So, I have been reading and posting here for about a month now. At times I have had some good, interesting discussions; at other times, the discussions have not been so good for various reasons. I am sure that this experience is not unique to me.
One thing I have noticed quite often here is the tendency to equate Christianity with the position advocated by the so-called religious right. (I say "so-called" because I am not sure how helpful the term is sometimes.) I want to be clear: not everyone does this; however, there are more than a few who take this position. I also want to be clear about something else: in no way do I support the "religious right." Take the idea of biblical inerrancy, for example. Although there are people who obviously hold such a view, there are many who identify themselves as Christians who do not; pointing out all the contradictions in the Bible to the latter group does nothing, since they accept these contradictions as part of the text, without trying to dismiss them. I could give other examples, but I hope my point is clear enough.
I wonder to what extent some people rely on a caricature of religion to advance their claims against religion (the same way that people often rely on a caricature of atheism to dismiss atheism). Let me be clear again: not all atheism relies on such caricature; I have no problem with atheism, there are good reasons for it, but I do object to the arguments when they are advanced through said caricature. And I also wonder to what extent this conflation of Christianity with the "religious right" relies, not on "rational" thought, but on the media.
There is an interesting report on the media portrayal of religion from Media Matters that discusses this subject in part: http://mediamatters.org/leftbehind/?f=h_top
I simply would like to have a discussion about this, if anyone is interested.

[MOD EDIT - fixed link]