In Jennifer Kim's Oct. 7 letter "Tolerance for hurt feelings," she bemoans a lack of tolerance for her religion in the Muslim world, but her beloved Christianity has been demonstrably anti-Semitic since the first centuries of the common era and culminating in the Holocaust.

Kim writes, "We never see Catholics respond ... by killing and rioting," which gives the impression that she believes her religion to be one of nonviolence, perhaps forgetting the machete-wielding Catholic priests in the Rwandan genocide not 20 years ago, or the well documented history of widespread and systematic child rape by pederast priests.

The Inquisition routinely used torture methods. The Catholic Church did not officially condemn the use of torture until Pope Pius VII in 1816; the last auto-da-fe took place in Mexico in 1850.

The list of atrocities committed and blood spilled in the name of Christianity is long indeed. I would question whether any belief system wholly without evidence deserves any tolerance or respect whatsoever; certainly one as violent as Christianity deserves none from any rationally thinking individual.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.

greg blossom