To talk about "discrimination" against Roman Catholics implies institutional bias, something that long existed in an overwhelmingly Protestant United States (and certainly affected other groups as well, Jews and Mormons to name but two).

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Reading through some of my fellow panelists' responses, I'm impressed with what Martin Marty says about religions possessing twin capacities for immense destruction and great societal beneficence. Still, I can't help but see the original question at the top of the page as time-bound--the mere fact that it's being asked reflects the particular era in which we live. Secondly, to ask specifically about Islam and violence seems to bypass a rather glaring cultural issue, which is that we (Americans, among others) seem to like violence, or at least accord it value as entertainment.

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Christopher Hitchens can be entertaining; that's apparent in his work. But the statement above is a rant: you either agree with it absolutely 100 percent or you don't. There's no room for conversation here, no space for dialogue, no opportunity for mutual discovery, for actual learning. And that's the stuff that causes us to engage intellectually, you might say makes us fully human.

Hitchens' statement is fully protected by the First Amendment. He's got every right to declare his opinion. So does the guy wearing the "Yankees Suck" t-shirt. The law, fortunately, doesn't compel anyone to respond to either. What's there to say, beyond unimaginative exclamations, like "Yeah!" or "Says you!" We get enough of that shout-you-down stuff in the stadiums... but there, at least you can get a beer and a hot dog.

"The Love Guru" doesn't really sound like my type of movie. The title alone seems a non-starter, never mind the convoluted plot description. But seeing a film, especially the old-fashioned way, in a movie house, can be a powerful sensory/emotional experience. There you are, in the dark, with all the sound and action played very big directly before you. By their nature, movies are intended to generate reactions in the audience; that they can generate very different responses should be evident from the very different reviews that so many of them receive.

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