If it's Friday, it must be time for Letters to the Editor

[Monkeyleg]

I just checked. It's Friday. And, sure enough, just like every other Friday, the Journal Sentinel has featured an award-winning letter to the editor.

This one should win some sort of prize for being a logic obstacle course. I guess if there's enough votes, you can do anything you want with anyone's religion. (Well, I'm sure the writer wouldn't try to mess with Islam).

Christians aren't suppressed

Community columnist Jonathan Rupprecht's column on the suppression of the Christian voice went so far as to suggest that Christians may be on the precipice of having to choose between their allegiance to God or state ("The elimination of church from state," March 13). Really?

The illusion of Christian suppression is as forgetful as it is unappreciative. Every Christian church benefits from politically earned privileges: the property tax exemption, the favored treatment of clergy compensation under the federal tax code and the capacity of clergy to opt out of Social Security are examples at the top of a long list.

Couple those benefits with the recent vigorous deflection of contraception into a "religious conscience" issue, and it appears pretty clear that elements of Christianity are alive, well and thriving in the political environment. Legislation to the contrary of any one denomination's theology does not constitute oppression, just the outcome of the political debate of that time.

In the season of Lent, we do well to recall that being nailed to the cross does constitute state suppression of belief. A church organization having to include contraception in its medical benefits plan against its theology simply means it either didn't have the votes or many of its fellow Christians disagreed with a theology that sees family planning as sinful.

Either way, we do better to follow in Christ's example of humble silence rather than cry "foul" as if losing one debate after winning so many somehow makes us a victim.

John Horner-Ibler
Brookfield

[Perd Hapley]

I am now convinced that you have a secret team of brilliant idiots in your basement, forced to turn out this unbelievable garbage lest you harm their families. Surely, such stupidity could not survive in the wild.

[TommyGunn]

"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it."

While it may stretch matters to call what is going on with regards the church "tyranny," John Hay's old quote does have a salient point.
Mr. Horner-Ibler seems to believe that the church should be paying for birth control despite the beliefs of Catholicism. Since he apparantly accepts that a priori and sees no reason to question it the rest simply flies right over his head.  He winds up totally clueless.
I am not certain what his points about tax exemptions and whatnots has to do with the matter unless he simply believes that since the church apparantly "won" those they should simply "take a loss" on the matter of conscience and be silent about it.

[Monkeyleg]

since the church apparantly "won" those they should simply "take a loss" on the matter of conscience and be silent about it.

Yeah, I'll trade a tax write-off for my conscience any day.

BTW, I love this line: "...we do well to recall that being nailed to the cross does constitute state suppression of belief."

I'd say that being nailed to a cross by Roman soldiers ranks right up there with a Jew being shot by the SS as "suppression of belief".

[RocketMan]

In the season of Lent, we do well to recall that being nailed to the cross does constitute state suppression of belief.

He can espouse this notion with a straight face?  Absolutely unbelievable.

[Tallpine]

The tax exemption is not limited to christian churches.