Interesting e-mail re: “Christianity Lite”:

Your note on Christianity Lite reminded me of a recent interview with Christopher Hitchens in Portland Monthly, a local-interest glossy type magazine in Portland, Oregon.
The magazine used a Unitarian minister — Marilyn Sewell — to “counter-balance” Mr. Hitchens atheist view point and have her interview him.
Think what you will of Hitch, but he is my favorite athiest, and I duly respect him for his wit, charm, and thinking. Even if he is eternally wrong for being an atheist.
I loved him even more after this quote from the article:
“Maryiln Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?
“Christopher Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.” If an atheist gets it, where does that leave the “liberal” Christians?