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

DATE: SUNDAY, April 25, 1993                   TAG: 9304230466
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: F-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MORAL AGENDA IS NOT CHRISTIANS' ALONE

I MUST BEG to differ with David Awbrey's premise, "With decline of faith, modern life and culture ails" (April 11 commentary). It worries me when any organized religious-philosophic "faction" in this world, here Christian, proclaims its agenda as the one and only that will lead to the salvation of the nation and world.

Awbrey cites teen-age pregnancy, spouse abuse, racism and sexism as examples of social ills that could be quelled if the Judeo-Christian virtues of organized religion were more widely accepted and followed in society. Yet abstinence, personal character and tolerance are not fundamentally Christian values. Instead, these are themes stressed by a myriad of religions and philosophies, both organized and personal. They might be more appropriately seen as the underpinnings of any just and moral system for ordering one's life.

We live in a world that is neither wholly Judeo-Christian, monotheistic, secular-humanistic nor introspective-philosophic. Rather, the only tie that binds us together in a seminal way is our common humanity, which demands freedom and respect from others irrespective of belief.

It is painfully obvious today that agenda and "-ism" have made a mockery of many varying religions and world views because of intolerance. One can look anywhere: the West Bank, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Kashmir, Kampuchea, Waco or just about anywhere else the "us-them, right-wrong" attitude pervades.

In an increasingly interdependent and diverse world community, we must remember that we are just that: a community of many different backgrounds, cultures and ideals that must move beyond factionalism. We must work together within the basic morality that underlies humanity to solve our problems and right our wrongs, with tolerance for all: theists and atheists, congregationalists and hermits, secular and devout. MARK SCHLEUPNER CHARLOTTESVILLE

by CNB