Exceptionally well said, Reg.

Here's the problem though....Many "Christians" will then fall back on the Old Testament vengeful, wrathful God, rather than the loving, do unto others New Testament Christ.  The difference between a true Christian who turns the other cheek and a Jew who bombs the shit out of a Muslim orphanage....(no specific examples of that, it just sounds good).

And now we have the Robertson's, Falwell's, etc. etc. etc. who ignite the masses, apparently Pat among them, with their hateful rhetoric and assertion that it is up to them to change all of their enemies through any means possible.  Which means killing abortion doctors, saying that the US "deserved" 9/11, calling AIDS a good thing, and insisting that their method and manner of worship and evangelism is the only way.

It has gotten to the point that any attempt to keep church and state separate--Freedom of Religion--is considered an outright attack on Christianity, thus the commonly used phrase (at least amongst my religious radical acquaintances) "Freedom From Religion".

I wish Christians would actually go back to listening to Christ, rather than those who have bastardized his teaches to line their own pockets and increase their own influence.