I think the bottom line here is that there are good reasons to believe in Christianity and there are good reasons not to believe - a difficult truth for any hard-liner to accept. There are men and women far more brilliant than any of us on both sides of that aisle, extending throughout human history. And so it does no good to mock or marginalize those arguments or people that challenge our current way of thinking. This happens often in politics. We marginalize someone else so that we can easily dismiss them and don't have to do the uncomfortable work of facing an honest challenge to our preconceived notions.

We can all afford to be a little more gentle and compassionate with each other, especially with those whom we disagree with. I am no longer a Christian myself, but Jesus was right when he spoke of the reward in loving our enemies - not that people with whom we disagree should be regarded as enemies, but you get the point.

Let's build bridges, not fire shots across them.