This will be among my resolutionary-type things for the year, by the way…

I’m going to tell you up front that I’ve done some thinking here, and I am not especially comfortable with what I’m about to reveal; but I think it needs saying, and the resulting actions will need reinforcement from you, among others.

1.
After some soul-searching: I am, admittedly, anti-Christian.

Not anti extremism, not anti fundamentalism, not anti-intolerance or theocracy; truly, I am anti Christian, as in the base dogma of the faiths that have derived from the Christian mythos bother me and disturb me, run counter to my own beliefs, and makes me feel threatened and angry.

I admit this now, knowing it is deeply uncool to admit a bias of this sort; I am sorry for those of you offended, upset, and disgusted with this. Please bear with me as I move forward.

2.
My deep seated dislike and anger at the social structures we live within is at least in part driven by this. There is, of course, more to it, far more; but I think this is a large underpinning of how I see the world.

3.
One of my resolutions for this year will be to work harder, much harder, to ensure that my actions do not draw so deeply from this bias; that I do no let my blinders about Christianity keep me from seeing and befriending and treating with respect and fairness those I meet; and that when I take a stand on an issue of morality and value, it will not simply be “not Christian, so OK.”

4.
At the same time, I’ll work harder to define morality and values in ways that allow others in while not compromising my own spiritual values in pursuit of harmony.

There’s more to be said, of course; specifics, history, examples. But not now.

Now, I just want it out there.

Help hold me to it.

Edit: I think, upon reading this, that I should reframe my issue as one of being “anti-Christianity”, not “anti-Christian.” An important difference, I think.

We spent it in Boston with the recently married Dan and Mike, who just got back from Laos and Southern Thailand. (Yup, in the area hit by the tsunami. They just beat it.)

You’re definitely getting old when the drinking is done by 8:30 and you’re all too tired to open champagne at midnight, so you have a contest to see who can “pop” a finger in their mouth like a cork loud enough to make us feel festive while playing Chinese checkers.

I lost at both, although I did put away a half-bottle of Six Grapes tawny port by myself.

Woo.

More later.