Reply #130: By vastly stupid...

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

I mean that by their logic, a Bishop could silence a large number of women in their child-bearing years (because Catholics avail themselves of contraceptives as readily as Protestants). They could also start banning anybody who speaks on behalf of untrammeled, free-market enterprise (i.e., any Republicans) because of the church's teaching on social justice. Once you start banning the voices of those with whom you disagree, you're left with lock-step dogmatism.

Now there are some on these boards that would argue that lock-step dogmatism is the sum and substance of all religious expression (particularly Catholicism), but I am not one of those. There is a rich tradition of dissent in western religion, and any attempt to silence heretics will, almost inevitably, lead to further schism. It didn't work with Galileo; it's not likely to work now.