text: Not so, TomZ: "I'm pretty sure that the trend of legalistic enforcement in Judeo-Christian law over the last 5000 years has been towards more and more lenience."  You rely far too much on your "opinion" and mistake it for fact.  As I mentioned in a previous example, Jesus, as noted in Matthew, is replacing the prevalent religious Mosaic Law (in existence for the 3,000 years in the 5,000 you cite) of the time with a new "law" of Christianity.  Mosaic Law was exceptionally rigid, to say the least.  Recent history is replete with one example after another of laws that are every bit as rigid and dictatorial as what Jesus condemned in His earthly days.  You are no informed student of history to make the comments you do about the past and present state of law in both sacred and secular circles.  It's the constant struggle of the Christian faith to resist oppression and the victimization of the less powerful, the less influential by the majority or by a minority of even one, such as yourself.