Speech given in the name of religion can be true hate

Is John M. Templeton Jr. suggesting ("Freedom of Religious Speech," June 10 Weekend Perspectives) that we should allow anything that is claimed as being religious speech to be exempt from what we consider "hate speech"?

How about the speech of a pastor who suggests that, based on interpretations of the Bible, people of some ethnicities are not fully human? (The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa used such interpretations to justify apartheid, as have ministers in the United States during the time of slavery as well as today.)

If all religious speech were protected, what recourse would we have against an imam who issued a fatwa in the name of Islam that called for violence against Christians? Which of the pastors of Northern Ireland would we exempt, the Catholics or the Protestants, if each were preaching against the other?

Until the human beings making the "religious" speeches are as perfect and tolerant as the deity they follow, we cannot afford to automatically exempt speech given in the name of religion.

BEV SMITH
Wheeling, W.Va.

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Don't justify hate

Last Saturday John M. Templeton Jr. ("Freedom of Religious Speech") got me thinking about the freedom of preaching and quoting Holy Scripture.

St. Augustine wrote: "If it happens that the authority of sacred Scripture is set in opposition to clear and certain reasoning, this must mean that the person who interprets Scripture does not understand it correctly."

A popular adage puts it more succinctly: "Even the devil can quote Scripture." Let us not use sacred texts to justify discrimination and even hate. Just hear the Rev. Fred Phelps.

REV. GREGORY C. SWIDERSKI
McCandless

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Christian contempt?

I am writing in response to Tony Norman's column regarding Ann Coulter ("If Ann Coulter's a Christian, I'll Be Damned," June 9). Although his writing is eloquently loquacious, he abrogates a very basic editorial principle that dictates an honest approach.

First, let's forget that the central argument is based on a distortion of what Ms. Coulter actually writes in her book. I am more keenly interested in the fact that Mr. Norman himself claims to be a "Christian." Generally speaking, individuals having genuine Christian faith and values refrain from referring to it as a "wild-eyed cult of peace" or the "mascot of imperial power." Nor do they imply that today's Christians do the Lord's work only when tax incentives are involved.

I find it very difficult to believe that a Christian would write such things about a genuine faith. I find it easier to believe that Mr. Norman holds Christians in contempt and that his musings are nothing more than false indignation based on the fact that he doesn't like what Ms. Coulter has to say.

ROBERT KATON
Ross

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Hate thy neighbor

Ann Coulter's latest hate-mongering screed, "Godless," is once again cloaked in a disguise of Christianity that has become all too common with the apologist of the current administration. I hope the rest of the world is aware that these folks do not speak for all who proclaim themselves Christians.

The hate, exclusion and hurt propagated by this lunatic fringe has nothing to do with the Prince of Peace, who placed an overwhelming emphasis on love and caring for one's fellow man.

J. GARY LAIRD
North Huntingdon

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Teach tolerance

The forces of hate, bigotry and intolerance are again afoot in the land. Only this time the victims are gay people instead of people of color. But the rhetoric and hypocrisy are pretty much the same. Like hate-mongering white ministers shamelessly quoted the Bible to justify slavery and racial segregation, President Bush and the mullahs of the fundamentalist Christian right wing do the same to justify their own form of intolerance.

They wax hysterical about the "threat" to "traditional" marriage if two people of the same sex want to marry, as their ilk did when two people of different races wanted to do the same thing. Their arguments are as silly and despicable now as they were then.

I am told by people who know more about it than I do that Jesus himself never spoke against gay people. These same people tell me that what Jesus did speak about was love, tolerance and understanding. Every religion worth its salt teaches (or should teach) the same thing.

We have learned over the past few years that gay people are our friends, co-workers, ministers and rabbis, teachers, brothers, sisters and even parents. They have the same desire the rest of us have to live in a trusting, committed relationship with a person they love and who loves them. Why we would want to deprive them of that right is beyond me. The small-minded hypocrites and bigots, like state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, who pretend to be people of faith need to ask themselves the question: "What would Jesus do?"

The answer is that he would vote against a gay marriage ban.

STANLEY M. STEIN
Elizabeth Township

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Inciting fear

Well, it has finally come to pass. After years of being embarrassed by my country and my president, I am now embarrassed to be a Pennsylvanian. With the passage in the state House of the "Marriage Protection Amendment" (a use of George Orwell Newspeak that the author would be proud of), Pennsylvania politicians have sunk to a new low in pandering to fear and prejudice ("Pa. House Passes Gay Marriage Ban," June 7).

They know that the right and just thing to do was to vote down this discriminatory piece of legislation. We all know this is right; we know that to choose prejudice, hate and discrimination over compassion and policies that bring us all together is wrong.

Wipe away all the rhetoric and propaganda, and all you have left is discrimination based on fear and prejudice. There is no danger to the family, there is no threat to our children. There is simply hatred and fear. And a use of language geared to incite that fear.

MICHAEL TOEPP
Dormont

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Pitiful priorities

OK, let's see a show of hands. How many of you can explain every last detail of Ben Roethlisberger's injuries from his motorcycle crash this week?

Right. Now, a show of hands for those of you who know how many U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq.

Pitiful. Just pitiful.

By the way, I am one of the handful of Pittsburghers who has absolutely no idea about the first question. As to the second one, the answer is 2,500 as of June 15.

Thank you, George W. Bush.

CATHY BRENNAN
Regent Square