For a different view – not one I particularly agree with – there is this from Andrew Brown at the Guardian:

My great-grandfather drank infrequently but seriously, as a respectable Protestant in county Fermanagh should. Sessions involved a bottle of whiskey, some suitable masculine company and a little ritual to start the evening off. He would retire to his study with bottle and guest, remove the cork from the bottle and throw it on the fire. While it burned, they would drink the first toast, which was always the same: “Fuck the Pope!” Then the glasses would be drained.

There were few men he liked to drink with. One thought worthy was the local Catholic priest. This raised a difficulty with the toast, which was solved by the priest waiting discreetly outside the study until it was time for the second glass. After that there would be no toasts or talk offensive to his ears, and he was warmly welcomed.

How very different the conduct of religious discussions on the internet. On the web the participants are often sober and they spare no pains to offend and insult one another, even when there is nothing at stake. I nearly wrote “nothing but prestige” but prestige in whose eyes? Who is watching? The strange, weightless intimacy of online communication has enabled complete strangers to hate each other passionately within minutes. This has had measurable effects in the real world. In the US, for instance, the breakup of the Anglican Communion has already resulted in some huge and juicy lawsuits and will certainly result in many more as conservative parishes try to remove their churches from the liberal central body. The schism could never have happened without the internet, which allowed each side to see exactly what the other was up to, and then deliberately to misunderstand it.