“2) What he said was offensive to Buddhists and other non-Christians. Really? If non-Christians are really offended that many Christians believe that Christianity is true and wish that other people would adopt it, well, they need to get out more. If the argument is that they’re offended because he openly stated his view, then the question is why we should maintain an informal rule of social etiquette that forbids people from proclaiming their faith superior in important respects to other faiths. And the main reason to do that would seem to be, again, to avoid giving offense. Maybe people should just grow thicker skins instead. A Buddhist who is confident in his beliefs would know why he rejects Hume’s counsel and slough it off.”
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“Why should we maintain an informal social etiquette that discourages people from openly disparaging other people’s religions and touting their own as superior? Gee, that seems kind of obvious to me. I strongly doubt that Wehner and Ponnuru would be happy to see, say, Muslims going on television to blame Mark Sanford’s Christianity for his adultery and urge him to convert to Islam. Of course, I can’t prove this, because no major television network would ever allow it. But I’d at least like to hear them say that they’d be happy to see their rule applied to all religions. Otherwise, they need to admit that what they favor is not some wild theological free-for-all in our public discourse, with all religions touting their superiority and disparaging others, but rather a privileged place for Christianity.”
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