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Of course, being secular doesn't preclude a person's ability to seriously study the Bible or theology. The fact is, though, that graduate school in Biblical studies is actually seminary. To seriously study Bible and religion requires an interest, which in most cases comes through faith and the desire to know God's Word the best way possible with our human reason and intellect. Of all the religious scholars I have read, only one was an atheist, and he was largely commenting through his own Judaic background.
It has been my experience that secular liberals make vain attempts to "disprove" religion without understanding the actual relationship between the faithful and their faith. I should know... I didn't come to faith until college, and throughout high school it was all I could do to try to "convert" my religious friends to my brand of secular agnosticism. The fact is, I didn't and couldn't understand what they believed or why they believed it, because all I saw was the dusty myth and not the real core of the faith. This, I assert, is the flaw of the non-religious person attempting to criticize religion. They simply don't get it... they think that if they can prove a historical inaccuracy in the Bible, they will have brought Christianity crashing down around the ears of its followers. For those of us who read the Bible in an enlightened, allegorical, historical-critical fashion, we would only raise our eyebrows at such a degree of shameless literalism.
As for Republicans being the party of the religious... what a bunch of hogwash. Fundamentalist Christianity constitutes the single biggest attack on Christianity itself in the past century. People with the Dr. Dobson-style of faith are not true Christians. They focus completely on themselves and their own gain, without looking at serious social issues such as poverty, injustice, racism, and sexism. Republicans may have claimed "Christians," but the sort of "Christian" they adopt is no pillar of the true faith in my eyes.
The church I attend is much different than this. My pastor, who is also my good friend, is an ardent feminist and social progressive with a Ph.D in Biblical rhetoric from Northwestern University's Garrett Seminary. Our church's youth group consists not of guitar-playing, upper-middle-class jocks, but of dirt-poor rural Minnesota kids who we are desperately trying to keep out of jail. Our church recently adopted the "Reconciled in Christ" resolution which embraces and affirms people of all sexual orientations as beloved children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ.
And every single adult member of my church is a registered Democrat.
So, you might have a better idea of why I identify myself more with the "liberal" Democrats than with the "religious" Republicans.
