How deep do the seams of tolerance run in this country? Sometimes you wonder…ultimately, I’m pessimistic about the human love of liberty. I tend to agree with Matt McIntosh that to some extent American defense of individual freedoms is based on custom & tradition rather than reasoned acceptance of core principles. In any case I had a book on my shelf which I just had some spare time to open today, America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity, and I saw this table:
| Spiritual Shoppers (%) | Christian Inclusivists(%) | Christian Exclusivists(%) | All Respondents (%) | |
| Percentage who said they favored: | ||||
| Making it illegal for Muslim groups to meet in the United States | 15 | 27 | 27 | 23 |
| Making it illegal for Hindu groups to meet in the United States | 12 | 25 | 24 | 20 |
| Making it illegal for Buddhist groups to meet in the United States | 12 | 24 | 23 | 20 |
| N | (897) | (677) | (1,006) | (2,910) |
Of course, the standard caveat applies that many respondents are probably too dumb to understand the questions.
Comments are closed.