Frankham:

You write: "This has been precisely the position of Christianity in the Crusades and of Torquemada's Spain."

Recall that Spain was/is Catholic, and that Locke's "Letter Concerning Toleration" was written in response not only to the inquisition he saw in Spain but also the great number of deaths and persecutions in England between Catholics and Protestants and then the Puritan revolution.

Separation of Church and State is a Christian doctrine, although throughout history, men under the guise of Christianity, whom I would include Torquemada, Falwell and Robertson, have not wanted that boundary to exist. I certainly do not go along with persecuting anyone for their religious beliefs and I don'think that it is within the domain of the Church to do so. It was Rhode Island founder Roger Williams who said that "It does not matter to me if the captain of the ship (of the state) is Christian or non-Christian, the question is whether or not he can navigate."

I find it rather amusing that even though I support the Supreme Court's decision, there are readers here who have either wholly neglected what I wrote, or distorted it.

The Inquisition was a disastrous policy, the idea that a country needs to purge itself of different religious sects, even though such people, as the Jews in Spain did, were thriving, competent, able professionals, is totally absurd. There is a perversity in every religion that does not tolerate other beliefs. This may be fine for one's own conscience, one's own private life, but to make it a public policy is genuine evil.

You write: "The history of Christianity is not free from repression and subjections of the religions of others. This is unfortunate because this is not how I read the teachings of Jesus especially personified by the Sermon on the Mount. This leads me to the conclusion that many Christians today do not inherently practice their religion."

I agree with this statement. The truth is that whenever Christianity or any religion for that matter, tries to link itself with the power of the State for it's own purposes, at that instant, no longer follows Christ. I think in my statement about the Suni's and Shiites I should have included "Protestants and Catholics".