[antiochian]

Dear Hippie,

I learned something from a speaker in a class yesterday. According to Native American spirituality, and this is paraphrased, no person has the right to tell another what to do. Yet we have these Christians who would love nothing more than to run everyone else's lives. That's what they're trying to do when they fight against gay marriage, or spew from the pulpit about how we're going to hell if we don't do A, B and C. These people have a power addiction, plain and simple. They've made their millions running the likes of you and me into the muck. And some of them are just crazy.

According to an Episcopal priest I know, 3 out of 5 people on the globe are starving to death. Why are preachers, televangelists, popes, etc. wasting their time, breath and MONEY condemning us when they could be doing something about that??!! It makes me furious.

Yet there really are Christians who aren't like that. I know them from the Anglican parish I attend off and on, and at the Metropolitan Community Church. These people believe in God, Christ, and the Bible, and they don't use it to bash people over the head. They are loving, accepting people, not the frauds you see on the "Trinity Broadcasting Network."

Believe me, Hippie, I know what it is to despise religion, especially Christianity. It all boils down to this--are these people actually living up to the standards of the faith they tote around like a shield? Or are they just a bunch of strutting roosters who wouldn't know the real Jesus if he slapped them on the ass with a 2x4?