Well, yeah, that's a statement of the obvious. I've known ones that cringe at the very mention of Jerry Falwell.

Darling, I'd never judge all Christians by the actions of the zealots. Remember, I happen to work with a great group of individuals that are mainly of Christian teachings in the name of religious tolerance. As well as my family being made up mainly of Christian beliefs/practices.

As I said, the ones that are evangelical, I've only met on-line and thankfully few and far inbetween. For everyone of them, there's a dozen or more that actually respect another's beliefs and don't feel the need to play the tug-of-war over the Divine that the few evangelical ones seem to excell in.

It's so amazing how such a small number of individuals can out shout common sense and reasonable religious tolerance eh?

I realize the evangelicals don't represent all of Christianity; but don't think they're a small minority 'fringe group' either. There's up to about 80 million evangelical Christians in America, and they definitely have shown their power as a voting bloc. Consequently, they represent much more political power than any other Christian (or religious for that matter) identity in the United States.

You forget that he also leaves saying that he's being discriminated against and persecuted for being a Christian. That we're 'infringing on his rights to practice his religion'....

I've met my share of religious hardliners in the past. Back then, I was christian and my parents were pretty active in the church (they still are), but they were friendly, I guess because they saw me as one of their own. I remember, though, that my father was once given a dirty look for declining to sign a petition against public funding for Planned Parenthood. Now what was that aout "Hate the sin, love the sinner"?

Now I encounter most of them online, especially Myspace, where technically courtesy is required, but in practice you will meet the most vicious, intolerant people you've ever had the displeasure to hit "quote" and respond to. They make Alias look like Richard Dawkins.

That's the problem, the hardliner dominionists convert and convert and try to build their followers' numbers for political gain. Not all of them are extreme, but a great deal have conservative principles.

Kat, that is true. And it may seem too that there are more vocal evangelicals online but that is only cos in person, these same folk often think they are a threat to the devil himself by slipping a tract under their plate with a buck at the restuarant they frequent after Sunday morning church.
However, the fact is that if you were ever counted by them to be "one of them" they will shun you once you start to open up and share your questions, the areas where reason seems to trump faith, and when you even joyfully communicate, even using the Bible, why you are convinced there is no eternal torment.
The evangelicals seem to feel that no one will prescribe to a moral lifestyle if they don't have hell hanging over their heads.
The evangelicals seem to feel that they have no message to share if the message is ALL good news. There seems to be a need for threats and rules and the possibility of eternal suffering presented.
When it comes to the teaching of Creation or Evolution, I have heard it said that those who believe in Evolution are not wanting to be accountable to live a life that is moral, which they say one would be accountable to live if they accepted that there is a god.
These have been my up close and personal experiences with the fundapathic evangelists in my past.
OD

I've heard others say as much. I guess I've just been fortunate in my own lifetime to have not met such individuals off-line in the real world. But then again, I guess some of it may have to do with my own personality and I just don't come off as threatening to their beliefs...

It does help being as small as I am, with the happy-go-lucky attitude I'm known for. Which all in all, makes me easily approachable by others and they tend to not take offense to my beliefs because of those personality traits I have.

I also equally find it interesting that on-line, those evangelicals I do run into see me in quite an opposite light? The same things I discuss off-line in the same tone, are taken on-line negatively instead? There's much to be said that the written word conveys a difference of tone compared to the spoken word eh?

Well, they're right about me on that front. I hate the concept that everything I do being predetermined by a supreme being, that I'm just some kind of slave to a higher power that I can't escape. It makes me feel like I've lost control of myself. Then I think about the hypocrisies related to those concepts, like how if God predetermines every action, we don't truly have free will and he is in fact the one creating evil. Likewise, if he creates this evil, he can't judge humanity for acting under his unwitting guidance. He has to hold himself responsible for is actions.

The contradictions give me peace of mind.

I agree. In person I'm actually very shy and don't like to push the envelope. Online I'm entirely different. I posed a hypothesis for the concept for my Sociology class.

Basically, I said that online, there is a sense of anonymity, which reduces human empathy and heightens a sense of omnipotence, because you see yourself as a person but everybody else as another screenname. Because you don't see the people, you can't properly judge them, and you leave a lot up to the imagination, especially based on their political beliefs. In conclusion, when you talk online most of the time, you show your mean streak.