This organization is scary, and there are more similar to it out there... doing their own interpretations of "god's laws" and making lists of people that need to be disciplined.

The xians started off wanting the United States to be a Christian Nation, but they were thwarted by people who had actually observed a Christian Nation close up and had just escaped it's bonds... and our nation was founded to be neutral regarding religion.

But... every time that there are weak-willed and scared people in congress, they seem to make a little progress... in the McCarthy era, they put "In God We Trust" on our money and "One Nation, Under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance.

And now they want their Ten Commandments in schoolrooms. Well, according to their bible, breaking any of the ten commandments is punishable... by death. And the first five pertain to how one should worship their god.

And our gutless and ignorant congresspeople thought this was all OK, naturally... gee, they had to do something! And they must be awfully afraid of the xians.

It had to be in the back of their minds... after all, they voted to impeach the pres, and cooler minds prevailed then... and cooler minds will again prevail, either in the form of the senate or the pres or the high courts.

Gee, the congress sure does look like a band of fools, don't they?

On the other hand... how do the xians still wield so much influence? Why are they even still in business, what with Truth in Advertising being the law of the land, and fraud still being a crime?

They are selling the afterlife, after all... and they would have a hard time justifying heaven or hell in a court of law. And they are definitely taking money under false pretenses... claiming that they know what the non-existent god is thinking better than the widows and children that they sucker up to. Organized religion is Big Business, from the top to the bottom. But, unlike big business, they don't have to actually produce anything but lies, which they package and sell.

And they've got the sin thing covered pretty well, too, so that, no matter how badly you act, no matter how many of their ten commandments you break, you get to go to their heaven, if you accept their Christ as your saviour before you die. That's what their book says.

And enough of them believe that to make the world an uncomfortable place. In fact, a downright deadly place... ask a muslim in Kosovo, if you don't believe me.

And what makes the people of the United States so sure that what happened in Kosovo won't happen here?

They think that because the constitution is right and strong that it will stand. But the constitution (and the amendments, of course) is only as strong as the people who will defend it. And that's where I start worrying... our congress should be the first defenders, and they so obviously aren't.

They are defending... their re-elections. And that is all. Two-thirds of them... voted against the constitution.

Here in "liberal" Kansas there is an old controversy stirring... half of the members of some oversight schoolboard want us to teach creationism in the schools, since we already teach evolution... they feel that their god should have equal time. Or better yet... if kids could actually pray in school, all problems would be solved. After all, there were absolutely no problems when prayer was allowed...

OK, back to the thought that started this off... the apologists. The "good" xians... the ones who actually believe that god is love and that they should love their neighbors... these people need to be reading their bibles, and not letting others do the interpretations for them. God is not love, god is death to those who don't obey him and his laws, as interpreted by the people in power. And god only cares if you love your xian neighbors... all others may be killed on a whim, and at every opportunity.

It's there in your book. And it's being interpreted by people who fit my definition of pure evil.

More tomorrow...