An allegorical tale of Western history since the renaissance, containing perhaps a warning from history for the rest of the world.

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Once upon a time, there was a Catholic man, and a Protestant man, and they disliked each other due to their differing theological interpretations of the Bible.

The Catholic said “You newcomers are in error, embrace our beliefs and values”, the Protestant responded “Never, I shall stick to the truth!”, the Catholic retorted “Silence yourself Heretic! Your compliance is mandatory, you will submit to our beliefs!”

They then fought each other, and fought and fought, until they both became very tired.

“We cannot do this forever” said the Catholic, “agreed” said the Protestant “why don’t we only fight each other intellectually, and not physically and let the better idea win?”, the Catholic said “Ok, but what about political law?”, the Protestant replied “Well, we are both Christians, so we both agree on most of the same basic Christian laws”, and so they came to an agreement, and the religious fighting ended…that is, until the Liberal came along…

“Hi guys, I was thinking, Christian law seems to restrict non-Christians (Atheists, Deists and the ‘non-religious’ [i.e. hypocrites]) from doing things they believe are not immoral, could you change the law to stop expecting non-Christians/non-religious Christians to follow your values? You can continue to voluntarily live by your own law and say whatever you want, except that non-Christians will not be physically harmed for believing and practising their beliefs. Let them live and say what they want in peace, what’s the worst that could happen?”

The Catholic and Protestant agreed “Seems fair enough”

The Liberal then removed Christian laws from government, but laws were needed to  replace the old ones, and laws need values and ethics.

“Hey guys”, the Liberal said, “We need a set of values and ethics to replace the old ones – purely for practical use though…would you mind basing these values on Liberal morality?”

The Catholic and the Protestant looked cautiously at each other “What are Liberal values and ethics?”

The Liberal responded briskly “Oh, just the material happiness of the individual…we can use that basis as a justification for stopping crime under the name of ‘preventing physical harm and harm to property’ – which we all agree needs to be stopped, that’s all… don’t worry its just for practical purposes”

“Are you sure it is only for practical use?” said the two Christians, “Of course” the Liberal replied “You don’t have to change your morality, just allow Liberal laws to do the job of preventing crime in society – what’s the worst that could happen?”

The Catholic and the Protestant said “Seems fair enough”

The Liberal then detached Christianity from government laws, and re-established society on laws based upon Liberal values and ethics, and many people had to learn Liberal values and ethics in order to conduct their business in society. The government then advertised itself to the world as being a tolerant country, demanding only obeying the common law from all who immigrate to it.

But people didn’t agree on how Liberal values and ethics should be interpreted into law, and people couldn’t agree on its purpose and aims, so the Liberal approached the Catholic and the Protestant again and said “Friends, people are in much disagreement as to how to create new laws to deal with complex new situations, we need a guideline for them – could we teach people Liberal morality, and how to determine good and bad – purely from a practical standpoint, not theological one”

The Catholic and Protestant again looked at each other cautiously and said “We’re unsure, are you trying to usurp Christian morality?”, “Of course not!” the Liberal replied “I won’t be making Theological claims at all what so ever, this is just for practical purposes for the greater good, what’s the worst that could happen?”

The Catholic and Protestant said “Ok, just as long as you are not involving yourself in our morality”, “of course not” the Liberal replied.

The Liberal then used the government to change the school curriculums, and public education programs, and after much time had passed, this caused Christian morality to become irrelevant, which in turn caused many people to forget Christian morality and had become non-religious Liberals, or non-practicing ‘Christian’ Liberals. From amongst the people arose people who did things that were against Christian morality, and the Catholic man and Protestant man continued to do what they had always done, and practice their right to live and preach by Christian morality.

Unfortunately many of the non-religious Liberal groups complained that the public profession of Christianity had led committed Christians to dislike their lifestyle choices – which made them feel uncomfortable. This continued until the non-religious Liberals, and non-practicing ‘Christian’ Liberals became the majority, once that happened…

The Liberal approached the Catholic and the Protestant and said “Amigos, thanks for all your co-operation so far – it has been most useful, but there are some problems. The things that you say and believe are the problem”

The Catholic and Protestant looked confused “But we are not physically hurting anyone or using violence”, “I know” said the Liberal “but if you remember when I told you about Liberal values, it meant an Individual’s ‘happiness’ and your words make people feel uncomfortable, which goes against their Individual happiness, so I’m going to make some restrictions to what you can say”

The Catholic and Protestant said “That is not fair! You said that laws based upon Liberal morality would protect our rights, and what about our happiness preaching and believing our own morality?”, The Liberal responded “Yes, but Liberal morality doesn’t recognise ideas not rooted in materialism, and judges your morality to be itself  Immoral, and ‘illiberal’, therefore Liberalism judges that you get no right to preach it, for it contradicts LIBERAL morality, and expressing it in public impinges people’s Liberal Rights not to hear such illiberal offensiveness. Due to your blind yet helpful co-operation in the past, your current power to resist is gone, your actions will now be restricted, and you will embrace our morality, this is not a request. Have a nice day”

The Catholic and Protestant then had to pretend to be Liberal to be tolerated by the Liberal dominated society, and this state of affairs continued, and that would be the end of the story…until a Muslim man arrived.

The advertisements of the tolerance of Liberal society was taken at face value, and the Muslim man came seeking a livelihood that he had lost due to Western colonialisation. He lived peacefully but lived and preached according to Islam’s morality and values.

The Liberal at first said to himself ‘He’s new here, I’ll give him time to adapt”. But the Muslim man kept on with his beliefs and values, and the Liberal became agitated.

The Liberal approached the Muslim man “Hey there friend, great to have you here, what do you think of Liberal values?”, the Muslim replied “After getting to know it, I disagree with it, but that’s ok right? I still will obey the law and live here in peace”.

The Liberal became enraged and said

“You newcomers are in error, embrace our beliefs and values”, the Muslim replied “Never, I shall stick to the truth!” The Liberal replied

“Silence yourself heretic!..I mean, ‘Extremist’….your compliance is mandatory, you will submit..I mean ‘integrate’ to our beliefs!”…

The story continues…

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