I was reading yesterday about the new approved haircuts for men by the Iranian government.  My first thought, of course, was the dangers of the control of a religion on a government.  But, then I had to take a look at the way I was raised.  I was raised in a Pentecostal church in Alabama.  Rather than focusing on Love, Kindness, and Happiness, our focus was what you could and could not do.  The could not do list was much larger than the could do list.  A few examples from the could not do list:  No shorts, swimming with the opposite sex, no jewelry, no pants for  women, no haircuts for women, no going to the movies, no drinking, no smoking, etc, etc.  We also taught that men should not have long hair.  So, how different were we from Iran and the Muslim extremists?  I do want to point out that this is NOT an attack on the Muslim religion.  I think it's great for people to have faith - wherever they find it.  My problem is that the majority of religious people aren't using religion as it was intended.  They are using it as an excuse to control other people.  How easy is it to defend an argument by saying, "Because God said so."  I have watched so many people take sentences from the Bible and use them totally out of context to defend their arguments.  But, what these folks are not seeing is how many people they hurt by trying to control other people.  The bottom line is that extremists are never going to go away.  I suppose it's human nature.  There will always be a difference of opinion, but extremists are dangerous - to both the physical world and the mental health of those involved. 

I don't know that this entry actually made a point at all.  I just know I see this happening around me all the time and know firsthand how easy it is to be sucked into this type of thing.  It's frightening.