Thank you for making the distinction between religious adherents and religious fanatics. That is often missed by non-religious persons.

I like the phrasing of that quote from the NAACP. It’s clear and coherent. It makes sense.

And it’s founded in the real world.

TRiG.

I would explain that the ECLA and PCUSA as they exist today, in general, are not comprised of religious fanatics. They have mostly found a way to remain involved with their religious traditions while incorporating the enormous advances in knowledge of the real world. And they certainly don’t allow the nastiest passages of the Bible to be the driving force in their lives.

But it seems that most of the so-called mainstream denominations have factions within them that exhibit much of the traits of those we may refer to as the Religious Right (or religious fanatics).

PCUSA has a faction called the Presbyterian Lay Committee whose views on gays appear to align with our more rabid opponents. And I have relatives who have left the PCUSA because they are too liberal. So, where do PCUSA people go when they leave? One place might be the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) which is fairly far to the right of PCUSA.

And then there are the well publicized splits within the Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson became a bishop.

I really do understand that all people who self-identify as Christians are not the same.

How then does one explain the events occurring this month in the Lutheran (ECLA) and Presbyterian (PCUSA) chuches? It seems that they have found a way to overlook the burn factor and discovered that acceptance is in sync with their diety.

While Richard Cizak was forced to resign from the National Association of Evangelicals after a publicised shift in his position on gays, I doubt that any NAACP leaders will be forced to resign.