Bumped into a high school friend for the first time in 30 years.

[CrispyQ]

35. I was born in a city & moved to a very small town when I was seven.

It was quite a change going from a non-religious, anonymous environment to a small town where everyone knew who you were & that was very religious. Eleven years later, I left for college & the only time I went back to cow town was to visit my mother. Fast forward 40 years & I stupidly went to my 40 year high school reunion. This was a year before Trump ran the first time. I accepted a bunch of friend requests on FB, but in less than two years I'd unfriended most of them. With the exception of a few, they were all trumpers, & the ones who were the most religious were also the ones who were the most hateful.

Since then, I've met many liberal Christians & the difference is striking. They appear to support democrats & inclusive policies & they don't feel compelled to bring up religion all the time, in fact they hardly discuss it at all. You can almost tell what kind of Christian someone is by the party they affiliate with.

A few years ago there was a DUer who wrote that he had grown up in a small town & had always been very conservative & never questioned how or why. Then in his early 20s he had a chance to travel internationally, & it completely changed him. He started to question his conservative upbringing & beliefs & returned to the US a liberal.