It's probably our separation of Church and State and our strong
   emphasis on secularism.

   I have a friend from England (ok, I have a NUMBER of friends
   from England) and I was very surprised to learn that even now,
   most British primary schools are C of E through and through.
   They do things in class that we couldn't imagine in the USA.

   We take separation of church and state as the norm and everybody
   else as weird.. .but really, on the world stage, it is we who
   are the oddballs in that regard. It's not TOO far of a stretch
   to say "atheist" from secular... although it sounds _really
   strange_ to my ears too. Oh I love my British friends - I'm a
   total Anglophile. I just wanted to let you know I had more than
   one tongue emoticon

   The strange desire to try to move evangelical style Christianity
   into politics never seemed normal to me. I don't really seem
   them as Christian, as I never encountered anybody like that
   until I was in my early 20s and even then, it was once.

   I also never too TV evangelists seriously for the same reason. I
   consider them entertainers - because they ARE entertaining...
   but as a serious religion? naw. I see Christians as stemming
   from the standard groups you might find in a phone book, not the
   roll your own church variety. Can't take them seriously. tongue
   emoticon   eah, I never thought twice about atheism in the past.
   Never encountered ppl like those from the new movement. Used to
   be more akin to humanism.

   But the new movement has lost its humanist element and replaced
   with evangelical style pulpit preaching. Quacks like a duck and
   all that.

   The distinction is so obvious it can be seen 1/2 way around the
   world too, so at least it's not just me smile emoticon