Daylia;
if you're seeking to offer back-handed insults, the particular ones you've chosen ain't gonna work on me. I am not a "disgruntled ex-Christian type". I am not "dangerous" to the cause of religious freedom and in fact work every day of my life to help further it and very publicly too, I might add. Your oh-so-superior refusal to affiliate yourself with any particular group is noted. We call that sort of remark "passive-aggressive" or "wishy-washy" where I come from, or, at least, we wouldn't seek to judge others' religious views when we can't seem to commit to one ourselves. When you're willing to put yourself on the line for your beliefs get back to me.


The statistics you cite seem manipulated at best, fraudulent at worst. There is simply no way in hell (you'll pardon the expression) that 82% of Americans are Christians...makes you wonder just who those pollsters were asking! Kind of like all these polls these days that say a vast majority of "Americans" are in favor of going to war with Iraq! They sure as heck have not asked me or any of my friends, co-workers or colleagues...

I live in Boston, a fairly international city, and am well aware that Christianity does NOT represent anything approaching an 82% majority. Perhaps those pollsters were only asking people in Arkansas? Polls are only as effective as their representative samples and the questions they're asking, not to mention the processing of their data...I don't tend to trust them. It offends me that polls are used to gauge public opinion--because most polls are biased, and many people seem to think they need to be part of some majority. Look around enough and you'll find some poll to refute every other poll. I don't think they're an effective way of measuring much of anything, from voter preferences to religous preferences. You yourself have pointed out the discrepancy between people who want a religious president and yet are uncomfortable with his expression of such a sentiment. That right there should tell you such polls contain spurious information. But then, I tend to think polls are for the gullible and most people don't read them very closely.

As for the separation of church and state, it's right there in our Constitution. And it's been upheld by the Supreme Court a number of times.