"Steve, none of my Christian friends or neighbours are Nazi's or Nazi sympathisers"
Actions maketh the man - not political alignments
Christians are just as likely to behave as badly as no Christians - former Yugoslavia, Southern States of America, Christians slaughtering Muslims in Africa, the various 'Christian' divisions in Northern Ireland......
Christianity is in no way special and certainly does not make for better people - people themselves do that.
The problems arise with those who organise religion and use it for gain, political influence, or simply to abuse the authority it brings - plenty of examples of that in the present day - Ireland is still picking up the pieces after decades of Christian abuse of authority and people.
The Christians we have spent our lives associating with, mainly through our interest in music, were wonderful people, not because of their beliefs, but because they were wonderful people who happened to go to church.
They treated our non-religion with respect, I still recollect the splashes of holy water on the back of my neck as we left their homes, flicked by the singers because we had forgotten to 'bless ourselves' from the little font by the door as we left.
Not so long ago, we were shown a letter from a friend, long dead, which mentions our visits.
Is said, "they are not believers, but they are probably better Christians than most of those who go to church every week" - cherish that.   
THat sort of respect is more I can say for many of the churchmen we met.
There really isn't anything special about being a Christian, but occasionally it brings a frightening arrogance that you have to be a believer to be good - a wonderful debate in The letter page of the Irish Times on that one.
Any belief can bring bigotry - plenty of it on display here, and during the Referendum campaign.
If anybody feels they need to be a Christian to be good and thoughtful and neighbourly and human.... they've lost before they start.
noe nof Ake's friends are Nazi sympathisers - history is full of Christians who behaved like Nazis, and it is within my lifetime that Pope Pius XII was turning his back on Italian Jews being herded into Hitlers's gas chambers.
This is not to mention the support the church gave to Franco and Pinochet and King Leopold.... and some of history's greatest monsters - good Christians all!
It is not Christianity which causes problems, but the churches who overstep the bounds of their territory and dabble in politics - that, hopefully, is coming to an end in Ireland.
Jim Carroll