Two responses: FORCING beliefs on others is a form of bullying. Abuse in some cases. Second, proselytizing is highly offensive. If you believe, walk your goddamned talk. (the you here is general, not personal) That is the light. The moment someone starts barking at me about the Bible is the very second I shut them down. I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU EFFING READ. I care how you live your life in accordance with those beliefs. And while I get it that Jehova's Witnesses feel mightily compelled to shove their shite into my face I am equally compelled to shut the door in theirs. It's called respectful boundaries. The most compelling of all people simply live their truth; they don't have to slap every single human being with braggadocio and pin their Biblical sayings on their shoulders. That is "methinks thou doth protest too much," like so many about whom you write, Dan. My near neighbor is a Christian and so is another very close friend; neither of them shoves their religion in my face. I admire how they live, although frankly my religious history study has veered me hard away from any and all religious dogma. You have a right to share your belief if asked, and I have every right to walk away from it if I feel it impinges on my personal self and my perfectly legitimate boundaries. The fundamental question is whether or not the person doing the pushing is doing the real work of walking the talk. Not often. Which is why I stopped listening decades ago. I do my own work, my own research and it has led me very far from Christianity, today's evangelicals and the sick culture that inhabits its soul. That doesn't mean all Christians, but Millennials have good reason not to trust. Just look around, revisit the Sermon on the Mount and count how many folks have any kind of alignment with that most profound of speeches. I work hard at it but I am no Christian, never will be, and would NEVER EVER be so arrogant to shove my way of being at another person without invitation. It is just plain rude. But that's my opinion. I believe powerfully that George Carlin was right: his revised Third Commandment: Thou Shalt Keep Thy Religion to Thyself. That riff is worth visiting for the imposition of such beliefs on others who feel violated is what leads to the bloodiest and most brutal wars on earth, all in the name of God, whichever invisible man or whatever you happen to believe in. Thou shalt not kill is clear. Religion didn't get the memo. And people have seen that light, Dan and want no part of it. This doesn't make me right. But it does make me opinionated after decades of seeking, reading, talking, traveling, researching. Our lives are the only testaments we have. The rest is pure hot air. And today's right wing evangelicals are full of it, which is likely why those poll results are what they are.

If more folks would be willing to discuss and debate, both of which I enjoy thoroughly, we wouldn't have wars, Dan. We wouldn't have the genocides and wholesale killings of Jews or folks who don't happen to share our beliefs. But because out of fear, so many of us identify WAY too much with a certain set of beliefs, those folks weaponize their god to justify violence. We are sick of it, those of us who might have liked a trustworthy system. But such systems are rigged economically and politically and they are cancerous. I agree with Kathy Franke, below. Too much of what so-called Christians do today is pure unadulterated HATE and CONTROL, especially of women, towards minorities. That kind of movement, that very public ass-whipping of anything related to Jesus Christ, is what has cost the faith its faithful, to say nothing of how the church LOVES to protect its pedophiles. When a faith holds folks to a higher standard, maybe more will listen. But we have centuries of this, Dan. Not getting better. Not for ANY religion including Buddhism, with monks killing the Rohinga in Myanmar. There are only a few people I know who truly walk their talk. Those are my inspiration. But the high road is indeed narrow, and it sure as hell isn't crowded with folks barking and barking and barking about their Bibles or whatever. They keep their faith to themselves, and simply live in accordance with it. IF ASKED, they talk. And that makes all the difference, Dan. But that's just me.