To the Christians on the board:
Thank you for living up to the best your beliefs have to offer. With very few exceptions, my flailings and rantings as I refine my own "truth" have been greeted with patience and kindness, or kindly ignored.
I do not foresee that I will ever return to a belief system that you hold dear, yet I do respect your beliefs - and appreciate your insights. Though we may not share many beliefs, we do share our humanity, and I still value your contributions to me in the form of your views, comments, well wishes, compassion and love.
There are a few that I go out of my way to thoughtfully read (JGnat comes to mind, but there are others, too) - and, yes, a couple that I try to avoid...but it is with a sense of relief and optimism that I have seen so much kindness expressed here on the whole by those I have learned to be afraid of, as a "class".
I just wanted to humbly take a moment to express my thanks - while we may disagree on certain things, I still feel we are part of a quest to bring about a better world.