Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 1, 1993 TAG: 9304010408
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MUST `MODERATE' LABEL MEAN ANYTHING GOES?
REGARDING The Back Pew column by Cody Lowe in the March 14 Extra section, entitled "You might call this the revisionist's Reformation":His "tongue-in-cheek" comments (on the error that was made in his previous column referring to the 95 theses of Luther) are the least of my concerns.
My strongest objections are to his reporting of the problems within the Southern Baptist Church. I am not a Baptist, but rather a former Episcopalian, now in a nondenominational church for the very same reasons that "conservative" Baptists are fighting the agenda of what the news media insist on calling the "moderates." What Lowe either does not understand or failed to report is that the conflict is not a question of whether these Christian groups are showing love for one another, but that "conservatives" are "contending for the faith, once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). The compelling issue that divides the Baptists is whether the Bible is truly the Word of God.
Although in this situation the issues of homosexuality and abortion have not been aired, they are, nevertheless, under the surface. The term "moderate" implies balanced, tolerant people, and once upon a time would have been the label given to those who believed that mothers murdering their unborn children (now called "choice") and rampant sodomy (now called "gay") were unnatural and unhealthy lifestyles. A moderate person was one who wouldn't condone extreme behavior, which would have included illicit sex of all kinds and dismembering helpless infants. Now "tolerance" is the overriding criteria of everything.
In a culture where "anything goes," to be against something because the Bible teaches that it is wrong is intolerable! It has become very evident that to be a "conservative" in this "enlightened" period of history is very politically incorrect and tantamount to being a member of the Ku Klux Klan or some other hate-filled group.
In the Extra section on March 18, you did an article on LSD and Timothy Leary. If I were a young person looking for a "drug of choice," this article provided me with all the information I needed to jump in with both feet. I was aghast at the alluring way LSD was presented! It was not until I got to the 12th paragraph that there was even a hint that it might not be good for you.
Why must the moral intellectual level of the Roanoke Times & World-News be so mediocre? Just because the lowest common denominator of society is screaming that all of life be lived in the garbage dump, does that mean that you cannot bring yourself to try to raise the level a notch or two by presenting things more worthy of being in print?
Thank you for carrying Cal Thomas' column and Billy Graham's My Answer. At least these two columns offer moral and uplifting voices. SHIRLEIGH M. MARVIN BLACKSBURG