HOWEVER...

I am feeling pretty damned disgusted right now. I can sympathize with the liberal and progressive Christians who are trying to stem the tide. Personally? I believe it's hopeless. There's too many centuries of hate, persecution and death. That itinerant rabbi didn't come to start a church and he certainly wasn't a "Christian." God/dess knows too many of those who claimed to speak for God were just talking to themselves. Cyril who drove the Jews out of Alexandria and became a saint anyway. Augustine who pretty much created Orignal Sin out of whole cloth. Martin Luther who saw the devil in his room. John Calvin who could have used some good drugs, but he still would have been a sociopathic psycho.

Let the whole, sorry mess crash and burn. Go back to the first couple of centuries. Before Constantine made the church legal and the persecuted (not nearly as persecuted as the stories would have us believe) became the persecutors. Rediscover the Celtic branch that the mainline churches, Catholic and Protestant, have tried to stamp out from the beginning. There's some hope there.

As for the fundies that keep pushing? Introduce them to the old Missouri Soup Bone. The greatest freedom we have in this country is THE FREEDOM TO BE LEFT THE HELL ALONE.  And yes, Jackie is in a pretty foul mood right now. I passed total disgust about twelve squares back.

I'm off to talk to the dogwood and pet a cat.