Runner.. I am already a community chaplain, and am in communication with The Nothing, who has told me that I am On The Right Path, thank you.

I am concerned that my Truth should be taken as another form of 'millenarianism' as Squeers puts it, but I do understand why it might seem to be that, and in fact, I question it myself, in the hope that it is not merely another reaction to 'too much'.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell, until later, but it must be suspected, interrogated, and considered, very carefully.

I am not, I hope, falling into Runners eschatology though... I hope anyway.

The rise of religious stupidity is already underway in our nation, and in 'other religions', as well as Christianity.

How much is merely shysters making merry with the foolishly ignorant, and how much is the genuinely foolishly ignorant working through their fears, is almost impossible to measure, although Pew could probably be forensically examined for clues, and more detailed research could follow from there.

Runner, no doubt you will be at Mt Ainsley for the CTFM vs Sex Party stand-off soon?

I understand the Sex Party has quite an ability to mount a stand-off... so your mate Danny should look out, lest he get pricked in the eye with something unpleasant.

Dear davidf,

It is good to see you in what would appear to be fine fettle and form.

Thank you for your article. It was well constructed, well paced, and well concluded.

Yet in my humble opinion it lacked the recognition of a singular truth, that the religion practised by the majority of your countrymen is such a far cry from the traditional sense of Christianity that it struggles to legitimately retain that name.

Your Spongianisms addressed to HoHum, I contend, show that you are perhaps yet to make this critical distinction. I would invite you to read, if you have not already, Harold Bloom's 'The American Religion'. A poorly edited book but nonetheless a powerful critique of the uniqueness of the American religious experience.

One of the points he ventures in his introduction is “that while Judaism and Christianity are not biblical religions (despite all their assertions), the American Religion is indeed biblical, although its bible may be largely confined to Saint Paul (the Southern Baptists) or be an American set of replacement Scriptures (the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Scientists, among others).”

He further states;

“... I have taken our unacknowledged national faith which I follow Sydney Ahlstrom (and Tolstoy) in calling the American Religion. Mormons and Southern Baptists call themselves Christians but like most Americans they are closer to ancient Gnostics than to early Christians”...”most American Methodists, Roman Catholics, and even Jews and Muslims are also more Gnostic than normative in their deepest and most unwariest beliefs. The American Religion is pervasive and overwhelming, however it is masked, and even our secularists, indeed even our most professed athiests, are more Gnostic than humanist in their ultimate presuppositions. We are a religiously mad culture, furiously searching for the spirit, but each of us is the subject and the object of the one quest, which must be for the original self, a spark or breath in us that we are convinced goes back before creation.”

The light he shines on himself, Spong, yourself and your countrymen is illuminating and I commend it to you.

Christianity is based on Gnostic-like epistles of Paul that invoke a lot of Old Testament prophecies without invoking messages of the mystical central character, Jesus Christ. .. Claims those messages were already known by oral communication is fanciful, as the geographical areas claimed for that spread is too wide for a consistent message. Paul may be a fanciful character, too.

The Gospels build upon each other as variations of a single story, and their central character is unsupported by non-biblical literature.

Well, half right. Just should have stopped at the word "God".