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M*W: I haven't followed the recent Mohammad cartoon thing, but generally speaking, my point was that we are born a citizen of the country we live in, and unless we renounce our citizenship when we are mature enough to know what we're doing, that's somewhat different than embracing a religion as a mature person knowing full well it was responsible for atrocities against humanity.
I know it is impossible to ask forgiveness from the folks who were murdered by the Church during the Inquisition just as it isn't very easy, for example, to ask the Japanese people to forgive our country and its leaders (before our time) for the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I believe true forgiveness must come from the heart even though we would never be able to personally ask to be forgiven for the atrocities our ancestors caused. My point is that we must forgive ourselves which includes forgiving our ancestors by having the desire in our hearts to be forgiven. Asking for forgiveness, regardless of however many thousands of times we have to acknowledge the guilt that we have inherited, is tremendously cleansing to our psyche. We were not there and had no part of the bomb droppings in Japan, just as we were not there and did not participate in The Burning Times, but there is no reason we shouldn't seek forgiveness for those atrocities. The second point I was trying to make was that we also inherit our citizenship, and we do have the power to change our country's actions, even if it is a very slow process through voting for our lawmakers. Embracing Christianity, on the other hand, that was responsible for evil deeds in the past, is the same as being guilty for the horrors that were done in the name of Jesus Christ. Where does the guilt end and the forgiveness begin? If one does not seek forgiveness, if only from the inner dark recesses of one's heart, then one will not be forgiven.
