CHRISTIANS, CHRISTIANITY AND THE BIBLE

There have been A LOT of blogs about the "mandate" that Bush received in his re-election and how we define morality in the US now. It got me thinking about Christians and Christianity in the US. I grew up a Calvinist Fundamentalist Evangelical. Basically, pre-destination, taking the Bible literally and a lot of singing. My grandfather was a minister, my uncle's a minister and my father was an elder in the church, so as you might imagine, I spent A LOT of time in church, but to be fair, when I was younger, it was because I wanted to be there.

The Bible, by all Christian sects, is considered the Word of God (which I am personally having some doubts about, but more on that later), and is therefore the absolute written guide to understanding God and His Will. This does not include Mormonism. Mormons are not considered Christians by Baptists, Presbyterians, etc., and I believe that Mormons do not believe that the others will reach heaven either, but I don't know for certain.

Yet, I wonder how many people that claim to be Christians read the Bible. I don't expect them to be experts on the Bible, but how many parishioners have cracked it open outside of church to understand the basis of their religious beliefs.

Would their attitudes toward homosexuals, God in politics or anything else change if they read the Bible, assuming that they haven't? Would they become harsher? I don't know, but I'm curious because I know a lot of people that don't go to church that know the Bible better than people that do go to church, so like any good blogger, I started a poll to the right.

P.S. I ended the Bin Laden video poll because there was little interest after the election. The results are:

What's your opinion on the Bin Laden tape?
We will be attacked before the election
0%
Video helps Bush
33.33%
Video helps Kerry
0%
I don't know
66.67%
Total votes : 6