This will be my final post on this subject for awhile, but I want to address a few things.

First, when I post about my alarm here — about the Christian fundamentalist right, in particular — it is never with the intention or belief that I will change their minds. If you’re a fundie reading this, rest assured I pretty much know where you’re coming from, and preaching shrilly in my comments section, or my guestbook, isn’t going to make me think any differently. To the few who have spoken up about their own truths — in just that kind of language — I respect your beliefs and appreciate that they are different from my own. I have no problem with you or your path, just with your distant brethren who would love to make this world reflect the hatred and intolerance that lives in their hearts. And I am not without compassion for that hatred — it is a dark, fearful way to live a life — but I refuse to let it stain my own spiritual path.

If you’ve read much of my diary, you know I am very tolerant of other paths. While I know for some people being Pagan is a reaction to bad experiences in the Christian church, it is not so for me, and I like to think that even if it were, I would be able to understand that my one bad experience doesn’t erase the peace Christianity brings many people. I am blessed with Christian friends who have truly shown me what it means to live a life that emulates Christ’s — which is what I feel being Christian is actually about. I don’t even mind that the Bible (a book I find to be full of contradiction and mystery, like any good guide) is the guide they use to follow this tenet. However, being told to “go back to my bible” is pretty pointless. The one I have is a gift from my grandfather that I would never get rid of, but the reality is, it holds little sway over my life, except where it intersects with other values I hold sacred.

No, when I write about fundamentalists and their growing hold on this country, I am simply expressing my own fear and sorrow. I don’t think that right has been taken away yet and I will continue to exercise it. I have no desire to “reach you” or “change your minds” and you can rest assured you will not change mine. The kind of change either situation would warrant would have to be the result of a major internal shift that would probably have little to do with some conversation on the internet. At least for me.

Thanks to all who’ve left comments of support, and really, thanks, dinoboy for so brilliantly illustrating the stereotype of someone who neither listens to nor understands any other experience of God. I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes — I don’t know who said it, but it goes like this: God is TOO BIG to fit into ONE RELIGION. Yes. She is.