God forbid we use science

[kandrathe]

Yes. Quite difficult to say *exactly* who is an Evangelical. Much easier to say it's about 25% of people, by most reasonable definitions one could write. Rather deceptive to say it's 0.5%. Unless you pick a totally unreasonable definition, there's no way that number is even close.

I showed you my source. .5% of people when asked describe themselves as Evangelicals. I would agree that the political movement of the Religious Right is higher than .5%, but it is also much broader than Evangelicals.

About half of Americans describe themselves as "born again." Does that mean 50% are Evangelicals? That's not a totally unreasonable description, but probably not selective enough. About half of those self-describe as belonging to a faith that is Evangelical, broadly speaking. I would say that's a perfectly appropriate broad definition, which yields about 28%. Still probably a little high, but pretty close. I think my number is a perfectly accurate ballpark figure, and in any case, perfectly describes the group of people I was initially talking about, whatever you personally care to take "Evangelical" to mean.

Now you are being unreasonably obtuse. If we go with the 25% number, then you would also have to go with the 9% number which are the portion of Evangelicals which are Traditionalist Republicans.

Are you painting with the broad brush? I say yes, and I've shown you why. What you are saying about Evangelicals, would be akin to saying that Catholics are the source of the abstinence-only movement. When, again, there is a large portion of Catholics that would fall on both sides of the issue. Are Blacks the problem with crime? Are homosexuals the problem with AIDS? You would be quick to jump all over someone for a "bigoted" view, unless that view is held by you.

Great! Fantastic. And, as I pointed out earlier, if every parent was as good as you, we'd probably not have any problems with schooling at all. Sadly, that is miles away from the case.

And... How does the Nanny state differentiate the good ones from the bad ones? It doesn't. It assumes the lowest common denominator, and takes over the parenting of all children by law. The only time my children are out of parental site is when they are with people we feel 100% certain about or have screened. The largest amount of time they are out of sight is when they are at school, but we've done the best we can to insure they have good people teaching/caring for them. There are friends of my children where I won't let them play inside the other children's house, because I am not 100% sure about the adults in the house.