[greymule]

Yup. Gotta beware of those Christians. In fact, how dare Christianity be the single greatest influence upon the Western world?

But like it or not, it's in the air we breathe. Our government may be secular, but our laws and our culture derive from our understanding of just what a human being is and what that person's rights and responsibilities are—and that understanding was shaped heavily by European Christianity, as interpreted by theologians and philosophers and developed on this continent.

Just wondering—what kind of award would the Moslem world give to, say, a YSISF umpire who had sexually molested young boys?

"An eye for an eye" is often incorrectly interpreted to mean that poking people's eyes out is some kind of recommended punishment. In fact, the phrase is an example of how the punishment should be proportional to the crime, not more severe than warranted.

"Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone" and "judge not, lest ye be judged" are warnings against hypocrisy, not dictates against punishing wrongdoing. "Turn the other cheek" does not mean let someone hammer you into the ground. (I'm working on the relevance of "if thine eye offend thee" to this situation.)