THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 8, 1995 TAG: 9507090001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
Staff writer Betsy Mathews Wright's July 1 column blows my mind! As a regular Wright reader, I consider her intelligent, well-educated, articulate and logical. Her columns usually make for intellectually tantalizing fare and are a pleasure to read. What happened?
Her attack on Governor Allen's position not to burden taxpayers with funding the Bland Sex Offender Treatment Community is stupid! And Betsy's statement ``At the heart of my anger is the glaring inconsistency that Allen, the darling of the Christian Coalition and the Religious Right, is at odds with Jesus Christ's own teachings'' is just plain wrong.
I'm a Christian, and I voted for Allen. I agree with all the arguments Ms. Wright offers as to why the Bland Sex Offender Treatment should be supported. But how? That's the point!
Yes, it is founded upon good Christian principles. But that does not mean the government has to tax all its citizens, regardless of their individual preferences or beliefs, and force them under threat of law to fund it.
I give to causes that I choose. And there are more than enough good ones to choose from. And I give in the amounts that I choose. That is called freedom! There is nothing un-Christian about freedom. I earned it! It's mine. Why shouldn't I have that freedom to choose?
Nor it it Christian for Ms. Wright to use the power of the press to wield political pressure upon Governor Allen to forcibly take what belongs to me, to give to a cause of her choosing. That's called extortion! And I challenge Ms. Wright to find a passage in the Bible that supports that.
HOLLIE J. TIEDEMANN JR.
Virginia Beach, July 1, 1995 by CNB