Hey Clothes Guest: I've seen the title of the Wallis book in passing. Thanks for posting it. I just ordered a copy.

Hey Bobert... unless you have done a scientific survey of the churches in this country I suspect that your statement that the Right Wing has taken over the majority of the churches in this country is just a personal guess. I don't know how prevalent the Religious Right is across the country. They sure don't carry any weight in any of the churches I go to. I think they are primarily in the Southern Baptist branch. Even there, the previous Pastor of one of the churches I go to is Southern Baptist and you couldn't find a more warm, loving Christ-filled person than him. I'm sorry that you've had the experiences that you've had and I don't doubt their truth. It's just dangerous for us to take our own personal experiences and project them into a broad generality. When my sons used to do that, I'd say in my most sonorus radio voice, "According to a recent nationwide poll"... and then let my voice trail off. When they'd catch me making an unsubstantiated generality, they'd say the same thing to me. It was a humorous way to remind us all that we live in a very, very miniscule part of the world and it's foolish to project our personal experiences into broad generalities.
When I do it, I appreciate someone catching me on it...

Jerry