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Abilene Reporter News

Risky Business

A recent letter from Jim Surles criticized Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell for their pronouncement that the attacks on New York and Washington were part of God’s retribution for allowing undesirables like homosexuals, abortionists and Democrats to live here. I would like to add that if Robertson and Falwell actually believe this, then they must be as deranged as the terrorists.

Conservatives have always enjoyed such scapegoating. In the Plymouth colony , the number of executions of “witches” increased with the level of adverse weather pecause Puritans viewed bad weather as an expression of God’s displeasure with sin. An Abilene women blamed the local drought on a visiting Buddhist monk because she viewed him as blashemous.

During the Depression, the Ku Klux Klan stepped up attacks against blacks and other minorities. with hundreds killed.

The men responsible were mostly Southern Baptists, their Klan meetings were often held in Baptist churches, and not one was ever arrested, despite ample evidence against them. On cue following the Sept. 11 disaster, right-wing mobs murdered Arabs and destroyed Asian owned businesses and mosques.

While Hitler was slaughtering Jews, Republicans called him a great leader and tried to negotiate treaties with his government.

After Pearl Harbor, the United States build its own concentration camps for Japanese-Americans.

I admire any Abilenian with guts enough to criticize Falwell, but I must warn Surles that considering history, it may be risky to anger Christian conservatives.

Ricky Jannise
Abilene

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Natural or not

Back in the 1850's I owned a couple of slaves and considered it to be quite natural. president Lincoln made me turn them loose, but in time I came to realize his wisdom.
I still didn't care much for my former slaves as people and I carried a grudge for about 100 years. Then President Johnson asid I couldn't discriminate against them no matter how good or natural it felt, and I learned to live with that, too.
I tried to keep my wife from voting as long as possible, but in 1920 she insisted, so I gave in.
Now, we vote together, and it feels natural. I just wish she wouldn't vote for all those Democrats.
I've been reading the letters debate on homosexuals. Some citizens in Abilene and surrounding communities believe it's unnatural and contrary to the will of God.
They support their agruments with personal prejudices and quotes from ancient scripture.
Now, I'm not educated enough to know if it's natural or not. But I'm just too old and tired to hate anymore. I've been around long enough to know that in 100 years, people are going to accept gay people and turn their attention to more pressing matters. To things like, "Do aliens from Pluto have souls"? So I'm not going to wait for the crowd this time. I'll just accept them now as people and trust that God doesn't make mistakes.
Michael Stock
Abilene