The belief that one must respect faith prevails almost universally in Western circles. You might not be forced to adopt a clear religious line - no, we're much too liberated and enlightned for that - but saying anything negative about relgion in general is already considered unseemly. Except maybe if you're talking about Islam, then people will not mind so much, because it's been generally accepted that they must obviously be backward and weird considering the state of affairs in "their" part of the world. Atheists are of course also not worth respecting - I mean, hey, they're going to hell so why bother with them.If you, however, should dare to point out that Catholocism as an institution, and not only the myriad of perverted priests that abuse children, is harmful and is directly responsible for a lot of the evil that they themselves are less than appreciative of, it's all "Whoa, hey, don't insult a religion, it's just not right, man!"
Where does this mellowness come from? Who said that religion, that might have been co-responsible from civilizatory accomplishments but that today, should play no role at all in public affairs, has earned my respect? Religion has proven itself to be the greatest and most fabulous alibi for people to destroy lives.
You want my respect? Earn it. And I think that it's pretty clear that most religious institutions will never do so because they are based on what some old dudes wrote a long time ago about the worthlessness of women and homosexuals, the validity of rape as punishment and so on an so forth.
However, that has nothing to do with the individual. While I don't believe that I have to respect any religion, I have to respect the person and that person's beliefs. If a priest is a regular good guy who does a lot of good, I don't see why I should no admire his efforts and deeds. Many people, as religion itself prescribes, do it the other way around - they dismiss a whole culture or group based on their personal beliefs because of the disdain for their religion as a whole. All I got to say about that is two way street, man.
