speaking of being born again-- Lent 2A

    The Rake this month has an article about the Barna study in which self-professed "born again Christians" were found to have worldviews that  many of their fellow evangelicals deem insufficiently "biblical." So now James Dobson and friends are on a new campaign to bring these folks up to speed on what it really means to believe in Jesus.
    Isn't it ironic that Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, which seems to be all about double meanings and highly metaphorical language for the mystery of God's love, is the origin of this litmus-test phrase for being a "real" Christian? Nicodemus doesn't get it with Jesus there in the room with him. Are we really surprised to find that contemporary Christians have vastly different takes on what the faith is all about?
    Maybe it's a cop out to avoid longer conversations, but when strangers ask me if I'm born again, I just say yes. My baptism is valid, thank you very much.