"Bunny",

I've been a browser of your blog for the past few months (after learning of it through your buddy Tucker's site).

I'm what could best be described as a non-practicing "cafeteria" Catholic. Meaning? I pick and choose which parts of the religion I choose to adhere to and let my personal compass guide me the rest of the way. I was born and raised Catholic and simply thought that was the way it was supposed to be. Since achieving a sense of self awareness in college (early to mid 90's), I became aware of how much I disagreed with the church's position on abortion, homosexuality and marriage - thus the cafeteria style use of the religion.

I agree with you about your assessment of these holier than thou Christians. Do you remember the mid 80's with Preachers Swaggart and Baker and their respective scandals? For me, that was a formative experience of viewing them commit "sins" of adultery and theft, but somehow they were forgiven b/c they were "good Christians". From that point on, those who insisted on going to church every Sunday simply meant they had somewhere to be instead of people who were truly "closer to God".

I haven't read through the comments posted in response, but I think of "true Christianity" is akin to Communism. It's fantastic in theory but since humans are involved in the process, it becomes perverted. In theory, loving your fellow man and forgiveness is great - but then you get the zealots who are much like those who bring shame upon the religion of Islam with their hateful "interpretations" of the Koran.

I do believe I've ranted enough - hang tough and try and remember that you can have a close relationship with "the late JC" without having to associate yourself with the nutjobs.
Take care of yourself.

Paul

Bunny,

I've been a reader of your blog for a few years now. The majority of that time I wasn't a Christian. Recently I began attending a very liberal Christian Church focused on realistically dealing with the changed world.

I entirely sympathize with your last post. What you probably don't realize is that a lot of Christians hate the same kind of Christians that rudely insulted you when they had no place to do so. The problem is that it's a lot easier to come out and insult someone than it is to commend them or condone their life. So unfortuneately, Christians have developed an awful image because the people who are the most vocal have the most hurtful comments.

One of the foremost teachings of Christianity is loving everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike, as well as refraining from judgement. All of those people who insulted you are not living up to the ideology that they claim to represent. That's the most saddening part of this.

Personally, I think that religion has no place in politics. A separation of church and state exists for a reason. The point of government should be to provide equal rights for ALL of its citizens, regardless of what religious zealots claim. Same-sex marriages shouldn't even be an issue, they should already be an established fact.

It may be a last ditch effort, but I just felt compelled to write this email to show you that not all Christians are awful people. Those are just the promient examples of Christians. There are good churches out there, and good Christians, it's just hard to find them. Hell, this Saturday my church is offering free AIDs testing. You're right, churches have to adapt to the times. It's unfair for people to latch on to one or two verses from Leviticus when they ignore everything else in the book.

And I realize that what I've written may not mean anything to you. And you may disregard it as soon as you finish reading it. But I just thought that you deserved to know that you have at least one Christian fan who supports you and thinks you're doing a whole lot better in life than your haters.

If you've read this far, thank you.