THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 9, 1994 TAG: 9407080024
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 158 lines
Last week we asked readers to comment upon criticism of the ``religious right'' by California Democratic Rep. Vic Fazio and President Bill Clinton. Among the replies:
Do Christians have a right to be involved in the political process? What a ridiculous question. Of course they do. Christians have been involved in the politics of the United States since the first settlers came to America.
What Christians do not have a right to do:
1. Spread hatred and bigotry so that people are in conflict with one another and are unable to come together to work for a better America.
2. Through slanderous lies, innuendo and testimony of disreputable people, attempt to destroy the character of those who were elected by the American people to lead our country.
3. Judge the relationship of other people with Jesus Christ on the basis of their own political beliefs.
The Jesus Christ that I worship came to Earth to bring peace and good will to all people. Unfortunately, that is not what I see coming out of the Christian Coalition and the religious right.
CAROL CROSBY
Virginia Beach, July 5, 1994
As a member of the so-called ``fanatical'' Christian right, I was appalled but not surprised as Rep. Vic Fazio and our illustrious commander in chief raked me and my beliefs over the coals of intolerance once again.
What have I been thinking? I actually imagined that as a citizen of the United States, and as a member of the armed forces assigned to protect this great nation, that maybe I could reasonably expect to have a little input into our political system.
Not according to Mr. Fazio. I was effectually told to keep quiet and to keep the funds coming. If I recall my history correctly, we once fought a skirmish called the American Revolution over a similar statement.
Regardless of how this administration seeks to portray the Christian right in this country, we are not Nazis. We do not seek to set up a dictatorial state in which all are forced to attend church and to pray at gunpoint. We do, however, seek a return to the system of beliefs and principles which made this country great.
And, as any objective study or even a peripheral glimpse at the Constitution will overwhelmingly show, those happen to be biblical beliefs and principles. If we are not in the majority, then why Bill Clinton's paranoid fear that we will be able to take over the Republican Party?
The simple fact is that the majority of America is conservative. Mr. Clinton knows this. He had to act the part himself to get elected. There are been nine major elections since 1992 and nine major losses for liberal Democrats. Unlike politicians, elections don't lie.
PATRICK C. CAMPBELL
Virginia Beach, July 2, 1994
Democratic Rep. Vic Fazio threw a despicable temper tantrum because his party is being humiliated by President Clinton's faulty leadership and the numerous victories of Republicans and religious conservatives. So, instead of disagreeing on an intellectual basis, he has resorted to name-calling. It is hard for anyone to save face and to admit that some criticism might have merit, so it's easier to lash out in anger and label when defeat is eminent.
To say that everyone who sincerely practices belief in God and morality is a fire-breathing radical is painting with a very broad brush. Mr. Fazio's and other liberal Democrats' attempts to stereotype Christians as intolerant bigots and as anti-Semitic are extremely hypocritical, especially coming from people who are supposed to be tolerant, open-minded and non-offending.
Many of the founding fathers were extremely religious men, and they openly acknowledged God in many documents and public speeches. They established the freedom of religion to keep an oppressive religious tyranny from binding the people in the bounds of persecution. It also protected people's rights to freely practice their religion and their open profession of faith. I believe if Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were to speak the same things today that they spoke 200 years ago, they would be being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union and labeled religious right-wing extremists.
PATRICK W. McKENNA
Norfolk, July 5, 1994
Whether religious righters or liberal wrongers, we all have constitutional rights to speak out; and President Clinton notwithstanding, even Rush Limbaugh has this right.
When Hitler took power, the first thing he did was confiscate guns. The next thing he did was subjugate all religions. The Nazi Party was the new religion, just as the so-called ``new humanism'' is Clinton's. America beware.
WILLIAM F. HAY SR.
Virginia Beach, July 2, 1994
As a lifelong Republican, I resent the religious right making an issue of one's religious views.
Granted that the nation is sorely in need of a return to morality, but conservative Christians will not help by forcing all Republicans to conform to their beliefs.
Why should any group tell me, or any other Christian Republican, what my opinions must be? Should I be considered a traitor by supporting a woman's right to an abortion, or for believing that prayer belongs in homes and churches - not in public schools (which embrace many faiths)?
As it is, I dislike being adjudged a supporter of the religious right's tenets because I'm a Republican. Must I be driven out?
MARIE MORGART
Virginia Beach, July 1, 1994
In response to the notion that Christianity or religious values have no place in our political structure, what better person than the father of our nation, George Washington, to shed some light on the religious influence now being ablated by liberal PC:
``. . . let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle'' (farewell address, Sept. 19, 1796, Writings Vol. 35, p. 229).
Does the ``radical Christian right,'' as the current labeling applies to anyone who espouses a religious faith, have any place in political arenas? George seemed to think so. ``We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States'' (to members of the New Church in Baltimore, Jan. 27, 1793, Writings Vol. 32, p. 315).
LARRY M. HULSE
Chesapeake, July 4, 1994
The ``religious right'' is under attack because it has finally been able to bring a little structure to its efforts. With labels like the ``Christian conservative lunatic fringe,'' a scare campaign has been initiated by the ``Godless secular rabid left.''
Labels and slurs are easy and non-constructive.
If those who oppose the religious right will simply verbalize their vision and solutions to the problems we face as a country and society, we can debate the merit (or lack of merit) of their programs. The fact that a growing sector of the population has found wanting the secular left's current prescription for how we run our society means that the left should re-examine and change its agenda.
If the left continues to include attacks and fear campaigns in its activities, this will only strengthen the will and resolve of its opposition. Religious conservatives have just as much right to organize, campaign, broadcast, lobby and elect as any other group of citizens.
JOHN BAGGETT
Norfolk, July 2, 1994
Christians have every right to be involved in politics, but they should always be aware that advocating particular parties or political views within a congregation can be divisive, pitting one Christian against another and possibly risking the destruction of Christian fellowship.
Unfortunately, the current attitudes expressed outside church walls by people calling themselves Christians results in the unseemly spectacle of people preaching love while they speak malicious, vindictive or sometimes bloodthirsty words, as when, for instance, they decide in the name of Jesus Christ who (such as abortionists) should be executed.
JAMES CARD
Virginia Beach, July 4, 1994
by CNB