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“Taller Buddha of Bamiyan before and after destruction” by Buddha_Bamiyan_1963.jpg: UNESCO/A Lezine; Original uploader was Tsui at de.wikipedia.Later version(s) were uploaded by Liberal Freemason at de.wikipedia.Buddhas_of_Bamiyan4.jpg: Carl Montgomeryderivative work: Zaccarias (talk) – Buddha_Bamiyan_1963.jpgBuddhas_of_Bamiyan4.jpg. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taller_Buddha_of_Bamiyan_before_and_after_destruction.jpg#/media/File:Taller_Buddha_of_Bamiyan_before_and_after_destruction.jpg

Religious Liberty and Imagery

Religious Liberty is a hot topic:

• In 2001 the Taliban destroyed two Buddhist statues that were on the historic Silk Road. This destruction was condemned throughout the West but the action is part of a long line of what we call iconoclastic behavior. More recently ISIS has been destroying ancient religious statuary in Iraq and Syria.
• After the Supreme Court decision legalizing same sex marriage many conservative religious communities including Christians have concerns about infringement of religious liberty. Christian colleges are facing the possibility of the loss of accreditation and Federal financial aid if they don’t remove sexual behavior morality guidelines that conform to traditional Christian sexual norms.
• “We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad,” Franklin Graham, head of Samaritans Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote on his public Facebook page on July 17. “We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the US until this threat with Islam has been settled.” At press time, more than 167,000 people had “liked” the post. CT
• Ideas about religious liberty developed in the West after hundreds of years of warfare between Protestant, Catholics, Muslims and waves of persecution against religious minorities like the Jews.

The Bible and Religious Freedom

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