I am puzzled about a number of points that have been raised. I'm British and so my perspective of how the story of Jesus is viewed in the States in somewhat limited; however, I'm pretty sure there are millions of Americans who believe every word of the Gospels and would be up in arms - literally many of them, if anyone tried to each their children anything different.
    I'm, also, hugely concerned with the notion of " Jesus as an idea ". By that I mean that, even if Jesus did not exist physically, the ideas embraced in his teaching ( as presented in the Bible ) are such a force for good that they now have a life of their own and so have, in a concrete way, created their own reality.
    Finally, the things discussed in these pages will never be debated on primetime tv. Such a debate has already been vetoed at the highest level. So much for a free society.