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John Stark if you are going to quote me, quote me fully and in context.

Let’s look at my full quote:.

Finally I went on to talk about the scary thing I have noticed over the past 30 years, that we are seeing ONE religious group try to dictate the behavior of ALL citizens based on their doctrine, even if some citizens do not adhere to their dogma. Tobin is a prime example of this. He never comments as a private citizen, which he has every right to do. He always uses his title of "Bishop" when he comments on civil law; This is an attempt to do 2 things.

1 This attempts to make civil law confirm to church law. Forcing all people to follow church law, church members or not.

2. There are members of his church that will go along with him just because of his title. There is a certain element of FEAR here. Tobin uses his title and the mythology of the church even if he does not do so explicitly, to corroces and intimidate his flock.

We have seen these same behaviors in the religious leaders of other countries. They want to force all people to follow church law by making church law civil law. These same leaders use their place of authority and their myths to intimidate members of their faith community. We see this is the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Before anyone asks, YES I am comparing the religious right including Evangelicals and Catholics to the Taliban. YES I am comparing Evangelical leaders and others like Bishop Tobin to the leaders of Al Qaeda. Am I saying we are at the same point they are right NOW? No, not YET. At the same time if we don't keep this in check we WILL end up there.

You took a small portion of my comment out of context. In the full context you see that I am comparing the trend of many leaders of religious groups to use their titles, and positions of authority to manipulate CIVIL leaders into crafting laws based on RELIGIOUS law, so civil law would reflect church law. This would force all citizens, members of a faith community or NOT to live according to one group’s doctrine, mythology and folklore.

My point was that there are other religious groups who demanded that state law reflect religious law. YES, they are the Taliban and Al Qaeda. YOU may not like that comparison, but it still is a legitimate parallel.

Furthermore you edited my quote to make it sound as if I singled out the Catholics. Your edited version reads.

"YES I am comparing ... Bishop Tobin to the leaders of Al Qaeda”

You deliberately left out

” YES I am comparing *THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT INCLUDING **EVANGELICALS And ***Catholics to the Taliban.

* The religious right could be any group including non Christian.

** Evangelicals are mainly Protestant

***and yes I included Catholics and Tobin by name.

I did not single out Catholics as your rewrite made it sound. I was not speaking out against any religion’s right to exist. Rather I was pointing to the fact that religious leaders such as Tobin, but not limited to him, want to use their title of Bishop, Rabi, Reverend, Minister, Priest, Shaman, Prophet, or ANY other Religious leader to lobby to have CIVIL law reflect their religious law, and yes like it or NOT that is Taliban like and a real danger to ALL people.

If you had bothered to take the time to view my testimony you would have heard me talk about protecting the religious liberty of ALL people including Catholics, but we cannot allow one religious community to dictate the behavior of all.

So I stand by my ORIGINAL quote, not your edited version.

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