Letter: Focus on forgiveness, understanding

So, according to The Gazette, the number of self-identified Christians continues to decline in this country, now standing at 70.6 percent, according to the Pew Research Center ('Conservative Christians ponder presidential race,” June 20).

Is it any wonder? Many Christians, like The Family Leader Bob Vander Plaats, identify with the fundamentalist religious right, people who constantly complain about how they are put upon and persecuted and yet show no reluctance to persecute others. These people whose brains seem to be stuck in Leviticus appear to have lost the true meaning of what it means to be a Christian.

Instead of focusing on the wrath and intolerance so evident in the writings of Leviticus, perhaps they should focus more on the message of forgiveness, understanding and compassion of the New Testament. The message of Christianity is not one of anger, hate and prejudice, but is one embodied by the words spoken by Jesus himself in Matthew 5-7 in the Sermon on the Mount and the advice to 'judge not, that ye be not judged.”

Floyd Sandford

Cedar Rapids