I think that’s an important distinction, Meen, and I might add: any time you put two people together you have politics. It’s the nature of the beast. Where we have religion, it is all too often manipulated for personal gain, or to establish primacy, or some other reason, almost invariably involving the use or misuse of power.

I don’t disagree. I would posit that there are so many shadings as it pertains to religion, how it’s interpreted, how it’s used. I am a student of religious history (not a scholar) so it fascinates me and at the same it horrifies me. Religion in and of itself, the holy writings in and of themselves, are not the issue. It’s how they are used. I would point to the Catholic church and the many, many, many priests, pastors and other incredibly bad people who have hid behind this or that church and gotten away with pure evil.

It’s an incredibly complex issue. The writings of Reza Aslan are among my favorites.