Stephen King has always had a love-hate relationship with religion. His fictional creations don’t work without a Christian context. The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption come to mind. Without God there is no moral universe to play against.

King told Rolling Stone magazine that “he believed ‘in evil,’ but that all his life he has ‘gone back and forth about whether or not there’s an outside evil, whether or not there’s a force in the world that really wants to destroy us, from the inside out, individually and collectively. Or whether it all comes from inside and that it’s all part of genetics and environment.'”

King’s latest foray into the topic of religion is a bit confused when he tries to draw a parallel between ISIS and Christianity:

Those who attend the Westboro Baptist Church make up a very small group of self-proclaimed Christians compared to the more than 1 billion+ Christians worldwide.

As far as I can tell, the church members haven’t bombed buildings, cut off the heads of unbelievers, crucified Christians, burned churches, synagogues, or mosques.

They don’t rape and pillage or involve themselves in “honor killings.” To my knowledge, the haven’t sent innocent people to their deaths in an airplane bombing.

At worst, they are a nuisance. They have been universally condemned by Christians.

Moreover, there is no universal hate for Muslims, but there is a great deal of mistrust of millions of Muslims who support a forced caliphate and the implementation of sharia law.

When the facts are assessed, there is no real comparison between the folks of Westboro Baptist Church and Christianity and radical Islamists and the Paris bombings and other acts of terrorism.

Have you noticed that liberals are generally fearful of speaking out against Islam but have no fear of attacking Christians and Christianity? Atheist Phil Zuckerman has noticed:

“I absolutely agree that it is okay for those on the left to critique, mock, deride Christianity, but Islam gets a free pass, which is so strange, because if you care about women’s rights, if you care about human rights, if you care about gay rights, then really Islam is much more problematic – sorry to paint Islam with a huge brush – and much more devastating.”

“As an atheist – where on planet Earth is the death penalty meted out to atheists? It’s only in, I think, 24 Muslim countries.

“Where have human rights flourished the most? In Christian nations.”

“I see Christianity as a great friend of secular culture. I see Islam as much more of a threat, much more debilitating. I’m not talking about Muslim individuals that I happen to sit next to on an airplane or are my neighbors. I’m talking about doctrines and those that have the power to enforce those doctrines in the form of Sharia law.

******

“I know what keeps me from critiquing Islam on my blog is just fear.

“I’ve got three kids. So I know I can say anything about Christianity or Mormonism, and I’m not living in fear, which is a testament to Christianity and Mormonism, and that’s wonderful. Thank you.

“I would never write the same kind of stuff that I do about certain religions – Judaism, Christianity, LDS, whatever – as I would about Islam – just straight up fear.”