Daylia:

If it was not clear the first time, I am not threatened one whit by Christianity. I was raised as a Catholic and know my bible and find most of the Christians I'm personally aquainted with to be perfectly acceptable human beings.

And no, I do not need to "work on myself" to increase my self-esteem in order to not feel threatened by Christianity. I am well-versed in comparative religion (yes, I find them all interesting as well and have done a fair amount of research and writing on religious history) and my self-esteem is actually quite healthy.

What I DO feel threatened by is the very opposite of what you are suggesting: that somehow the president should be able to make narrow-minded, highly-personal and divisive religious comments at a time when his priority (as a world leader called upon to offer words of condolence and comfort) should be inclusion, and tolerance. This is not about "freedom of speech" or even freedom of religion. By making it clear he considers himself the leader of a Christian nation, Mr. Bush creates an atmosphere in which religion, and religious beliefs, are part of the public theatre. When, again, government cannot work, nor can democracy prevail, unless a state's ruling body remains secularly detached from such matters. That's why we have a clear separation of church and state. The effort to create a pervasive atmosphere of Christian beliefs and the so-called "family values" associated with them makes people such as myself (not to mention other non-Christians) vulnerable to persecution on the grounds of religious belief. Don't believe me? Look up what happened to the military pagans who sought to exercise their "freedom of speech" at Fort Hood.

By the way, statistics show that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States.