separation of church and state put a large amount of power in the hands of churchmen. The division between secular and religious activities was blurred, and corrupt nations and churchmen carried out numerous barbaric, uncivilised and un-Christian acts in the name of God. The church became rich, powerful, and corrupt. The Jewish diaspora in Western Europe came under intense pressure, and many were forcibly converted, many were tortured, many martyred.

That Protestantism arose as a conceptual and doctrinal reaction to the ills of that time is understandable.

Presently, we see numerous cases of religion-fuelled violence. The call to jihad against not only the ‘American infidel’ has started to subtly spread to anyone who does not profess Islam. Some nations have a purely Islamic charter, much to the chagrin of the civilian populace who profess other faiths. In some nations, some people have been forcibly ‘legally converted’.

That coupled with the turmoil as radicals push for a purging of all who do not profess similar beliefs sets the stage for a global conflict, based not on politics or resources or the whims of charismatic madmen, but on religion. Mayhap secularism in this paradigm is a good thing.

I confess this argument is not the strongest argument. I would also like to say that I am not anti-Islam or anti-Christian, I am merely pro-temperance. This world has manufactured enough strife and grief, let’s try not to add to it.