[Dialogue] Seious Objections

[Karl Hess]

Margaret,

My mistake was assuming a Christian context.  My apologies.

Here's what I understand.  See also 
http://www.serve.com/thibodep/cr/niebuhr.htm 

In Christian theology generally God is understood to take a dim view 
of other gods.  Other gods are understood as anything which takes the 
place of god in a person's life - money, power, sex, nation, ideology 
- thus these are forms of idolatry.

Animism is a particular group of religions, most commonly found in 
pre-literate societies.

The Egyptian sociologist was studying female genital mutilation, and 
told me that this practice goes back into pre-history in Egypt and 
that Christians and then Muslims had tried to eliminate it and 
failed.  This I take as an example of the veneer of formal religion 
over ancient religions.

A current example is that 70% of Republicans say we should fight for 
our country whether it is right or wrong.  I take that to be an 
example of paganism.

Karl