I used to be a much nastier version of atheist, perhaps even anti-religion. It wasn't until I followed a link to Talk2Action, a website dedicated to following, uncovering, and detailing all the actors and programs of the religious right, here in the US and developments worldwide, that I learned how wrong I was. From there, I soon learned about Americans United for the separation of Church and State. (AU) and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, fighting against the very scary, very real attempts by a faction of far-right Christianity, to turn our military into an arm of the Christian proselytizing/conversion system. There are lots more groups fighting the good fight, as well.

So what, a bunch of secular entities are fighting for secular government, what's so earth-shattering, right? Well the head-asploding part came when I found out that most of the people at all of these entities are Christians themselves. ( The great majority of soldiers that file complaints with the MRFF against their superiors over forced proselytizing are also Christians, btw. )

We rational, reasoned ones might do with a bit of humility ourselves, I think. We should know already that lumping a whole group of people and berating them for the actions of more radical and divisive sects of their religion/ethos, are simply not valid ways to arguing our points.

I realize that here in the US, especially in areas dominated by the religious right, it becomes more difficult to remember that there are Christians fighting really hard to keep the wall of separation intact, in government and public venues. But they are, and I for one am very grateful for their actions, and appreciate their own attempts to rein in the name-calling and marginalization on both sides of this bitter struggle.

Now, if we could only get the Christards to let their children get a good, secular