Difficult to define labels

I was not surprised that Ms. Robinson responded to my brief letter of Nov. 26 citing a letter concerning what the writer sensed was a list of seeming contradictions with what he termed as “the religious right.” I simply agreed that since childhood, I had witnessed “seeming inconsistencies” in certain groups that many deem “the religious right.” To be certain, such labels as “the religious right” and “the religious left” are difficult to define in our present political climate.

I am sure that Ms. Robinson is aware that many within either of these so-called groups would not agree with the majority opinion on various issues. That is the reason we have seen splits among the Roman Catholic Church, the Episcopalian Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, and other groups over using the vernacular, promoting the stature of women, gay life style, same-sex marriage, etc. Theologians are not even able to agree on the meaning of the terms “evangelical” and “fundamental” anymore.

Ms. Robinson has every right to be biased toward one group and every right to express her disagreement with my points of view. In fact, I appreciate that she at least, unlike a number who have disagreed with me over the last 20 years, did address some of the issues at the heart of the stated “seeming contradictions.”

But she should not be inaccurate in stating her case. For example, there are no facts to support that the masterminds of the Benghazi terrorist attack “just got off with no murder charge,” implying Ms. Clinton was one. Also, blaming so-called liberals as the wealthy behind demonstrations of violence would be difficult to prove. Thirdly, citing paraphrasing scripture to support the anti-abortionists and anti-LGBTers does not allow for the other biblical argument that does exist in both cases. And to imply that removing crosses and statues of the Ten Commandments has supportive scripture is way off base.

I do hope that Ms. Robinson, like all readers, will experience a happy new year and that the seeming contradictions in our chosen POTUS will not lead us into any unwanted war. James 1:22 states that we all need to be “doers of the Word, not hearers only,” and that all will have a merry Christmas and pleasant Holy Day (for many years now spelled holiday) season.