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Okay, I'll try to answer your questions, Mosken.

It's the pastor's words I don't like, because I believe that it is the purpose of pastors and priests and other religious leaders to lead people to their better selves. This speech he gave, while probably having it's basis in reality-maybe, just seemed to me to be divisive and filled with more anger than belongs in a church.

Should a president belong to a church? If he/she wants to, that's fine. However, the church/religion that he/she belongs to should not take such a prominent place when making national decisions. One's beliefs shape who you are, but if you cannot be a leader for the multitude that exists in this country, than you need to step aside.

Faith is personal, and could definitely be a unifying and positive factor in society. However, in our society, instead of bringing people together, we seem to be heading towards more divisiveness.

I disagree vehemently with the notion that ALL people of any religion are prejudicial and "bad". It is just in the last decade or more that it seems the publicity has been to the one's, whatever their faith, who deem themselves as the "one and only".

Even all evangelicals are not so pushy and bigoted. But the one's who get the attention are the one's who are. (Evangelical really is just a broad term to refer to, in this country, any christian who goes out and professes their faith to any and all...whether the listener wants to listen or not, LOL)

Billy Graham would be known as and evangelist. I don't mind him in the least, he seems to be a good man. But his son and daughter irk me big time. When I see them come on tv, I physically get ill.

Pope John Paul II, while I didn't agree with many things he stood for, I admired as a "unifier". He truly tried to bring the world together. His replacement, Pope Benedict the whatever (don't know what number) seems to rule by divisiveness. Plus, similiar to our president, he's stuck his foot in his mouth a few too many times.

Even in the pagan community there are quite a few who push the "anti"-christian rhetoric, brushing ALL christians with the same paint, and portraying ALL of them as hatefilled warmongers. Now in my experience, there isn't any way of life that has a all encompassing all including point of view. There are haters in all walks of life, and I seem to run into them all.

I'm an idealist, in this day and age, that's hard to be, and rather discouraging. I've studied too many different religions and faiths, past and present, and truly don't see much difference between the essence of them. But the people who follow them, they interpret how they want, and make it so it suits their own idealogy. Sometimes that works out for the better, sometimes not. Lately it seems it has been towards the latter.

But this whole thing seems to be a cycle. The downtrodden, so to speak, shall gain power and oppress someone else for a time. I think we are in a cycle where some Christians were tired of being made irrelevant and felt maybe their rights to profess their faith as they see fit was being infringed upon. In some ways and in some places they were right. But to make it such that this group want to retaliate and make sure that there's is the "one and only" is wrong. This is the group that gets the attention. While those of us here who complain about things like this tend to lash out in that direction, I for one never ever mean to say that I think that ALL christians are as such. I know for a fact that they aren't.

I've heard in the last years anti-christian, anti-jewish, anti-muslim, anti-buddhist, anti-hindu, anti-pagan and all such rot. Some of them by relatives, all my life. Even the "christians" in my family can't deal with christians of another denomination. I find the whole thing moronic. My step-grandfather has for years denounced and degraded people of other faiths. He said that we (my immediate family-mom, stepfather, sister, me(once upon a time-and as far as they still know), my son) as wrong for being Catholic. That we worshipped Mary, that we did all this hooohaa stuff (sounds that really don't type well). He has put down Jewish people, saying they won't go to heaven, even when presented the fact that Jesus was Jewish. He is vehemently anti muslim, saying that they are ALL terrorists. That they all should rot. And when presented with his errors that I got from one of my best friends in high school who was/is muslim, he just starts up again. But if you should just state any criticism of his church, not with hate or disgust, just that it isn't for you, you get the whole anti catholic thing again...(my mom got that last year on mother's day-when she took them out to eat-ungrateful wretch) (and boy did that infuriate my mother, you could see it in her eyes, but she kept her cool and stared me straight in the eye and just arched her eyebrow as if to say "here we go again")

But my auntie I live with, the aforementioned grandfather's sister in law, she is another type altogether. She was a Sunday School teacher of 2nd graders way back when and she is the one who instilled in me the Golden Rule of "Do unto others as you would have do unto you". And she lives that rule, even to this day. Or tries, old age tends to make you cranky, she says, LOL. This woman lived her life as I see someone who claims to be "christian" should. She is a wonderful good hearted person. So there in the same family there is contradiction.

I'm glad my mom raised me with an acceptance of my curiosity of other peoples and faiths. She has said that in her church, Catholic, that they have incorporated many eastern practices and philosophies. So they, and her priest, have something that goes beyond tolerance, but to acceptance and recognition of the similiarities of faith. (Unfortunately, they are about to lose their priest/pastor, he's re-upped with the Army and will leave them this summer. My mom is devasted by this.) This kind of priest is the kind that I remember among the priests and nuns at my elementary school, the kind that welcomed all, and respected all.

Things are just different now-a-days.

LOL, Mosken, I think a lot of American's disagree with our foreign policy, for all different reasons. (some small factions believe we should drop out of the UN and kick them out of the country)

I think what photogirl meant was the racial issues of the post Civil War to the Civil Rights Marches. In some respects I can understand where she is coming from, but we all hold on to the wrongs of the past sometimes that don't allow us to move forward.

I personally hated studying anything to do with the American Civil War, leading up to it, during it, coming after it... cause I think it was a time of lunacy and stubborness that probably should have been handled differently, on both sides, but definitely down here. Even to this day, it is adhered to that it was fought over "state's rights" among most white southerners. But I had a history professor at Jacksonville state that said that was all "b*sh*t" (excuse, his words). I think it was a combo, but the slavery issue was right there at the top. And the whole issue on slavery in America is atrocious and should be taught so as not to allow it to happen again. But we forget about the irish and others who were brought here as indentured servants who could never pay of their indenture. Who then were unable (later) to find work because of the prejudice against them. Chinese who came here faced the same sort of issues. The Japanese during WWII were placed in concentration camps and their property taken away. Our society has done many awful things. Look at the American Indian, to this day they have the lowest status in America, class wise, for the most part. But we only focus on the relations between white and black. And that is an issue for me. I would like for us to learn our history, try our best to not repeat them, and find some similarities between us while also celebrating our differences. Hispanics in this country are now fast becoming the "other" because of illegal immigration and such. We seem to have to always have someone "other" to "hate". Just now it seems to be everybody.