It seems to me that the more you delineate acceptable specific beliefs (religious, political) to be included in the group, the more you set yourself up for being marginalized and finally end up all by yourself (see also the World's Funniest Religious Joke http://goo.gl/aByl8J).
It seems to me that there are folks who see religion as being primarily about doctrine — believing a particular creed, form, law, writing — and there are folks who see religion as being primarily about teach and promoting moral behavior. It's more complicated than that, in my opinion (see also James 2:14-20), but I find that the more heavily people rely on doctrine as the arbiter of who's a good, acceptable, in-group person, the greater the chance they are to be more interested in making man to be for the Sabbath, not the Sabbath for man. And when it comes to Scripture, the more literal folks try to take the Bible as a fundamental of the True Faith, the more brittle a faith they are erecting, setting themselves up for whole edifice to shatter.
Also, allow me to note that, despite being a theistic evolutionist, I've never been invited to any orgies, nor ever tossed my Bible in the trash — though I have to say that "Darwin-Baal" is almost certainly going to be the name of my next Christian Rock cover band.
A Creationist Schism Is Tearing Apart A Christian College
The evolution-creationism debate has returned to Dayton, Tennessee—the site of the Scopes Monkey Trial. Except this time, the venue is not a courtroom but a Christian college, where faculty members have resigned and students have mounted protests. The issue? Whether Adam and Eve were the progenitors of humanity.
This whole "man was created in the image of God" thing has always confused me. Are we to believe that God is a humanoid with all the limitations that body imposes, not to mention the implied environment and origin of that type of body? If, on the other hand, it means we are spiritually in his image, is he then as petty and selfish as a typical human?
+Scott Randel Depending on who you talk to, yes, God really does look like a guy with a long white beard. Now, some might say that's just a metaphor, but once you start going there, the next thing you know you're worshipping Darwin-Baal.
And, if you look at the whole of the Old Testament, as written, the Lord certainly comes across more than once as petty and selfish.
Or maybe that was muddied up with projection by the various authors of the OT.
As Voltaire put it, "If God has made us in his image, we have returned him the favor." (http://wist.info/voltaire/4017/)