Picking at the Scab

Quote of the week, from Eric S. Raymond:

The trouble with 'tolerance' is that it only works as a cultural compact when all parties are civilized and have in practice largely agreed to abandon the more inconvenient claims of the religions they theoretically profess.

(The title is from a comment I left at a post over at Eternity Road.) (Link broken. - Ed.) Discuss.

Update, 3/18/06: Fran Porretto comments (Link broken. - Ed.) on Eric S. Raymond's post, but misidentifies which portion I quoted "with approval."

Apparently he's still upset with me.

One more update. Og the Neanderpundit links approvingly to Fran's post, and comments:

We're not talking about the things so called christians have done in the past, and I will brook no discussion on that subject.

But we have to discuss that subject, because no one's proven to me that such things can't happen again:

When news of this holocaust of French Protestants reached the world, Catherine de'Medici received the congratulations of all the Catholic powers, and Pope Gregory XIII ordered bonfires lighted and the singing of the Te Deum. Indeed, the Pope's joy was so great that he commanded a gold medal to be minted, with the inscription, "Slaughter [strages] of the Huguenots." He then had Giorgio Vasari paint pictures in the Vatican of "the glorious triumph over a perfidious race."

I suppose Catherine de'Medici and Pope Gregory XIII were "so-called" Christians? Sarah claims that Protestant Christianity is the answer. Perhaps it is, but some of the Protestant sects seem quite content in quoting the Old Testament and holding it up for reverence. The Ten Commandments, for example, which is a rallying point for a lot of American Christians, is from the Book of Exodus. Fran states:

The Book of Deuteronomy is Old Testament, and has no relevance to the Christian New Covenant; the same applies to the bloody commands of the Book of Leviticus.

Are the Ten Commandments still valid, then? A lot of people seem to believe they are. Or is this just another example of where civilized parties have "largely agreed to abandon the more inconvenient claims of the religions they theoretically profess?"

I've made the point that I'm not a biblical scholar, but I'd wager the majority of people who are "so-called christians" aren't either, and never have been.

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UPDATE:  As of August 6, 2013, due to the herculean efforts of reader John Hardin, the original (rather long) JS-Kit/Echo comment thread for this post (read-only) is available here.