Teach - I think what you said here is perfect.
Personally, I think what one DOES has moral significance. Not what one is.
I've been told I'm going to hell -- I'm not baptised and some people say I don't and can't have any morals because I'm agnostic. Some say the only way to have any morals at all is to be religious.
And I personally refuse to judge ANY faith by the extreme members. All Jews are not Orthodox; all Christians are not evangelicals; all Muslims are not terrorists....all the way down the line.
I prefer to think of the whole thing in a metaphor. G*D is at the top of a mountain. There are many different paths up the mountain -- each path represents a different faith. We are all climbing the mountain of Truth.
This is great too and I try my hardest to follow it. Just as I don't want anyone to judge me for who I am, gay.....agnostic.....I don't want to judge others. But sometimes I feel hatred and it makes it hard for me not to assume when you say you are Christian you don't like me. I know it's not true, deep down I know it......but it's all over the place right now even some Liberals are afraid to say they are Christian. It's so backwards than it should be.
The type of God or Higher Power I think may exist is LOVE. When you put hatred and GOD in the same sentence, I think it's bogus.
I do have morals -- I love everyone the same and I believe everyone deserves a second and/or third chance. I believe if there is a GOD, he loves all of us. For me it's about love, understanding, caring, peace and unity. That's what religion should be - to me that's what God is.
Boy - I hope some of that made sense -- I just let it spill out of my brain on to the keyboard.
