RADICAL CHRISTIANS

RADICAL CHRISTIANS

Tom Gross.
Published: Monday, October 4, 1999
Section: COMMENTARY

In "Christian targets" (Voice of the people, Oct. 1), Daniel John Sobieski makes an excellent point regarding the apparent failure of recent brutal, senseless shootings of Christians to be investigated as or reported as hate crimes. It is worth noting, however, that conservative Christians are some of the most vocal opponents to hate crime legislation - largely because of calls to include sexual orientation in the statutes.

Given his understandable anger over these horrific crimes, it is easy to forgive his hyperbole regarding the so-called "demonizing of evangelical Christians" in popular media and his assertion that the "only group that is politically correct to defame are Christians". One wonders, though, if he can see the same faults in the leaders of right-wing evangelical groups (Focus on the Family, the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, etc.) who regularly vilify gays and lesbians, portraying them as threats to families and children - even going so far as to assert that tolerance of homosexuality will bring about the downfall of western civilization. These same groups persistently lobby against efforts to extend basic civil rights to gays and lesbian citizens and they give substantial support to right-wing politicians who echo their inflammatory rhetoric.

While there is certainly no shortage of hypocrisy on either side of the political spectrum, it is easy to see the speck in someone else's eye but fail to notice the beam in one's own.

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