The Christian Right? They’re The Ones Who Really Care Letter Of The Week: From March 18

The Spokesman-Review seems obsessed with railing against people who don’t really exist: the so-called extreme Christian right.

Who are the religious right? They are the people I have lived with all my life, people I’ve been proud to call my friends.

They are that Christian sister who, through the hands of others, presented me with a check for $30 when I was 10 years old, with instructions to buy a good suit to wear to church. My mother could never afford me such luxury. I never expected her to.

The “radical right” is the small group of believers who couldn’t even afford a building to meet in, yet found the money to help my new bride and me pay the $1,000 down payment on a house we could call our own.

These “hatemongers” held hands and prayed all night when one of our minister’s sons had a 107-degree fever that threatened to snuff out his little existence.

These “extremists” believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and that his words and his apostles are sacred; that worship is more about doing than feeling; and that we were told by the only begotten son of almighty God, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

These “religious zealots” are people just like me - good people keeping the darkness at bay. People who believe “that for freedom Christ has set us free.” Don’t fear us. Fear instead those who try to silence our freedom of open debate and expression of faith. Maurice E. Smith Thornton, Wash.

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