As executive director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law, Doug Cassel speaks with authority when he contributes to WBEZ’s WorldView program. But his statements on Thursday’s Chicago Tonight left me stunned. Phil Ponce asked Cassel to compare the beheading of Nicolas Berg to the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal and Cassel suggested that Muslim men might prefer being beheaded to being humiliated sexually. The logic behind that statement brought me momentarily back to fourth grade when no amount of reasoning on my part could convince my colleagues that to worship God was to refuse His greatest gifts to us. According to the Bible (my young classmates’ holy scripture), “He” gave us consciousness and self-determination, and with them the awareness that life on Earth is finite. Therefore what could possibly be worse than death? Why even waste time kneeling to “Him”? Is it wise for any of us to recognize and respect a culture that sees humiliation as worse than death? Is it even possible for a culture to thrive if it doesn’t consider death the ultimate sacrifice? I know that redemption is big for Christians, too, but when was the last time a Jesus-lover became a suicide bomber? (Mel Gibson doesn’t count…) Bottom line: Stop listening to clerics, people! They’re just men in funny hats.