The American Spectator

br> Cathedral of Hope/Hope for Peace & Justice /p>

In your March 14, 2008 “The Prowler,” regarding Senator Obama’s pastor, Rev. Dr. Wright, you state:

“But Trinity and Wright have created and will create problems for Obama, though the United Church of Christ is a church that certainly fits with the candidate’s radical, leftist roots. For example, the UCC helped to found not only the nation’s, but the world’s largest gay and lesbian house of worship, the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, Texas.”

I take issue that just because a church welcomes gays and lesbians, it is somehow to be regarded as “radical” and “leftist.”

I am a gay man, but I’m hardly a “radical leftist,” as my more liberal, Democrat friends will attest. In matter of national security, economics, the size of government, I’m very much a conservative. I’m also Eastern Orthodox. And I intend on voting for John McCain. When it comes to social issues, I guess you could call me libertarian. There are many more of us “log cabin republicans” than either liberals or the columnists at the major conservative journals of opinion would care to admit. I do agree that the United Church of Christ is liberal as denominations go, much too liberal for my tastes.

But if being kind to gays and lesbians, and offering them a spiritual home, which most evangelical, fundamentalist, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Churches are loathe to do (unless we “act” straight), is “radical” and “leftist” then I thank God for their radicalism and leftism. However, the word I would use for such affirming churches is “Christian,” as in imitating Christ’s love for all mankind, as opposed to the preconceived, bigoted, and narrow minded interpretations of so-called Biblical literalists and the hierarchal churches. There are many, many gays and lesbians who very much believe in the basic precepts of Christianity, and are for the most part social and economic conservatives/libertarians, who eschew big government “solutions” to the problems faced by today’s fast paced and complicated society. To lump these all these people in with leftists, presumably of the type found at MoveOn.org and Michael Moore movies is unfair and ignorant on your part.

p>Over the years I’ve enjoyed reading opinion journals such as The American Spectator , but I cringe at the continual assertions and insinuations in these magazines that to be conservative/libertarian means you must be straight and anti-gay, with the converse that all gays and lesbians are ultra-liberal Democrats. They are not. And I believe you really know better than that. The bigotry exhibited in anti-gay churches only helps to drive gays and lesbians out of the hands of God into agnosticism, atheism, and secularism, and the prejudice exhibited by conservative journals of opinion such as yours only helps to drive more and more gays and lesbians to vote for liberal Democrats. br> — Richard C. Hornung br> Everett, Washington /p>

Barack H. Obama’s flimsy explanation he posted March 14 on the Web, at the Huffington Post, is one dog that will not hunt — and one that arrived very, very late to the hunt. What will hunt, though, is the now-evident deceit of his claim to openness.