Harold Lee wrote:Comparing Mormonism to extremist Islam, prefaced with the shooting of a teenage girl for helping spread female education, seems KIND OF extreme and unfair. Just a little.
Maybe comparing Mormonism with Puritanism- all the judging and politics. Mountain Meadows was our Salem Witch trial. Re-read the Scarlet Letter and you're in present day Utah, but instead of the 'A' make it a sleeveless shirt. The 12 are Jonathon Edwards. The rest of the world is reprobate outside of their bubble in the Northeast.
The OP compared the kind of "what I believe that my particular imaginary god says is more important than the welfare of mere humans" kind of thinking reflected in " The Miracle of Forgiveness" to that reflected in some parts of Islam. In Islam, honor killings of females seen to have somehow shamed the family extends well beyond the Taliban. (The UN estimates that there are some 5,000 such killings per year)
Is there really that much difference, in principle, between telling your unmarried daughter that you would rather she come home a virgin in a body bag than alive and no longer a virgin, and telling your daughter that if she is found to be no longer a virgin before marriage, she may end up in a body bag?
In both cases the parent is putting greater value on their own self-esteem and perceived position in the community than on the life of their child.