I am a (lapsed) Catho-Buddhist, raised by wonderful, faith-infused parents who saw no conflict between their Christianity (Catholic and later Charismatic) and their Democratic politics. Quite the opposite. They embraced the teachings of Christ - all of them - and believed they had to help the "least among us" without excuse or equivocation.
My childhood home was a place of serious intellectual discussion around the dinner table, as my parents were also academics, and often the discussion would turn to the bible or religion or just faith in general. My parent's dinner guests included priests, nuns, rabbis and ministers. It was lively and it was often deep. I loved every minute of it. And I remain in profound awe of anyone who has the courage of true faith as these people did. They were loving, they were smart and they were kind. And they were the antithesis of the meaness that too often passes for "faith" and/or "Christianity" in America today. I respect people of real faith and I admire their commitment to living it in the way their conscience dictates. I would like to have more faith in my life and I work at this daily. I must admit, some days are better than others. Most days I need to pray to a frustratingly amorphous god: "Cure thou my disbelief." But I have never been, nor will I ever be, hostile to religion or to people of faith - only hostile to those who exploit or harm others in the name of god, or who preach a gospel of hate. Thank you, Pastor Dan, for the opportunity to rebut those who would exploit faith for their own worldly purposes. You remain my only pastor - and you seem to have more than enough faith to go around.