where

I am so glad there a Christians out there who want to live their Christian values without enforcing them on everybody who is not Christian. The Puritans came to this country for religious freedom and then imposed their values on those who did not agree with them. We have been hypocrites since the beginning of time and it is time to stop it. We all have to live in this country together, and everybody deserves a chance at what America has to offer-an education, a job, and the rights and freedoms laid out in the constitution. Non-christians have as much a right to these things as Christians. If every law we made was based solely on the Bible, we would be as bad Islamic Fundamentalists countries that base their laws on Sharia.

I grew up Catholic and painfully lost my faith at about age 12; I considered myself an atheist for many years till through spiritual experience, prayer and good reading I came back around to faith (I am 27 now). In February, not least because of support and friendship I found on the Internet, I mustered the courage to start attending Catholic Mass, which has been such a grace filled experience, though not without difficulty. I'm a dedicated member of the Street Prophets blog community, affiliated with Daily Kos. SP is about 50% Christian so interfaith relations is an important issue, and we work to set a gentle and civil tone of discussion. I would really like to see SP grow and continue to play more of a role in building bridges between secular political activists and people of faith, and between political progressives of various beliefs. I passionately believe in love, and that is the most basic witness I try to make. I guess my main purpose in coming to CrossLeft would be to see what you are doing here and what I can learn to take back to what we are doing at Street Prophets and Daily Kos.