Quote:
Originally Posted by MelBridgeman
Oh yes the concept of one nutcase doesnt paint the picture for majority is still lost on people..
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While we might think that Pat Robertson is a nutcase and not representative of "mainstream" American Christianity, he does have millions of followers. Also, there's many, many other examples of people preaching about fire and brimstone.
One of the saddest things I read in Dawkin's book was his retelling of a letter he received from an American woman now in her 40s who was raised as a Catholic. She told him about how when she was seven, she was violated twice by her religion: first she was molested by her church's priest, and second, after the tragic death of one of her childhood friends (from a Protestant family), she was told that her playmate was burning in hell. She said of the two incidents, it was the second that was by far the more traumatic to her, and she frequently had nightmares or couldn't sleep because she was imagining her friend being tormented for eternity. What a terrible thing to do to a child.
