Making unsupported, generalized assertions regarding Christianity's peaceful, unifying and culture-transcending effects on human history represents a callous refusal to consider that past events — such as The Crusades and The Holocaust, along with more recent incidents of evangelism like Terry Jones's proposed Quran burning, Westboro Baptist's anti-gay funeral picketing and the manipulation of immature minds portrayed in the documentary "Jesus Camp" — may be responsible for the anti-Christian sentiment referred to in last Friday's article. It should and will be noted that these examples do not serve to represent the entirety of the Christian faith (whose doctrine preaches, above all, love of fellow humans), but to demonstrate that, unfair as it may be, this extremism is likely accountable for current criticism of Christianity.
Regarding the reference to The Pledge of Allegiance present in last Friday's article, condemnation of the phrase "under God" is not an attack on Christianity; it is a defense of the separation of church and state: the assertion that the U.S. government (and government-funded institutions, e.g. public schools) be an entity free of ties to any religion. The fact that Seidel interprets this constitutional covenant as a direct denunciation of Christianity (essentially claiming the term "God" as a copyrighted commodity of this particular religion) only further exemplifies a repudiation of cultural pluralism.
As of 2008, 76 percent of American adults were members of the Christian faith. Viewing growing tolerance of other ideologies as a threat to the authority of this blinding majority mirrors the illogical, fear-based propaganda that fueled the atrocious intolerance present in the Reconstruction South and World-War-II Germany.