When I first started the process of actually typing out my notes spanning the previous ten years, I heard on the radio concerning yet another child abuse scandal in the US that the Pope had condemned child abuse (which one would hope, but then the church took 400 years to agree that Galileo was right after all) and expressed the hope that God has used this scandal to 'purify the church'. In other words, God has seen to it that helpless children were raped, beaten, and abused in every way one can imagine so that his church could be purified. I have found that after reading the Bible, you will appreciate that at least God is consistent in his way of thinking.
Freedom of speech and belief are essential values from which our Western notion of democracy is based as any military commander will tell you in Iraq. However, there is a worrying trend, particularly in the United States, of the promotion and advancement of religion. After all, it was the first President Bush who expressed the view that true Americans were not atheists . …
