I am all for religious tolerance.

I believe we ought to be able to get along with a live peaceably beside people of different faiths. If those folks want to know about Christianity, I will tell them. But I won’t beat anyone over the head with it. I won’t force or coerce them in any way to accept my faith for themselves. And, more than that, I won’t denigrate them if they choose not to accept my beliefs. To me, that is exactly contrary to Christianity.

I believe you are probably a lot like that as well.

Yet, at the same time, Christians are often portrayed as being intolerant. Frankly, I don’t find this to be true. The Christians I know try the best they can to live out their faith while encountering a social ethic that can only be called counter-Christian. Despite that, respect for other religions, not intolerance, is our approach — even though we may lament societal changes.

No so with other religions. Just take the true and current account of Asia Noreen Bibi.

Bibi, 44, is a Christian in Punjab, Pakistan. She has five children and works as a farmhand.

One day in 2009, Bibi was working on the farm when she was asked to fetch some water from a well. She obeyed, but also stopped to take a drink from an old metal cup she found lying next to the well. A neighbor of Bibi’s, who had been having a running feud with Bibi’s family over some land, saw her drink from the old metal cup and angrily told her that it is forbidden for a Christian to drink from the same cup as a Muslim.

The ensuing conversation revolved about the uncleanness of Christian, and soon devolved into a barrage of attacks against Christianity. Bibi, in Christianity’s defense, responded, “I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind?”

And that was all it took.

Soon after, the police came and arrested Bibi, followed closely by a mob which beat members of her family. Her neighbor had complained to a local cleric about Bibi’s question, and she was now charged with blasphemy. The penalty? Death, of course. In November 2010, Bibi was sentenced to hang. Since her arrest, she has been held in an 8 x 10 foot chamber with no window, called a “death cell.”

The governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, a reasonable person, actually supported Bibi and had spoken against the blasphemy law. Of course, he must die. He was assassinated in January 2011 by Malik Qadri, who many in Pakistan now view as a hero. Seven months later, Taseer’s 28-year old son was kidnapped and has never been found.

Pakistan’s Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti also supported finding “justice” in this case. When he suggested that perhaps the blasphemy laws should be changed, he was told he would be beheaded if he tried. The only Christian member of Pakistan’s cabinet, Bhatti responded by saying that he would fight for Bibi’s release. Of course, he had to die as well. Bhatti was ambushed by gunmen and executed near his home in March, 2013.

And to this day, Asia Bibi sits in a cell in Pakistan’s Lahore prison, holding out hope that her appeal may make its way to another, right-thinking brave soul. The latest report from the prison, Oct. 28, described Bibi in failing health.

When Bibi was sentenced, she said, “I cried alone, putting my head in my hands. I can no longer bear the sight of people full of hatred, applauding the killing of a poor farm worker. I no longer see them, but I still hear them, the crowd who gave the judge a standing ovation, saying: ‘Kill her, kill her!’ The court house is invaded by a euphoric horde who break down the doors, chanting: ‘Vengeance for the holy prophet. Allah is great!’”

So, you can put a crucifix in a jar of urine, take a picture of it, and call art (1987; photographer Andres Serrano’s contribution to the art world). You can imprison people in China for preaching Christianity (Chinese law). You can call Jesus “a bastard” (Grand Ayatollah’s Khorsani’s declaration in 2012). You can destroy a statue of the Virgin Mary, urinate on it, and run around with signs saying “Jesus is a dog (earlier this year in Perugia, Italy). And yet, no one beheads you.

But, if you make any statement that in your opinion Jesus was greater than Mohammed — and in this case, the statement was true (Mohammed never claimed to be a savior) — you must die.

It is not that as a Christian I am bothered by that. As a human being, that troubles me greatly.

Like I said, I am all for religious tolerance. I just wish people of all religions felt the same.