I will have to read Martin’s new book someday. Concerning the two evangels, you can basically see the two being mixed up by Christianity. Really this is troublesome. In my younger years I strongly desired to know what I needed to do in order to be saved. Even as the son of a Baptist minister, I had trouble knowing if I needed to surrender my life (lordship salvation) or simply believe. The more I learned, the more I realized people such as my Father could talk out of both sides of their mouth. They are not faithful to Paul’s teachings. Paul was entrusted with “the evangel of the Uncircumcision, according as Peter of the Circumcision” Christian pastors teach what Paul terms ‘not another’ They can swing from one evangel to another within a matter of a few sentances. I often wish I was not raised a Christian. Too many things to unlearn.
Hey Puddy- you’ve got my attention regarding the two evangels. I’ve started a new thread about them here:
viewtopic.php?uid=422&f=14&t=3631&start=0 
‘‘Even as the son of a Baptist minister’’ you too !, ‘‘I often wish I was not raised a Christian’’ perhaps thats why some of them are ‘‘less guilty’’
Hey stuard
Not sure what you meant about less guilty. I really have no complaints about Christians themselves, and I consider Baptist pastors and others in the ministry, to be truely nice people. Way too much Christian bashing in our media (etc) However I do understand why Martin Zender says what he says (too some degree) In his book ‘How to quit Church without quitting God’ I feel he went too far in pegging Christianity as a cult. I never considered the Church I was raised in to be a cult. I always refused to take ‘the lord’s supper’ and refused ‘baptism’ but I do not remember pressure from my Dad or the Church. A real cult would have put lots of pressure on someone in my shoes. I have nothing bad to say about Christians, just their doctrines. Indeed many put me to shame. How about you?
I’m not to sure what you mean by ‘‘put me to shame’’ , and while I don’t ‘‘hate’’ christians I certainly distain christianity and ergo christians (to varying degrees) , there are plenty of lovely christians but for me it has little to do with ‘‘being nice’’ , I do think Zender can go too far and I also agree with the gist of your ‘‘bashing christianity’’ comment, so even though I am not fond of christianity I also defend it where I believe it is being unjustly ‘‘bashed’’ you will find there is some of that here with certain members