Some Christians try to deny rights

Some Christian groups have been denying "rights" to others for quite a while, yet Cindy Gray's recent letter to the Daily Herald decrying an atheist's recent victory does not mention them at all.

For instance: In July. Christians disrupted a Hindu priest as he led the U.S. Senate in prayer. Ms. Gray might argue that we are a Christian country, but I checked the U.S. Constitution. Sure enough, Article I states, "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion …" The founding fathers placed no adjective in front of the word "religion" because they wished to promote religious tolerance.

Whatever happened to, "Love thy neighbor"? In 2005, conservative Christians led by then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Sen. Rick Santorum, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and President Bush, sought to use the powers of the federal government to deny Michael Schiavo his right to allow his severely brain-damaged wife, Terri, to die. The courts intervened, the machines were disconnected and Terri died. Doctors determined that her brain had deteriorated to half of its normal weight and she would never recover. How Christian was it to prolong this existence?

Conservative Christians continue to deny others the benefits of stem-cell research. They argue that fertilized eggs would be destroyed in such research, thus killing the lives within. Yet researchers would use only those eggs designated for disposal anyway. I find it curious that no Christian has offered to save a single egg by having it implanted in a paid surrogate, who would raise the fetus to term, and then adopt the baby; nor has legislation been introduced making the disposal of fertilized eggs a crime equivalent to murder.

Has Ms. Gray considered that we Christians are losing our "rights" because God is punishing us for hypocritical attitudes and behavior?

Bill Pohnan

Streamwood