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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 27, 1993                   TAG: 9301270317
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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WHY NO CRITICISM OF RELIGIOUS LEFT?

AMERICAN liberal elites who reign supreme over mass media, entertainment and education are often called "anti-religious" or "anti-Christian." Actually, the left has no problem with "religious people," or even with "Christians" per se, but with religiously motivated conservatives in general. To be a professing Christian is considered no cause for exclusion from public discourse and political activism if one is also a liberal.

Both Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson are ministers who have been candidates for the presidency. Both profess the Christian faith. Which man is branded a violator of "separation of church and state" every time he makes a political statement? Whose presidential candidacy was considered dangerous, ostensibly because he is a pastor, but really because he is conservative? The liberal elites have no problem with church folk whose religion manifests itself in radical environmentalism, or civil-rights activism, or anything else within the liberal ethos. Would Rev. Jackson ever be told, upon lobbying for new civil-rights legislation or increased welfare spending, that "you can't legislate morality?"

What the left means by these tired cliches is that only their values may be allowed to shape public policy - or for that matter, may even be expressed. Those who hold different values or favor non-statist solutions to our nation's problems can butt out. JILL BARRETT DUBLIN

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