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

DATE: MONDAY, May 10, 1993                   TAG: 9305100304
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FUNDAMENTALISTS DON'T ALL FIT IMAGE

IN THE APRIL 20 article entitled "Another fatal prophecy fulfilled" by Gary Blonston of Knight-Ridder/Tribune printed on the front page of this newspaper, there was reference made to Robert Jay Matthews as being a "race-hating, Christian fundamentalist." Although it was not written by one of your writers, I felt the need to bring this phrase to the attention of the editors, and especially to the readers.

My concern is that the general populace is being given a distorted picture of what it means to be a Christian, because "race-hating" has absolutely nothing to do with true Christianity, fundamentalist or otherwise. No doubt there are those who take the name of "Christian" and act in this way, and in so doing they contribute to this distortion. But are such people accurately representing Jesus Christ?

In spite of the portrayal of Christians as confrontational, vengeful and violent, there are many, even fundamentalists, who are also pacifists, as Christ himself was on Earth. This does not mean that we do not have strong convictions, or that we will not boldly speak out for those convictions, only that we do not seek to force them upon others. DAVID W. JONES ROANOKE

by CNB