Much to the everlasting dismay of some of my family, I have yet to embrace Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I grew up Baptist, with occasional forays into Southern Baptism, and a couple of trips to Pentecostal churches as well.

I stopped believing in organized religion when I realized that I didn't want to cherry pick what I wanted to follow and what I didn't want to follow out of the Good Book. I mean, if I can't follow all of the rules, why follow the ones that someone else before me deemed the most important to follow?

I don't live a particularly 'Christian' life, but I believe in helping people when they need it as much as I can, not caring about the lifestyle you lead as long as you aren't hurting someone else, and yeah, I still pray. To who, I don't really know, but I think sometimes that it's listening. My favorite Christians are the ones who have decided to put it all in the hands of the Lord, and they live their life trying to make the world around them a better place, and allow the judging to take place by their Lord.

I've heard someone basically say 'I couldn't handle worrying about the world any more, so I have just given it up to God. I just want to help the people I can, pray for the ones I can't, and hope at the end of the day I'm doing the right thing', and I don't see a damned thing wrong with that.

Great article coyotemike I'm always glad when the nice Christians get a little press.

It is obviously true that not every evangelical supports the same small set of ideas. However, it is also true that many of those who do support those same set of ideas are the ones who make the most noise and ask for the most attention, and in some cases shout down those lesser well known but more moderate leaders who may disagree with them.

John Hagee gets attention. Joel Hunter does not.

The tone he uses, and the language spins this like those NOT supporting Obama is a way of the other, less intelligent, more negatively charged side of Evangelicals, almost like the politically incorrect side.

Trust me, the attention John Hagee gets is all cast under a negative light. Due to his ranting about the Catholic Church and the recent publicizing of his views on Hitler, he is quickly loosing any steam he may have built up over the decades. John Hagee got attention for basically being an ass hole.

Hagee is just an example. I could have used Jerry Falwell in his prime as an example instead.

This is human nature. That's why God sent Jesus....

You'd be surprised at how many church going Christians share the same view, and it certainly does NOT go unheard. The fact that you feel enough compassion to pray for those you can't help shows that you actually paid attention to one of the biggest, most important teachings of the New Testament. It's my belief after hearing some religious advisers speak about this, that you can, if you ever decided to revisit that belief, still have faith, and not believe in organized religion. In fact, I left the church, but I did not leave the faith.

And I could have tailored the same above statement, using Falwell's name in place of Hagee's.

No, but it is his implication that FINALLY Evangelicals are "coming to their senses" by doing things like supporting Barack Obama.....huh? I did not realize that it was unintelligent, or closed minded to want to support conservatives, and also the implication that those who DO NOT support Obama fall in line, somehow, with the Christian Right.

Furthermore, believing that the foundations of this country are in some ways relative to Judeo-Christian principals is NOT ignoring reality. If our foundations were completely neutral and godless, there'd have been no mention of God in the declaration of independence and "In God We Trust" would not be printed on our currency. However, and as I have stated above, I personally appreciate the fact that this is NOT a theocracy (unlike those who pursue to live the life under Sharia Law) and that there is in fact a separation of Church and State.

Actually, the "catching on" or "coming to their senses" part was about moving away from extremism, not who they vote for.

With the exception of perhaps inciting comments like mine, then why mention Barack Obama at all if this "progression" is not about who they vote for??

Because the article I was discussing brought it up.

However, if that was not the point you were trying to project, or even the author of the original article, then perhaps you should not have included his name in your piece....

However, and for the record, I WILL agree with Coyotemike that it IS nice when Christians get good press, especially now a days.

No, I'm sorry; he never does that in the "Call to Renewal" speech.

You've taken that drastically out of context. He wasn't using that to say anyone should keep their personal religious beliefs out of public life, but that people need to appeal to non-evangelicals in a way that isn't always exlicitly religious, as well.

Uh, no. Did you actually watch or read that entire speech? He says something completely different than what you're suggesting, actually.

Ultimately, though, I'm not sure what Barack Obama has to do with any of this, really. I think you've completely misinterpreted what coyotemike was attempting to convey with this story. It's not that evangelicals have become enlightened because many of them are going to vote for Barack Obama; voting for Barack Obama merely highlights how many evangelicals are losing favor for the public leaders of evangelicalism. Those evanglicals who've followed the Hagees and the Robertsons are not, as a matter of course, just going to vote for the conservative Republican candidate who trumpets anti-abortion and anti-gay stances.