THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, July 6, 1996                TAG: 9607060023
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A10  EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                            LENGTH:   24 lines

EXPLOITING CHURCH FIRES

Regarding the article on Page A2 of the June 18 Virginian-Pilot (``Group: Far Right partly to blame'') concerning the recent church burnings across the South:

I am outraged by the remarks by the Rev. C. T. Vivian of the Center for Democratic Renewal.

To connect these atrocious church burnings with the Christian Right is like blaming inner-city crime on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition.

I am not a member of the Religious Right, but these remarks still offend me.

How can any thinking person say ``there's only a slippery slope between conservative religious persons and those that are actually doing the burning.''

The people at the Center for Democratic Renewal seem to be using the tragedy of church burnings to promote their own political agenda.

RONALD GARRETT

Virginia Beach, June 18, 1996 by CNB