wrote in message
oups.com...
Cliff wrote:
"Dave" wrote:
Jon Elson wrote:
Adam Smith wrote:
Hi Jon,

My first serious girlfriend "went evangelical" during the time we
were
together. Very painful. Eventually it split us up. You have my
sympathy.

Boy, were you LUCKY! This thing didn't hit her until we were
married,
and had a 2nd kid on the way. She actually disparaged these far-out
evangelists before and shortly after we were married.


Hmmmm.... at what point does a religious experience become a mental
illness?

On day 1.

But they are a vast majority and they vote. You will be assimilated.

The hard-boiled born-again are not a vast majority. Those who believe in God
are a vast majority, but they have always been. And we have shown no real
tendency to become a theocracy despite that fact.

The issue now is that certain evangelicals are getting a little frisky and
are trying to intrude their religion into government and into the schools.
They are being resisted. They are not likely to succeed, nor are they likely
to become a "vast majority."

This is a time in US history when there are no clear goals, no direction, no
generally agreed idea of "progress." It is a time of stagnancy and ennui. It
will pass, but, until it does, absolutist religion is an answer that is
attractive to the many people who are extremely uncomfortable with all of
the uncertainty and lack of direction.

It isn't the first time it's happened and it probably won't be the last.

--
Ed Huntress