There's a man in Afghanistan who converted to Christianity some sixteen years ago.  Now he's on trial for turning his back on God and could be put to death if convicted.  If President Bush and others hadn't put pressure on Afghanistan officials, this man would have surely been executed.  I just watched a news clip showing how several Muslim clerics were in agreement that he committed apostasy (the renunciation of a religious or political belief) and if he doesn't repent, he should be punished by execution.

This is an incredible story.  I really don't know much about the Islamic religion.  As in any religion there are the moderates, the fundamentalists, and the extreme fundamentalists.  I will never understand, nor could I ever be apart of any religion that allows or promotes violence, turns a blind eye to violence or repression, or treats some of its members, i.e. women, as inferior.   

In AD 64, a fire destroyed two-thirds of Rome.  Some historians say that the emporer Nero, himself ordered the fires set because he wanted to rebuild Rome to his liking.  Nero blamed the fires on the Christians, thus setting the stage for years of persecution of Christians in Rome.  The Christians were a small, new religious sect and were probably selected to take the fall because of their incendiary rhetoric about Roman activities.  According to some sources, Nero's persecution of Christians resulted in the deaths of two of Christianity's most influential apostles, Saint Peter and Saint Paul.

Jerusalem is one of the holiest cities, if not the holiest, on the planet--claimed by the Jewish, Christians, and Muslims.  It is also one of the most violent places on the planet throughout time and to this day. 

Closer to home we've got these extreme, fundamentalist Mormons who still practice polygamy.  Often, young girls are molested and raped when forced into a plural marriage.  This is condoned by their so-called prophets and male authorities in a "reorganized" religion.  How could anyone believe that this is an acceptable way to live and be sanctioned by God?  Sadly, many people outside of Utah mistake these extreme fundamentalists' lifestyles as being apart of the mainstream L.D.S. church. 

A man named Hitler tried to wipe out an entire group of people because of their faith and their ethnic heritage.  Because of this incident, the word "genocide" was coined.

In Iraq, the Sunnis are killing the Shiites and the Shiites are killing the Sunnis.  Its Muslim killing Muslim.  It is such a quagmire. The Americans with their allies jumped in to try to bring democracy to a place that might not ever be able to be democratic.   It's a war that President Bush says we can and will win--but what do we win?  What do the winners get?  I hope it's good because it's costing us billions of dollars and thousands of lives.  As soon as we do exit Iraq, will the Iraqis be able to maintain a democratic society?  Or will a bunch of  religious clerics just pull it all apart in the name of their particular Islamic beliefs?

If you look back into history you find so many incidents of religious persecution.  There was the Spanish and other Inquisitions that began in the 13^th century and lasted into the 19^th century.  Torture was used frequently during the Inquisition to obtain confessions of heresy.  There were the infamous Salem Witch Trials that occurred in 1692 and 1693 in colonial Massachusetts.  Fourteen women and five men were hanged, another suspect was pressed to death under heavy stones when he refused to take part in the trial, four people died in jail while awaiting their trials, and nearly 200 other people were arrested.

I consider myself a spiritual person; however, the more I read about the religions of the world and their histories, the more I want to distance myself from all of them.  I am in no way trying to say I am too spiritual or too good to be a part of any particular religion.  I just can't reconcile these histories, the beliefs, and the violence and repression that still goes on to this day in the name of religion.