In looking over the WTs website this morning, I was drawn to an article entitled, The Edict of Nantes A Charter for Tolerance? It deals with the edict signed by King Henry IV, of France , in 1598, which afforded an unprecedented degree of religious tolerance and freedom of religion for Protestants of that time. While questioning the motive behind the edict, the article seems to extol the virtues and rightness of religious tolerance. One would be led to think the author believed that the freedom to decide for oneself what he or she believes and how to worship his or her God was the right of every human being. Learning to live together in peace and without prejudice was indeed a vital lesson to be learned 400 years ago. But the lesson is still relevant today.
I couldnt help but wonder if the author caught even the most fleeting glimpse of the hypocrisy of what he had written. For an organization which is unwilling to tolerate any individual expression of thought or conscience, which does not strictly conform to its own arbitrarily established, and ever changing, perception of the truth, and which willingly and regularly tears apart and destroys precious relationships in expression of that intolerance, to pretend to support and promote religious freedom, seems to me to be the height of arrogance and hypocrisy! The author concludes by saying, Indeed, the Edict of Nantes can best be commemorated by making sure that real freedom of worship is protected for all!