Ack! Yet again....

Word has come through people who watch for religious liberty in the world that Saudi Arabia has arrested a Christian for his faith. Well, they arrested him for telling the world that he has changed from Islam to Christianity. Now, I know over the years, Christians have done some lousy things and claimed to be doing them for God. I also would stand by my statement that God is the original sufferer of identity theft. Just like 26 million Americans have loans and debts in their names that they didn't take out, so millions of people have done things in God's name that He neither requested nor approved. But, this idea of locking up and executing people for changing their religion is patently evil no matter who does it. And especially for a country that claims to be tolerant, and a religion that wants to be considered tolerant. Anyway, read the whole story here.

Now, what really bugs me about this is google. Now, I use a lot of free stuff from google. And I'm glad they have lots of free stuff to give. But, if you try to access this person's blog, written on blogger, the same program I'm using now, you can't get it. Google has blocked the man's efforts to tell about his faith, and the persecution from it. Try christforsaudi.blogspot.com. If it tells you anything other than 'blocked' put that in the comments. As of 3pm central time, January 29th, it's blocked.

Why is google doing this? This man is writing about his own life. What did he say that offended google or violated the terms of service? People that deny the holocaust have blogs. Racists have blogs. Radical right-wing Christian fundamentalists have blogs (at least, if you're reading this, we do).

Muzzling his speech is not the right thing to do. The only potential motive is profit. I understand that Google is a business. But imagine if someone had blogged about leaving Christianity for Atheism. Would that be blocked? Ah, no that blog is still there...Satanism blog? yep. Pro-Islam blog? Yep.

Come on, google. Religious freedom and freedom of speech have to be allowed to viewpoints you don't like as much as viewpoints you do. And don't claim that since he's a criminal, he doesn't get those rights. It is wrong for his religious viewpoints to be a crime. And it's wrong for an American company to side with an intolerant government to abuse its own citizens. It was wrong the last 8 years, it's still wrong.

Sorry, I had some other posting to do. But this had to come out. If google kicks me out as well, find my blog at www.calvarymonticello.com.