What I find occasionally odd is that so many conventional bits of theology like this are so controversial if someone actually mentions them in public. God permits evil. My faith is the only true one. People of other faiths are doomed to spend eternity in Hell. Etc. There’s a lot of stuff like this which is either explicit or implied in sects of all kinds, and at an abstract level we all know it. Somehow, though, when someone actually says it, it’s like they farted in church. Weird.

What I find occasionally odd is that so many conventional bits of theology like this are so controversial if someone actually mentions them in public. God permits evil. My faith is the only true one. People of other faiths are doomed to spend eternity in Hell. Etc. There’s a lot of stuff like this which is either explicit or implied in sects of all kinds, and at an abstract level we all know it. Somehow, though, when someone actually says it, it’s like they farted in church. Weird.

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[Richard Mourdock Gets in Trouble for His Extremely Conventional Religious Beliefs

Mother Jones](http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/10/richard-mourdock-gets-trouble-his-extremely-conventional-religious-beliefs)

The obvious explanation is that most Americans don’t actually believe what they say they believe, making those that do seem very, very strange.