Over the past few weeks, I've noticed several postings on a blog I frequent which involved Christianity in some form or other. Usually I don't get involved in discussions about religion, as I think it is a deeply personal thing, but I've decided to throw my hat into the ring, because, well, because quite honestly I have something to say.

There is a lot of Christian bashing going on for people who claim to be open minded. Stories like this one have nothing to do with Christianity. The ignorant people in the story may CLAIM to be Christian, but that doesn't mean the predjudice they stand for comes from the religion. ( and...you don't have to be from the deep south to be a redneck idiot. I lived up North for most of my life and there are some dumb-ass, backwoods idiots living up there.) Just like with any religion, if you look hard enough , you will find the bad apples. The people that take the foundation of a faith and twist it to their own purposes. Over the years I've met people from all walks of life, from all religions, that are JUST as bigoted and just as ignorant.

Racisim, predjudice and intolerance are irrational and based in a life-time of learning. Someone in Chris Curtis's life TAUGHT him to hate, TAUGHT him to fear and now it is ingrained in his psyche. He could have been raised Jewish, Muslim, Hindu...it wouldn't matter.

How fast would you jump all over someone that said, " Who needs reality when you have the Koran?" or "Who needs reality when you have the Torah?" You can find fundementalism in in any religion, in any part of the country.

Does it sadden and anger me when I see people claiming to be Christians bashing minotities, calling the gay and lesbian community depraved or trying to ban books from our schools? It sure as hell does. Do I think that "fundementalism" is dangerous? You better believe it, any "ism" is bad for you...it means things have gone to far. Do I think ALL Christians are like that? No. I know they aren't.

Bashing the Christian religion is the same thing as bashing anything else. It's wrong. You can't claim to be open minded and tolerant of others while in the same breath you are calling people who believe in the Bible and attend church backwards and ignorant.

What makes belief in any religion better than in another? Where are all the articles denounsing Muslims because a fundementalist portion of their religion have been running about the planet blowing people up in the name of Allah? Where are all the postings crying out at how silly it is that fundementalist Jews are okay with the killing of Palestinians so that they can lay claim to a tiny peice of dirt in the middle of the desert in the name of God? I don't see any.

I got behind calling Laura Mallory an idiot. Not because she was a Christian, but because she IS an idiot. I pointed out that "Christians that talk like this are promoting “family values” and a return to “better times”. People of any other religion that talk the same way are “terrorists”. It’s like banging your head against a brick wall," making the point that individuals who use Christianity in one breath the defend themselves and in another to denounce someone behaving in EXACTLY the same manner, are hypocrites. The same applies to people that run about blaming ALL Christians for the bad behavior of a few.

People bash on the Bible, it's contents and the fact that people believe in it as a religious test. I've heard people talk about how original sin is a crock and how it doesn't actually say this or that in the pages of the Bible. I have yet to see a discussion talking about the "crazy" notion that starting a HOLY WAR and killing people to get yourself into heaven is a good idea. Or renouncing the belief that we all die and are reborn repeatedly until we reach a state of perfection ( For those of you that got lost there, that would be a Hindu thing)

I may not agree with all the things the Chritian religion teaches. I wouldn't teach some of them to my own children because I don't agree with them, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to run about bashing the entire religion.

Get off your high horses and take a look at what your really saying. Stop slinging accusations at a religion and start attacking the real problem...the teaching of hatred to children because their parents were taught to hate. Hiding behind God is a way to protect themselves from accountability, but that isn't unique to Christians, not by a long shot.