It's people like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, etc. who give Christianity a bad name. People who believe but don't like thinking find it easy to accept those who appear sure of themselves and outspoken. Doesn't mean they represent the Holy Trinity (one God, 3 parts) or even a lot of Christians. Certainly they don't represent ME!

Certain denominations/sects/what-have-you tie sin and guilt together so tight that the burden is too heavy for most mortal flesh, and so people renounce Jesus because of dogmatism that is way off base from the what Scripture says.

To me, we all sin. Big deal. Confess, repent. The Lord knows the truth of your heart. It's done; overwith. Get on with the rest of your life. When religious folks hand out guilt and shame in a wheelbarrow, people who want something more from God can't get it from organized religion and go elsehwhere.

Salvation would look a lot better to a lot more people if teachings weren't tainted with do's and don'ts and guilt up one side and down the other. It gets in the way of receiving the joy of Jesus.

Yes I'm born again. Yes I'm a socialist/leftwing-bleedingheart/magenta-ish kind of weirdo. My sense of egalitarianism would make most capitalists puke. :) Check my website (shameless advert) http://communities.msn.com/FolkieFolks/ Pete Seeger's defense of our First Amendment rights has it's own page.

*HippieChick steps of her soapbox*