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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995                   TAG: 9506290034
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long

BAPTISTS WERE SLOW TO APOLOGIZE

I can't help but wonder if, when in 50 years they meet to celebrate their 200th anniversary, Southern Baptists will look back on the closing decades of the 20th century and feel enough shame to apologize to women, gays, divorced persons and those with different theological and social convictions who are now objects of their intolerance and exclusion.

BEN C. ROGERS

ROANOKE

Religions' divisions are Satan's work

REGARDING your June 21 editorial, ``In the name of Jesus Christ'':

I am so glad to live in America. We have freedoms that other countries do not enjoy. Our faith is the greatest. This country was established by Christians who believed in Jesus Christ, and believe that the Bible is the word of God. It plainly tells us to pray in the name of Jesus Christ and how that name would offend many. Apparently, once again, it proves true.

Most all religions have an almighty who represents good. They also have an evil person known by most as Satan. It is Satan's job to cause division, and he's doing an excellent job. Every time another religion objects to prayer in any form, Satan is victorious and God - whoever you call him - loses.

We as a nation need to realize that no matter who he is to you, he was the creator in the beginning and will be the judge in the end. All this strife and division over how to pray could cause us all to miss the boat in the end.

JOYE BERRY

STAFFORDSVILLE

Clinton speaks with a forked tongue

AFTER THE Oklahoma City bombing in April, President Clinton derided ``hate speech'' in the public forum. After the recent failure of the Henry Foster nomination for surgeon general, Clinton engaged in a tirade of venomous hate speech of his own. He labeled all pro-lifers as ``right-wing, anti-abortion extremists.''

And at the outset of Foster's nomination five months ago, Vice President Al Gore referred to pro-lifers as the ``extra chromosome wing of the other party.'' This sure sounds like hate speech to me.

If Clinton believes that anyone who respects the sanctity of human life and works toward legal protection of the unborn is a ``right-wing, anti-abortion extremist,'' well, I guess I'm in good company with folks like Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II.

Clinton's actions are hypocritical, and are a pathetic attempt to make political fodder out of the blood shed by tiny innocent victims.

ANTHONY W. CONRAD

COVINGTON

Military women applaud memorial

I WAS delighted to read the June 23 Associated Press article ``Military women's memorial begun,'' and your June 26 editorial ``2nd-class soldiers no more.''

As a female reserve officer for more than 23 years, I attended the ground-breaking ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery and the reunion reception the previous evening. Many women present were renewing acquaintances from years gone by, but also looking for those who were not able to attend. The computer registry will help locate those who are no longer able to travel, or perhaps no longer living to experience the long-overdue recognition they deserve.

The ceremony was an emotional one for many women in uniform, past and present. Ninety-four-year-old Anne Pederson Freeman, World War I veteran, received a standing ovation as she spoke. President Clinton said it was difficult to follow her in the program.

EILEEN S. HADBAVNY

Lt. Col., United States Air Force

Reserve Nurse Corps and Women in Military Service for America charter member

BLACKSBURG

Media are part of anti-gun conspiracy

EITHER THE established media adopt some sort of professionalism that resembles ethics or historians will record that their mockery of the First Amendment hastened the United States' decline as a democratic society.

Not content with reducing public schools to a vehicle for forced equality, Democrats intend to confiscate every privately owned firearm in this nation. Brady I was intended as a cornerstone for repeal of the Second Amendment, a constitutional safeguard our forefathers wisely included to protect against a corrupt federal government. The vast majority of media personnel are willing partners in a collusion designed to eliminate that safeguard. Only the most naive individual can possibly believe that any national gun legislation is designed for anything other than to perpetuate a plan to enslave this nation's people.

Have the media not heard of the Gingerbread Man or The Lady Who Rode on the Back of the Tiger? No self-respecting dictator will be satisfied without eliminating the First Amendment as well if the Second Amendment is, indeed, killed - an action that will precipitate an immediate attempt to confiscate all privately owned firearms.

Language that would have required a national registry of all privately owned guns, a $5,000 fine, and prison sentence for owners of each unregistered gun, was deleted from Brady I, thereby setting the stage for Brady II. It was put on hold when Republicans gained control of Congress by going around the established media with talk shows and direct mailings.

Paranoid and cynical? You bet I am! Consider: ``An April Gallup Poll found 39 percent of Americans think the federal government poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans'' (U.S. News, June 5).

RAYMOND L. WILKERSON

EVINGTON

Suicide is not a laughing matter

REGARDING THE comic section in your June 25 newspaper:

I am very upset about the comic strip ``Funky Winkerbean,'' by Tom Batiuk. The way I interpreted this was that a young lady had just attempted suicide by a drug overdose.

I don't know about you, but I don't find this the least bit amusing. You are sending a message that suicide is something that is funny, and that it is something you can joke about.

Is this the kind of message you want to send out to today's youth? I hope not.

JENNIFER M. WEIDNER

ROANOKE

Averill is not in Farris-North camp

AS A lifelong Republican who sometimes votes for a Democrat or independent, I admit that portions of Butch Johnson's June 15 letter to the editor (``GOP has full stable of characters'') are certainly true.

Undoubtedly, neither Mike Farris nor Oliver North was a candidate many in the state Republican Party were proud of, and perhaps our biggest problem is the current chairman.

However, putting Trixie Averill in the context of that group is hardly a fair comparison. Her views are in line with those of us who are concerned about government waste, deterioration of our educational system under Democratic leadership, the lax attitude regarding punishment of criminals, and a welfare system that does little to encourage its recipients to break the cycle of dependence.

It always interests me when Democrats call Republicans the party of the rich when our country's leading Democrats (Sen. Ted Kennedy, Sen. Robert Byrd, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell, etc.) are hardly among our society's downtrodden.

Cranwell has been the epitome of pure party politics, which is wrong for both sides and is detrimental to the taxpayer. What has he done for us average citizens of Southwest Virginia? A quick look at your income-tax bill should be a clue.

GERALD BRITTAIN

SALEM