To many patriots in the United States during the American Revolution, Catholicism was an evil religion whose precepts were fundamentally incompatible with democracy. Yet I don&#x27;t think very many Americans would concur today.<p>Religious dogma is as much shaped by the current cultural norms as it shapes them, something that many religious leaders are loathe to admit.<p>Your statement reminds me scarily of something I read relatively recently in a book by a conservative Christian author. The sentence, to paraphrase, was along the lines of &quot;I&#x27;m not saying all Muslims are extremists, but the threat of Islamic terrorism is so high we should kick them all out to be safe.&quot;