Before I begin, let me say thank you. I love that you took the time to respond. I hope you’ll read this response and consider it thoughtfully, as any intellectual would.

1. What you call a religion of “unacceptance” is actually a religion that serves a God who ate with tax collectors, saved a prostitue from stoning, and healed the outcase cripples. Anything BUT unaccepting, I would say.

I can’t deny man’s failures (often in the name of religion). But Christianity is not about man, it’s about God and His love for man. If man were without failure, God would not have had to make His sacrifice, and you could take Christmas and Easter off the calendar all together.

The point I make in this post is NOT that I disapprove or am unaccepting of anyone else. To the contrary, it is that I am no longer accepted or tolerated. Your comments do much to prove this.

2. I do not believe that God is white or black or brown or purple. He is not Southern Baptist, Catholic, or Agnostic (since I’m sure He is quite convinced of the existence of Himself). But your assumptions about how I see God further underscore the stereotype with which you label me. All of my life, I heard arguments from non-believers that Christianity served only to allientate and condemn. It was our fault, I was told, that others didn’t follow God due to our own intolerence.

Yet now, as I sit here tolerating the world around me while still trying to raise my children accorinding to my beliefs, I am the one writing this comment defending those beliefs, all while NOT being tolerated or accepted.

3. Lastly, and this I am most passionate about . . . you suggest that who I am and what I believe is “cemented into a lifelong mold.” You assume I’ve never asked hard questions, sought truth, or gave any rational thought to commiting my life to something or Someone. You assume I am NOT intellectual and that I do not think for myself.

What you do not consider is that my opinions, my “facts,” are rooted in years of study and experience and difficult questions. I am not a product of indoctrination, but of belief and passion for a cause I have tested and know to be true. Again, your assumptions that who I am is based on what others want me to be proves my point once again. Do you not think it is possible that someone could think differently from you based on rational thought and careful consideration? Or do you assume that because I do not believe God is nothing more than energy that I must be an ignorant, intolerant bigot who holds no place in society?

I have thought for myself. Who I am is who God made me. He is who I work to please. It is His acceptance I seek. Not preacher, not Mama, not even you. It is He who decides if I am born again (and I am.)

I’ve seen far too many arguments made on both sides of this coin. Frankly, my goal here is not to volley with you on the finer points of religion and tolerance, fact and opinion. Instead, I merely want you to know that God excludes no one from His love and acceptance. Not you, and not me.

All I want is to be afforded the same respect and tolerance that others have asked of me. Biblically, I understand that I will not receive this. That’s not necessarily news. But it is my hope and prayer that you will see that believers in Jesus Christ are not here to condemn, but to love and reflect Christ’s love. That is who I am, regardless of what you hear that “mainstream” tell you.

Thank you for listening.

And I hear you. I was the annoyingly boring conformist goody-two-shoes growing up. So I have to say thanks (I think) for the reminder that I’m now among the rebellious ones in this country!