MCCARTHY, YES--TORQUEMADA, NO

Defying the Dependent Deity (Richard Cohen, September 2, 2003, Washington Post)

[I]t is the nature of religion to go too far. That is its history -- in the distant past and just yesterday as well. All over the world, people are hideously butchered in the name of God, which is to say condemned to death on account of an accident of birth.

It is actually because religion is a matter of chosen belief--rather than an immutable quality of birth, like race, ethnicity, etc.--that it is permissible for a society to be intolerant of non-believers in its organizing principles. Just as it was appropriate to persecute Communists who were opposed to our very constitutional system, so it may be appropriate for a society to persecute those who oppose its fundamental basis. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 3, 2003 3:29 PM