Religious Freedom or Criminal Activity? Which is it?
I was just searching the Internet looking for a middle-eastern nativity scene for purchase. In that search I came across a brief article about a human-sized "political" nativity scene that was vandalized at a church. I thought this a bit strange, and realized that a Christian could be charged with vandalizing a Christian nativity scene, because they considered it sacrilegious, but if a Muslim stole an image of Muhammad, because they found it offensive, it might be considered practicing religious freedom. In our society, to some degree certain religious beliefs and commitments are idolized, whereas others are scrutinized - and not with the same measure. In this fictional scenario, the media and protestors would be up in arms advocating for the Muslim who rightfully was defending Mohammad, and would also be up in arms in opposition to the Christian who was defending Jesus. At the same time, in other parts of our country, the Muslim would not even have a chance t...