Reply #41: I realize that.

[Kitka]

It's hard because I seem to fall somewhere in the middle of this, and I jumped in mostly because I was suprised how I felt reading some posts on the topic. Because, as I say, I'm a non-Christian scared by the Bush administration and many fundamentalists' view of the role Christianity should play in government, I'm a bit stunned to find myself wondering why it bothers me so much to see people stating the first amendment equals freedom from religion. I do not interpret it that way. I get the feeling many people that are non-Christian are so upset at the spread of the fundamentalism that they now expect Christians to keep completely quiet about their beliefs, and I don't want to see that either. I believe that the intent of our founding fathers was that everyone was free to practice, promote, and talk about their religion... just not to make it mandatory for the government to enforce that religion. I think there are black and white issues, like public school teachers prostelytzing (sp?) and there are gray issues like our government offices being closed on Christmas. I don't like it when either side sees gray issues in black and white.