Europeans have a long, cultural tradition of fermented drinks. Wines, beers, etc. But we show up in the New World and foist these same gifts off on the natives and it goes very badly for the natives. Alcohol: good for Euro-Viking types, bad for American aboriginals.

In a bit of a quid pro quo, the American natives had a long, cultural tradition of tobacco use. But they didn't walk around with a three pack a day habit. Tobacco was part of their religious observances. Nevertheless, the Europeans got a hold of tobacco and it has gone quite badly for, well, everybody since then. Tobacco: OK for Native Americans, and a pox on the entire world of "other people" since the 1500s.

So if this logic works for booze and smokes, then I'm guessing that the same cultural misappropriation effect is operative for religions. And boy howdy, there's an effect. Take, as an example, the spectacularly annoying (yet potent) malevolent desert djinn that we all know as "Yahweh".

Yahweh, or YHWH, is a perfectly fine god for the Jews who invented him. They seem to get along well. But give yourself a Jewish malcontent (this would the Mr. Jesus fellow), and follow up with some southern Euro-trash spin doctors (like the Mr. Paul fellow), and then throw the Greeks in to the mix (curse them), and VOILÁ!!! Total and complete uck-fay-ittery-way. What should have stayed a nice, little local religious franchise in the Middle East is instead part of the Great Decline of Western Civilization. Let's hope we all get out of it alive.

The cultural misappropriation thesis also applies to Islam, but since it's the same stupid malevolent desert djinn at work there, too, then it's duplicative to continue along those lines. That, and when you mess with uck-fay-itt-way Muslim Extremists they send Poo Bombs to your mailbox. I'm all for avoiding exploding bags of (typically) flaming poo. Bad for my fair northern complexion, and social life.