MTed dismisses Moyers after developing a characterization that has no evidence other than his opinion. His "analysis" is along the lines of "damning with faint praise." So pardon me if I don't accept that.

I live in the Bible Belt and must regularly ask people to cease trying to convince me to accept their religious views. I have a sign on my front door that says No Soliciting and No Proselytizing. So you may find it surprising that it was a friend who is a Southern Baptist minister who helped me understand what *should* be going on as far as the regional religions trying to legislate how everyone behaves. He pointed out that the colonial founding fathers' concept of separating church and state was put forward by Baptists who were afraid that Puritans would try to legislate their religious and civic behavior.

This is said to illustrate that while some Baptist ministers take their calling far too seriously and are far too wide-reaching, others understand that they should tend first to their own flock, and do themselves more good if they aren't antagonizing non-baptist members of their community. I didn't have to feel like Homer Simpson rescuing Bart from the neighbors when I visited with my friend Lee.

Moyers doesn't practice his religion within the narrow confines that one regularly observes with groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, etc. He is a philosopher, coming from a journalistic position and his ethics and world view are most certainly informed by his religion. But it doesn't dictate what he can think or say.

SRS