In response to the letter, “Society needs Christian values” (by Greg Stiff, pastor), I am simultaneously appalled and astounded by the fire-and-brimstone comments. To place blame and cause for tragedies such as the MPHS shooting on the separation of church and state, as the writer claims — “we have thrown God out and criminalized any attempt to interject him and his word into the social conscience leaving us this” — is farcical at best and socially irresponsible at worst.
Throughout the letter, propagandizing statements are spewed as the writer proselytizes his religious beliefs as empirical evidence. To denigrate and dismiss ceremonial and cultural religions as problematic because said forms of spirituality exist “without a relationship found in the delivering and changing power of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who lived as a man and died for all men to give men forgiveness of sin, everlasting life and a reason to live” is supremely insulting to myriad people who identify with the more than 2,000 recognized non-Christian deities.
I emphatically believe that the writer has the freedom to determine whichever “creator” he chooses to worship, but that does not give him the right to force-feed his viewpoint to those who do not share his religious slant or affiliation. People of America are free to choose who, where, when, why and how we believe. The writer should save his myopic preaching for the pulpit, as that target audience more closely shares and emulates his convictions and, thus, will appreciate the message he strives to deliver.
Kari Abbe
Arlington
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