I grew up in a Christian family. I went to church every Sunday and most Wednesdays until I was about 17 years old. So I'm not talking without knowledge or personal experience.

The extreme hypocrisy with which seemingly most, but probably just many so-called Christians live their lives has soured me on the whole thing forever. I never had any experience to lead me to believe that this life is any more than what we can see, but that's not the point. Christanity has a pretty good philosophy, at least except for Paul's extremes. But so many Christians have basically no interest in that.

My wife watched the movie Blast from the Past the other day. One of the characters said ``He said, good manners are just a way of showing other people we have respect for them. See, I didn't know that, I thought it was just a way of acting all superior.'' To me, that's what Christianity has become. A way for people to feel morally superior. (I'm not placing this fault on you, specifically.) And I believe that's the extent of GWB's religion.

There are other people I know (personally if not well) who are, apparently, highly regarded in the evangelical community who I believe exhibit the exact same lack of Christianness. There's this creepy narcissistic quality to them that stands out beyond all else for me.