The word for today is…

iconoclast (noun) – 1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions.
2. One who destroys sacred religious images.

Source : The Free Dictionary

Etymology : “Breaker or destroyer of images,” 1590s, from French iconoclaste and directly from Medieval Latin iconoclastes, from Late Greek eikonoklastes, from eikon (genitive eikonos) “image” + klastes “breaker,” from klas- past tense stem of klan “to break”.

Originally in reference to those in the Eastern Church in 8th century and 9th century whose mobs of followers destroyed icons and other religious objects on the grounds that they were idols. Applied to 16th century-17th century Protestants in Netherlands who vandalised former Catholic churches on similar grounds. Extended sense of “one who attacks orthodox beliefs or cherished institutions” is first attested 1842.

Peter is a fourth-generation New Zealander, with his mother's and father's folks having arrived in New Zealand in the 1870s. He lives in Lower Hutt with his wife, some cats and assorted computers. His...