I'm an Anglo-Catholic. Evelyn Waugh, in Brideshead Revisited had someone quote: "Stay away from the Anglo-Catholics; they are all Sodomites and speak in funny accents".
I guess it's true. Anglo-Catholics, AKA the Anglican "Oxford Movement", are a strange bunch. They--well some of them--accepted people like me, and yes, they can chant. And they really love the less fortunate, and have, for 150 years, while Evangelicals and Roman Catholics were more concerned with the sins of the poor; mostly, that the poor were poor and deserved it.
I'm not going to give a history here, you can look it up, but I'm going to give a rebuttal to the Atheists that find us icky. More after the fold.
I come from a long line of liberals. My grandfather turned over trucks in the 30's in New Jersey in a labor strike, and some of his folks turned them over in the 20's in England during the General Strike of the '20's. My Grandfather came from a landowning class in Britain and his father-in-law came to Massachusetts and established it here. With pretty good Labour credintials, for upper-middle-class folks.
I have been attacked here for being an Anglican. For being an idiot. For being a jerk, frankly. For having an opinion which is scary. For having an opinion that people that might have faith are not always idiots that want to hate.
I know the reason why. Because, you see, "mainstream" Christians, like myself, aren't interested in hate, or right-wing politics. Some of us, like me, are interested in marriage equality, social justice, the end of the "war on drugs", keeping people out of prison, and equality for all.
I was once Organist and Choirmaster and above and beyond that, a parishioner, at the Church of St. John the Evangelist on Bowdoin Street in Boston. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad.
I am appalled at the fact that there are some good Kossacks that will not admit that some Christians did some real good. Yes, we've done bad. Not my folks. But to paint every Christian believer with the brush of ignorance: well, some people don't know very many real Christians.
Pax vobiscum.
NOTA BENE: I am no longer to keep up with the comments because they keep crashing my old system. I cannot speak for Dirkster, but he may be able to help you understand why people like us loves everyone and want to continue to do that, regardless of whether or not one believes in God or no God. Some of us just love everyone. Others, want to do equasions. I can't even spell it, let alone do it. I can play Bach. Can you? Just sayin'.