Over at The Corner, Rod Dreher -- one of my favorite writers -- shares the intemperate response by an Episcopal priest in Oregon to this column. The piece apparently also appeared in "Virtuosity," which is how the priest came across it. I feel Mr. Dreher's pain -- I once had a piece published in Virtuosity and received some similar correspondence.

The whole episode puts me in mind of my experience this weekend in San Francisco. With the Episcopal bishop of California, actually. Someone told him that two Episcopal churches where I live are quite liberal, and he took that to be a good thing. Turning to me, he said, "Tough week last week, wasn't it?" Not wanting to be rude -- but wanting to signal my position with some modicum of subtlety -- I answered, "Oh, was it?" With that, he actually pressed forward with some very left wing comments about how he hoped we weren't going to be invading any other "innocent" countries in the next four years.

I respect religious leaders as much as the next person, but I had to ask him why all the clergy who are so in favor of human rights have seemed so unalterably opposed to those same God-given rights being made available to Iraqis.

And I still can't decide whether he made the comment about Iraq before he realized I disagreed with him -- or whether he simply didn't care.