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Chesterton on illogical extensions

A quote was mentioned in a comment to a blog post written about the religious views of the man who killed several dozen campers in Oslo, and the quote was attributed to Chesterton. Being the Chesterton fan I am, I looked it up via Google; and not only did it sound like something he’d say, it was something he’d written.

It is not enough to say “Christians persecuted; down with Christianity,” any more than it is enough to say, “A Confucian stole my hairbrush; down with Confucianism.” We want to know whether the reason for which the Confucian stole the hairbrush was a reason peculiar to the Confucians or a reason common to many other men.

—G.K. Chesterton, “The Eternal Heroism of the Slums” chapter in his book The Blatchford Controversies

P.S. This was the blog post, noting that the Christianity that Anders Behring Breivik purportedly espoused was cultural rather than spiritual. If that makes sense.

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