Willravel

Well, I've considered that. The fact is that there are no real liberal (pro homosexuality, pro other religions, pro women preachers, etc.) voices coming from the church. Either no one is crazy enough to try it, or people have tried and failed. Either way, I'd have to devote my life to this, and to be honest I don't think I can do it. I don't come across as a srtong enough Christian (being that I moved away from Christianity propor a while ago).

The thing that really gets me mad is that most people are basically good. The problem is the doctrine and dogma that are hammered into everyone's skulls since their baptism (or what have you). My father is a good man. He was a Lutheran pastor for over 10 years. I had every anti-homosexual, no sex before marriage, pray before every meal, Jesus loves me story in me before I could form a rational thought of my own. As luck would have it, I was best friends with an Arab Muslim and a Jewish kid. If the three of us didn't have each other, we'd probably all be religious zombies, hating each other out of ignorance induced fear. We all had the benifit of realizing that we shouldn't hate other religions, we shouldn't assume our religion is the right one, and we shoudlnt' force our beliefs down other peoples throats. I was damned lucky to have these friends. I'm not better than anyone (except Carrot Top), I just happened to get my morality from different places. It's the common themes in different moralities that really shine through in the end.

I believe in God. I believe that God loves man. I belive that in the eyes of God, every man, woman, and child is created equally. I believe that the golden rule is God's greatest gift to mankind. This is getting too philosophical, getting back to the political aspect...

In order for someone like myself, a faithful liberal, to rise to power in a given religion, there needs to be a strong base of also liberal followers upon which to build the political power. There exists no such group that has any sort of influence. I'd be boring to them. Another flower smelling hippy with no connections with reality. I'd be there for them to ridicule and hate. "Those liberals are too cowardly to get anything done. Would that liberal have gone after Osama like Bush did?! Hell no! Those anti-freedom pegans will get theirs our way. The good christian way." Obviously that was an exaggeration, but that seems the general concensus. We need an atheist president, or at least a rpesident who knows that God's house is church, not the Whitehouse.

I'm going to live my life as a good, moral man. I'll go to non-violent, legal protests when I want to show my support for something. I'll only step up to the plate if no one else will.