The deadly terrorist attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya represents not just a failure of intelligence. It symbolizes the failure to face unpleasant truths about the hatreds unleashed by corrupted religion.

Ever since Puritans plunged into the New England wilderness, determined to renounce worldly corruptions and establish “a city upon a hill”, American preachers have thundered against the poison of irreligion. So, too, today.