One can be a "Christian" (ie, believe in the divinity of Christ) and still not walk the walk (do unto others, etc). These are called "bad Christians," and they are frightfully common.

I'm just weird. I think if you just give lip service (or eye service) you aren't. I find myself becoming more Gospel/Acts centric, and less tolerant of the "lowest common denominator". I think if a person does not "walk the walk" and acts judgementally they can not claim the title.

Perhaps it's because I am so aware of my shortcomings. I say that I try to be a Christian. What tees me off are people who are not even trying and who use the title like a bat to bludgeon people.

I like how CS Lewis argues that if you do good in any creators name, Aslan will take it as his. If you do bad in Aslan's name, the other took it. I see these "cultural Christians" as doing bad.

I don't actually disagree with your argument. I think those people are wrong to be so high and mighty.

The worst thing that happened to the McCain campaign was the choice of Sarah Palin. Blinded by an obsession to garner Clinton's female vote from the Democratic camp, McCain picked a lady bulging with negative luggage and a trail of scandals and misdeeds. After the initial euphoria, Palin has been but a nightmare to McCain's presidential bid. With each revelation about her hypocrisy, McCain's approval ratings have continued to drop. She introduced the hate talk that has now finally nailed McCain's coffin and even as Americans continued to voice their disapproval of his hate tactics, he continued to link Obama to someone who took a wrong path in life when Obama was only eight years old. The exposure of her brazen-faced lying and cheating did not make her feel ashamed to continue dragging the McCain campaign down the path of destruction. She has succeeded in burying McCain's White House dreams forever.

Oh Joan, there you go again.

Do you think the Republicans will get so desperate as to try to pull some infamous trick, such as "discovering" a new Bin Laden's tape in which the terrorist urges the people of USA to vote for Obama as President?

I know it sounds crazy, but after Sarah, everything is possible.

Yet all your posts

Do so reak of it...

Talking smack seems to be the only talent you have. Such emotion, such anger, such puerility, such a nome de plume!

You are really taking this so hard that it causes me to pause and wonder if I should back off and not ask you to justify or explain yourself. You obviously are incapable of that you poor dear.

I suppose you must make up some more smack talk to put your spin on the debate which seems to be pretty even and far more respectable than what the MSM has been spouting lately.

Did you notice how Obama let slip out that 700 Billion dollar figure going to Iraq? He couldn't say China, could he? Neither could McCain.

Judging by your poetry one would think that you would be perfect for writing those Salon headlines.

I never said anything about "shit" - that came from you mind, not mine.

Just as an alcholic drinks

And the Titanic sinks

So too does something's

Bag of brown

Roundly stink...

oh, I'm from the elitist east coast.

If you like "white on rice", how does "off like a prom dress" grab you? :)

Joan,

Just when I'm reading your stuff and saying to myself, "this nails the current snapshot" (i.e., the paragraph that ends, "There is a God") you go and make statements that are truly puzzling.

Yeah, Obama is not Hillary or Bill or Joe. Let's thank the God you mentioned. Obama is the future walking around, not the past. Obama is not a lying misogynist party animal, a serial adulterer for decades (as a feminist, doesn't that merit some righteous indignation? Or at least taking him off the pedestal?) who had as much to do with triggering this economic catastrophe as Gramm or McCain or Bob Rubin. Didn't Bill sign the Glass-Steagall repeal into law, and Gramms' Commodities Futures Act as well...didn't he? Was he forced at gunpoint to sell out FDR and 65 years of wise regulation protecting the middle class, or did Sandy Weill's fundraising and patronage have something to do with it? Obama did not vote for this wasting war and never repudiate that vote, apologize for it or even adequately explain it. Bill has not exactly extended himself endorsing Obama, systematically offering very faint praise in every interview of the past month, and just stopping short of saying McCain would be just as good if he wins.

You're entitled to love Bill and Hill unconditionally, but at some point, please take off the rose-colored glasses and put down all that water.

As for "faith in the American People", say, what??! What about 2004? Didn't that happen? Didn't they buy all that swift-boating BS about Kerry like starving dogs at a slaugherhouse? Didn't they reject a real war hero in favor of the dimwit clown with the C average and bottom 10% MBA? Have you seen the trailers for "W"? You've got "just-plain-folks" bigots and Palin-worshipping imbeciles ready to string Obama up from the nearest tree, but you've got faith? Get thee to a nunnery.

Otherwise, we're on the same page.

Apology accepted.

It's a simple case of karma... what you put out comes back on you 100-fold. So in this case, McCain-Palin will be in for more blow back. The manifestation of this universal law in real time is fascinating to watch.

I am hurt and wounded to the quick by your unkind words. What have I ever said to you to provoke such anger, hatred and dreadful juvenile rhymes? I feel as though I am in elementary school being taunted by a child in need of medication.

What motivates your unethical and vindictive verses? You are beginning to remind me of Sarah Palin - at least the Sarah Palin as portrayed by Joan Walsh's Salon.

Do you work for Salon?

Close but no cigar?

Schwing!