People, the time has come. I have been thinking about this for a long time. This will not have much to do with music but perhaps it has to do with tolerance within our Mudcat community and I would hope that tolerance is always pertinent.

The things people assume about Christians seem to make it so clear how much hurt has been done to people in the name of "Christianity." So I have three things to say about this.

First, there are people actively working within churches and the world of organized religion to stop these hurts, to help people heal from them when they have occurred, and to help the people who do them to stop doing them.

Second, I am one of those people and it would help me do this better if you would send me a personal message telling me what awful things Christians have ever done to you, or to people you care about, because I need to see it from your viewpoint.

But third, and most important, I am sorry. You probably do not know that within Christian circles, "we" talk about this (and whine at each other about this) on and on, and about how "we" "ought" to treat people, and how our fellow Christians ought to treat people. But we seldom seem to come out in public and own up to the bad things that "we" do. And since "we" claim the name "Christian," we bear a share of the work of answering for these abuses, even when we ourselves have not done those things so feared and hated by our non-Christian friends.

So I apologize for whatever evil has been done to each and every one of you by someone waving the flag of Christ. It isn't enough, I know.

~Susan