<HTML>In its current forms, Christianity ranges the Christian Coalition to the Metropolitan Community Church and various gay/lesbian denominational organizations, from liberation theology to the Opus Dei, from Quakers to Southern Baptists. Historically, it ranges from the Crusades to the Christian communists, from the defense of slavery to the promotion of abolitionism, from apologies for imperialism to the beachhead of anti-imperialism. It makes little sense to make across the board, sweeping generalizations about those different forms, unless one wants to stereotype in ways that are simply not very useful to good social analysis. Bigotry, by the way, does not simply involve discrimination, it also involves prejudice. And stereotyping is a classic form of prejudice. Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869) Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass -- </HTML>