This is a clarification. I’m Protestant. I believe in God. I believe in the Bible. And I also profess to not be stupid. You may feel that there is some contradiction there but I hope to prove you wrong. However, I also don’t necessarily do or subscribe to “everything” popular in Christianity these days. I have NOT read, nor ever will read, “The Purpose Driven Life” or similar poorly-written Christian drivel that keeps the Christian book business in multi-billion dollar form (“The Godly Diet”, “Find a Christian Man Before You Turn 25!”). I loathe George W. Bush, the Passion of the Christ, James Dobson, Focus on the Family, the Republican Party and most Christian pop music. I think they give Christianity a bad rap (have I mentioned Christian rappers?) and somehow, they’ve not only seized the religion’s politics and tastes, but also its tenets. So instead of a religion deeply rooted in God’s word, we have a religion deeply rooted in political agenda. Conservative politicians support their own biases with a mishmash of Bible verses taken out of context and a legion of lemmings who alternately shout “Life” or “Death” in accordance with the “Applause” signals. I’m here to defend Christianity from such onslaught. I believe popular Christianity is killing the religion- making it seem as if all Christians should have the same patently wrong answers to social issues and that the sins that society is against are the sins that God most hates. I think the Bible is radical and progressive, not backwards and conservative. And sometimes it helps to just read what it says.