Quote Originally Posted by Whacker View Post
So the people that preached, lead, and fought in the Crusades were OK then? The Inquisition? Slavery? The Holocaust?
They were overly warlike, fanatically religious, greedy racists, and Nazi's. What's ok about any of that? Saying that we should judge people in the context of their age doesn't mean that they weren't really bad in the context of their age.

We should stick with simple description. "X was a homophobe in 1970", there you go. Does it sound like it isn't a significant criticism? That's because it's not. It doesn't reflect as poorly on him as it would in someone in our own times.

You wouldn't pat yourself on the bag for not believing the earth was 6000 years old would you? And judge people in olden times based on whether they did?