There are a lot of religious topics I don't discuss publicly. There's a reason for it.

See, when I first logged onto the internet in 1997, I was like a kid in a candy store. Suddenly, my personally held religious beliefs didn't seem so marginal, as there was a message board and a chat room for just about everything (and more than a few things I'd rather not even think about).

The problem is, there was a bit of "culture shock" in my adjustment to the medium. I treated my new "friends" pretty much like I would my real life friends, discussing everything and anything...up to and including some pretty personal stuff. I was careful with things like where we lived, etc, but I felt so liberated by the new release that being candid with my beliefs seemed to bring me.

The problem is, I am at heart a social liberal, a fiscal conservative, and religiously VERY conservative. At the time, many of my newfound "friends" were hardcore democrats/socialists. I felt we had similar goals until I discussed my religious beliefs.

That's when I discovered that the intolerance I had encountered with my father, a hard leftist, was by no means unique. I encountered some extremely nasty attitudes when I discussed my personal religious beliefs, from individuals who had no business judging me. I found it ironic that the same flaming homosexual who would repeat "judge not lest ye be judged" out of context as a mantra to justify his behaviour would feel qualified to judge me and my beliefs. The thing is, I have always followed the Joshua line of "As for me and MY house, we will serve the Lord". I have never demanded anyone else do the same.

I'm increasingly adopting the belief that the chief reason the left finds the right so intolerant of their beliefs is because of their own intolerance. It's pretty hard, after all, to expect "tolerance" from a group whose ideas and values you consistently ridicule. I've had attempt after attempt of many of these liberals, for instance, to pile guilt on me because of the size of my family (7 of us), despite the fact that we consume about HALF the utilities of families of two in our own community due to being strict conservationists. And my beliefs on dating are ridiculed as being an anachronism despite the fact that the model we follow has been in place FAR LONGER than the western model so many in our society practice.

The fact is, I haven't found such consistent intolerance on the right. Sure, there are those who will look down on me because of my ratty jeans and long hair, but most of those people pretty much back down when they see that I am coherent, intelligent, and actually share some of their values.

I've learned a lot in my time online, namely, don't reveal anything that you would mind being used against you later, because in an online community, it always will. But more than anything, I've learned that the  individuals preaching loudest from the pulpit of "tolerance" know very little about it.