Sure, yw. You cracked me up. I needed that, so thanks in return.

I am speaking out. More and more, directly challenging their rhetoric and their thinking. And challenging others to get off the fence. Can't afford not to.

I think there's a real hollow space in the conversation from people who have studied religion, either solitarily or professionally and through a historical and cultural lens.

When you have that broader education, you realize that a lot of modern Christian theology is a house built on shifting sands by ignorant (mental) slaves, or sheeple. They don't know what they're talking about, how to evaluate doctrine, where it came from, how to tease nuance and meaning from it, how similar it is to other faith concept that they condemn, etc.

Like a lot of people, I've avoided talking about religion a lot because I no longer practice Christianity, though I still try to follow Christ because doing so is kicking a hornet's nest. I think Jesus had some good ideas. I reject the Trinity doctrine though. Jesus was a man, not God.

Like a hornet, zealots are .... scary. They're the sort that bomb hospitals/clinics and shoot people in the back of the head in church because they disagree with them, or plan to lynch the VP, one of their own for following the law against church wishes.

But, the stakes are too high now to be gutless or spineless.

It will help non Christians to push back against the fanatacism if they know where the rhetoric is wrong, where it comes from, context, and what scripture or bible story contradicts what is being claimed.