In ancient Rome Christians and Jews were put to death in the Colisseum. How things have changed! The Emperor Constantine in the 4th century A.D. declared Christianity the official religion of the Empire. This act was a recognition of the reality of what the Roman Empire demographic had become. It was an amnesty and path to citizenship for all Christians much like the solutions America is grappling now with its own immigrants.
But some of the subsets of Christian and Jewish religious groups became fanatical. They are known today as Evangelical Christians and Zionists respectively. They both work together to shape American foreign policy in the Middle East. This is wrong and dangerous for American security. The events of 9/11 were an opening gambit of the blowback from some of the indigenous Middle East population.
Christians United for Israel is one such Evangelical political action committee that has a strong influence with our born-again President Bush. The Reverend John Hagee who heads CUFI urged Bush to support Israel's slaughter of the Lebanese in July and the bombing of Lebanon's infrastructure that erased 20 years of recovery. He said, " Israel is carrying out God's foreign policy". And of course most everyone is familiar with the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee ( AIPAC) suffocating influence on our executive and legislative branches of governments. AIPAC's agenda is a threat to America's interests and world peace. They must be stopped.
In general, I suspect that in between the Roman-way of handling the Christians and the free rein that the Evangelicals and Zionists now enjoy lies the correct policy for America's general well being.
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