At least that’s our hope.

So a pointy head over at Foreign Policy has come to the conclusion most of us came to after reading a book or two: “[T]he chief complaint against religion — that it is history’s prime instigator of intergroup conflict — does not withstand scrutiny. Religious issues motivate only a small minority of recorded wars.”

Thanks.

Vox Day could have told you the same thing. In fact he did: in his Irrational Atheist, which I wrote a review of here.

Anyone with even a superficial grasp of world history learned a long time ago that the number one cause of all wars is this.

Meanwhile, it seems like Frank Schaeffer*, author, polemicist, piece of work, and son of the late evangelical apologist Francis Schaeffer, has experienced an epiphany of sorts: “I’m burnt out on rhetorically burning others. I’m going to try Hume’s agreeableness for a bit. Instead of damning each other, maybe we can learn to show mercy to those with whom we disagree, taking our cue from a teacher who said that love of enemy — not correct theology or politics — is all that can make us whole.”

Why do I have a feeling that Schaeffer took a lot of heat–even more than usual–for his ohbitchuary of Chuck Colson? It’s odd that Schaeffer feels compelled to take a page from the book of an eighteenth-century agnostic when it comes to confronting one’s enemies and not from, say, that of a first-century Galilean. (Perhaps the latter’s “whitewashed walls” remark was too inflammatory for the reborn progressive.) I also find it interesting that Schaeffer blames his bad behavior as a lefty on his walk on the right side. (So it’s sorta still the fundamentalists’ fault, damn them to the hell he doesn’t believe in but that only fundamentalists–damn them again!–do.)

Couldn’t it be that Schaeffer simply thinks that he’s right about everything and that anyone who dares disagree with him is evil and stupid? Couldn’t it be that Schaeffer just likes to win?

In any event, I’m sure Billy Graham’s friends and family are greatly relieved.

H/T: Internet Monk

*As a fire-breathing right-winger, he was Franky Schaeffer. As a fire-breathing left-winger, he was Frank Schaeffer. Can we expect a further diminution of his Christian name now that he’s a irenic progressive? Perhaps Fran Schaeffer? (I assume he’s leaving Fra Schaeffer for the day he joins the Trappists . . .)