I was raised in a very conservative Christian home. Being a generally rebellious spirit by nature that's probably part of the reason I left conservatism and Christianity behind in my early adulthood.

However one of the main reasons I became disenchanted with Christianity was what I saw as the anger and mean-spiritedness of the fundamentalist movement. It became an exclusive club where the rules of admission became more and more stringent and kicking or keeping people out became sort of a sport. Today as I see men like Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell or James Dobson...with their stuffed shirts and sneering attitudes my decision to leave such things behind is affirmed.

Today however a ray of Christian light crept in. As I sat in the dining lounge of my hotel this morning amidst the business men and tourists..my free copy of USA Today in front of me as I munched my breakfast this caught my eye.

The piece mainly discusses Cameron Strang, a graduate of Oral Roberts University who is capturing the attention of young people with his magazine entitled Relevant. But the story is also about how young people are turned away from the fundamentalist movement. They are unmoved my the rigid constraints of fundamentalism and the meanness of the exclusive club. "God is God, truth is truth, and they're everywhere, so you have to look everywhere". The emphasis is on social Christianity..in a Progressive way. What really struck me as I read through the piece the following passage:

While evangelical leaders, including his father, call for a ban on gay marriage, Strang says Relevant "upholds the same moral standard but questions whether we need the government to enforce our beliefs, our religion, on people who don't adhere to the same faith."

This is great stuff.

The piece also goes on about the magazine parodying "hyperactive believers" and "Bible bullies".

This certainly won't cause me to dive back into Christianity in any way. But after reading this I might be willing to stick a baby toe in.