To the Editor:
“‘Christianity Will Have Power’” (front page, Aug. 9) poignantly details the profound concerns of evangelical Christians who fear that as rights are extended to others — to gays to marry, to women to make their own health care decisions, etc. — their rights are correspondingly diminished. Seeing themselves as the protectors of old-fashioned values, they don’t want coastal elites telling them how to live.
I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and belong to a tight-knit, observant Conservative Jewish community. I suppose we are what they refer to as elites: scientists, lawyers, writers, academics. But the evangelicals quoted in the article would be shocked to find out that we share many of the same core values: Many members have had long, stable marriages and multiple children; we support one another through illnesses, deaths and difficult financial times; and we instill our values in our children, hoping they will ultimately choose to live the same sort of lives as their parents do.
Where we differ is that the evangelicals appear to think that rights are a zero-sum game. In order for some to gain them, rights must be taken away from others. That is just wrong. We must learn to respect others even if they lead lives we don’t care to have.
Sheryl Reich
New York
To the Editor:
There are many in the evangelical Christian community who do not share the “circle the wagons” mentality described in this article, which uses Sioux Center, Iowa, as an example of the support that Donald Trump enjoys. A more balanced portrayal of the faith community there might have helped mitigate rather than perpetuate the political polarization that threatens this country.
Although I relocated decades ago, I was born and raised in Sioux Center, attended Christian schools, graduated from Dordt University and remain an active church member. Out of that upbringing I echo not Donald Trump but Joe Biden, who has asserted, “My faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life.”
The faith in which I was nurtured speaks of repentance (something for which Donald Trump sees no need), redemption, and the call to work for reconciliation and restoration. We are to welcome strangers, not as cheap labor for the jobs “nobody” wants to do, but as fellow image bearers of God. We are called to seek justice in our own communities and across the nation, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.
Heidi R. Zinkand
Rochester, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Religion is not about power. True religious belief is about deeply held personal values. To promise that “Christianity will have power,” as Donald Trump did, is more about attempting to impose those views on others who do not share them, which they have no right to do.
Mr. Trump should not stand up for Christianity or any other belief system. He is not the president of a select group. He is supposed to be guaranteeing the freedom of religion for everyone. Allowing one religion to have power over others is exactly what this country was designed to prevent. Our ancestors left their home countries to avoid the establishment of religion by government and codified the separation of church and state.
Though Christians may want this to be a Christian nation, it is not. We are a diverse country. All of us have the same rights and freedoms as everyone else.
Nancy Bennett O’Hagan
Portland, Me.
To the Editor:
Just once, when a “hard-working Caucasian-American” says her freedoms are “being taken away” or her “rights are being limited” by liberals and progressives who urge acceptance of other people, I would love to hear the answer to a simple follow-up question. What freedoms have you lost? Which rights have been limited? Give us specifics.
No significant gun laws were passed under President Obama, even after Sandy Hook. So what can you do or say under President Trump that you couldn’t do or say under Mr. Obama? I suspect that the evangelical Trump supporters would struggle to answer. Because the real answer is, it’s not about rights or freedoms. It’s about who matters in America. And they were happier when only white Christians mattered.
Kate Adams Goss
Floral Park, N.Y.