Doomed To Repeat

"Those who do not study the past are doomed to repeat it." For being such a famous saying, people sure haven't paid much attention to it. With the exception of the new ideas being religiously based instead of politically, does this all sound a little too familiar. I don't quite like your way of thinking, so I'm going to tweak it a little, and in the end, if you don't like it and adhere to it, I'm going to persecute and likely kill you. This way of thinking is how we started the course, in early Rome, and more that 2000 years later, we're still reading the same thing. And the really sad thing, 500 years later, it's still going on. Not necessary the killing part, but even here in the good old USA we persecute each other through words and actions because of a difference in beliefs, religious or political. This whole election process has shown us that. Personally, I'm greatful for new ideas. What wonderful discoveries we would have missed without them. But why do some people carry them so far? I only knew of little of the Martin Luther reform and respected what he did. But after this weeks reading, I'd have to say I waiver a little. The same with John Calvin. While I agree with some of each of their thinking, both seemed to have carried it too far. Which I feel is a hypocracy of anyone who claims a belief in God. If we believe that faith and good works is what Christ taught, how can we in the name of religion persecute and kill each other? And yet they did, and we do. The number of people who died from the black plague was mind boggling, but the number of people killed in the name of religious is unfathumable. Hundreds here, thousands there, leaders, followers, and everyone in between. I don't deny the good that has come from it. We have a country founded on religous freedom, with many different religious that all have some foundation based on these reformations. But if we don't also see falicies we have learned nothing. Remember, those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. We mustvbe more tolerant in allowing people to worship how, where, and what they may. We must quit getting offended so easily. We must lose the thinking that my way is the only way. And although church and state must stay seperate, they can work side by side in nurturing tolerance and protection.