thank you, Stu for a thoughtful, balanced and nicely presented post.

that said, it has been my experience with more than a few "born again" Christians and other fundamentalists that it is a central obsession that their lives revolve around. I honestly can not understand how anyone can read and reread a single book with such fervor... as if their personal salvation is jepardized by even a hint of "heresy". I venture to guess that it is more a psychological and emotional issue than an intellectual one.   

I recently drove past a church with a sign out front... All are welcome...

but then I read in the newspapers about defrocked ministers whose "crime" was to marry a gay couple or support birth control and I have to wonder how ALL is defined by some.