Politically Incorrect Debate of the Day

That would be the Derb (no stranger to un-PC topics) versus Robert Spencer, author of Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't, and other books in that vein. Here's the Derbyshire review of Religion of Peace; here's Spencer's response. I have all sorts of thoughts on this topic, but for the moment I'll confine myself to taking issue with Derb's remark that "Christianity got its start as a religion of slaves. Perhaps it is fated to end the same way." The debate over the demographics of early Christianity is sufficiently tangled to make it possible that he's right; however, there's more reason to think that Christianity got its start as a religion of middle-class urban women than that it spread primarily on the lowest rungs of the Roman social ladder. Not that a "religion of women" would be any more appealing to Derb, I'm sure - particularly where the struggle with radical Islam is concerned - but for the sake of accuracy I thought I'd throw the point out there.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2007/08/politically-incorrect-debate-of-the-day/54722/