RIDE AND DIVIDE
Re: Shawn Macomber’s Stretching Freedom:

Mr. Macomber’s upbeat account of individual resistance to government bureaucracy is nice. I’m glad the driver found a way to compete in a less-than-free market taxi network. Mr. Macomber’s conclusion that this type of action will prevent state secession, regardless of how unlikely secession now seems, is too quick of an answer. The division between conservatives and liberals is no longer an “argument,” as it may have been half a century ago. The divide is a chasm that cannot be bridged, will not be reconciled. It is a war and only one side can win. If you think otherwise, then wait until a liberal president joins the liberals in Congress and resumes the appointment of liberal judges. The three branches of government will be unstoppable when they find Mr. Driver, penalize his limo business with “green” taxes, send him into bankruptcy, and then offer to support him with government handouts.

The threat to conservative survival has never been greater. So many of us now understand this threat that only the most radical solutions may be left to save our country. Secession is one solution, albeit a final act of desperation. The alternative to a legal separation from liberal tyranny (for those of us who will never surrender) is even more unthinkable, but not unheard of in this country. Don’t dismiss an unlikely solution or you may find the unthinkable to be the only choice that remains.
— Tom Cook
Raleigh, North Carolina

TIMES THAT TRY MENS’ SOULS
Re: Lawrence Henry’s Church and Me:

Earlier this year, I agreed with Lawrence Henry’s column about repetitive and me-centered modern worship music, and I understand what he is saying in “Church and Me” (October 12, 2007). But Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
— K. Simonson

Lawrence Henry seems to misunderstand the purpose of a church. Yes, we are the body of Christ. As a body, we want to help the members of that body that are hurting, sinning, or need encouragement. If Mr. Henry leaves a church every time a member disappoints him, he will not be a member at any church for long. Christians are not perfect. Christians make mistakes. Christians drink, mistreat others, gossip, eat too much, say hateful things, sin. We are all broken by sin, weighed down by it. We all spend our lives fighting our sinful nature in a never-ending effort to live by the Spirit. It is the responsibility of Christians to “speak the truth in love” to a sinning Christian, and to forgive that sin.

Perhaps the next time Mr. Henry sees a fellow Christian caught in a sin, he should approach him, using the guidelines Jesus gave us in Matthew 18. It would certainly be far more useful than retreating into isolation and judging from afar. Church used to be the place that people knew they could turn to when they had nowhere else to go. Unfortunately, we are now thought of as an elite club of hypocrites instead of the body of believers we are, just as crippled by sin as those around us. If Mr. Henry is as repulsed by hypocrisy as everyone else, he will solve nothing by doing nothing. Only when, as Christians, we can admit that we, too, are not perfect, will we be able to shed our hypocritical reputation, and reach out to those who feel that God can never forgive them with the wonderful message that he can and does.
— Samantha Oconnell

In his article entitled “Church and Me,” Mr. Henry asks:

Is a church its people, or is it the body of Christ, or both? When you feel like certain people — perhaps key people — have let you down, what do you do?

Bishop Paul Loverde of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, Virginia recently spoke to a gathering of parish leaders and noted that the Church has two natures: one human and one divine. He further remarked that the challenge for all of us is not to allow the human nature of the Church to overcome the divine.

It seems to me Mr. Henry — and the rest of us — should look past the human failings of our colleagues in the pews and in the clergy, focus on the tenets of our faith, and continue going to church.
— Brian Veit
Clifton, Virginia

Wow, Lawrence Henry’s sagas mirror mine and I’m not a Christian: I’m Jewish. When my marriage was being seriously challenged — fortunately we’re fine now — I was hoping that my very regular attendance and active participation in congregation affairs would help. I never objected to people saying that religion is a crutch: I wanted and needed that crutch.

But, what did I see surrounding me during my time of need for a spiritual boost? A rabbi who would give sermons about how one of the most serious offenses in Judaism is to embarrass and ridicule someone, but within the same service, make audible comments and childish faces about the Cantor and other congregants. This rabbi wanted to dismiss two elderly, sweet and kind men who would assist in the service (Jewish ritual gives many opportunities to interested people to lead and assist); why? One had a hearing aid that she complained interfered with her concentration; the other, I don’t remember exactly, but I have always had a suspicion that she was jealous of how learned and well-versed he was in all facets of Judaism.

Then there was John; a devout man who would bully anyone who would not meet his standards of proper synagogue decorum, but never raise an issue with anyone who would challenge him back.

And oh those board meetings. Yelling, sarcasm (including the rabbi) insults. And this is the environment for which I look to for sustenance?

So many more stories could be told, but I hope that the picture is clear. I so yearned for the sweet, old rabbi of Fiddler on the Roof, but got the lead from Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (yes, she was a she). I wanted a congregation that was united in its devotion to be uplifting, sensitive and personally caring, but found myself in the middle of what seemed like a verbal food fight.

I turned toward a local Chabad House for worship. The Chabad is run by the ultra orthodox Lubavitchers whose young rabbi is wonderful and whose very small congregation is warm and friendly, striking me as people, like myself, who are looking for a setting that will give them spiritual aid and help. In other words, a crutch.
— Paul

Poor Lawrence. After all of these years and he still as naive and unlearned as when grandma had to answer his questions.

As a Christian, the day one decides that going to church is to look critically at the folks around, and even worst not even to offer a hand to help, one becomes the poor wretch and disillusioned being Henry has become. God loves us all, we have become His Children (sons and daughters) and yes, as a Christian I am my brother’s keeper.

How amazing that the very Bible he claims to read, speaks volumes against his attitude (ever heard of how Jesus explained the Good Samaritan story?) and his decision to not grace the pews at his local church flies in contrast and against his action: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

So in parting, I have two thoughts for Mr. Henry: a) In the morning when you walk into the bathroom and while looking at the mirror’s image, if you see perfection then by all means expect perfection from the rest of humanity and b) If you ever find a perfect church, please stay out of it. You will damage it.

Lastly, the quoted passage is found in the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 10 verses 23 through 25.
— Dario Giraldo
Cypress, Texas

Lawrence Henry’s tale of disaffection with church was well written, as his stuff always is. I would not presume to pronounce on the state of his faith. I do think, however, that his story is even sadder than he realizes.

Every congregation has both open and secret sorrows. To think of shortcomings in other Christians as reason enough to avoid communal worship with them strikes me as wrongheaded. I actually addressed this very point in an essay for this publication (“Why I Won’t Stop Going to Church“) published last April 13.

My own answer to Henry’s question about what you do when you realize that key church people have let you down is to realize that such a letdown is human, and forge prayerfully ahead with the support of any sympathetic souls you can find.

One imagines that Judas let Jesus down. Ought we dare to hope for better?
— Patrick O’Hannigan

Mr Henry, I just read your commentary about why you don’t go to church anymore. While I respect your right to choose not to attend, I must say it seems to be a rather flimsy excuse to me. In spite of your deep feelings of sadness about the failings of those you have seen attending church, and the lack of helpfulness of a particular tiny country church to cure a man’s alcoholism or another man’s family problems, I must encourage you to not allow this to prevent you from finding fellowship in a body of Believers.

Regarding the man with the abusive, fat wife, my opinion is that he was a wimp and not a man. He should have NEVER allowed that woman to abuse his children. He should have put her in her place. Instead he was a failure as a man and as a Christian. You cannot blame a “church” for that. Neither can you blame a church for a man’s inability to overcome alcoholism. Surely, if that man was a real Believer, he died forgiven in spite of his wasted life. Jesus is able to deliver, but the responsibility is ours to accept His deliverance. This requires us to choose to walk in the Spirit and not in the Flesh (fleshly emotions and “feelings”). No church can make us do that.

I would like to encourage you to not be so introspective, and perhaps self-pitying, and put Jesus first. The church we attend (in the St. Louis area) has wonderful counseling and has many successful recovering alcoholics in the congregation. But don’t expect too much from a tiny country church with few assets. They seem to have had, at least, the gospel and enough love to accept the unlovely.

Blessings,
— Linda Shields

Many people, in and out of the church, have the mistaken idea that the church is made up of perfect people. The church is not perfect, but striving for perfection. The church is not a country club for perfect people. The church is a MASH unit on the front lines of life. The church is a work in process — in transition. Sometimes church members make mistakes, they fail, they stumble and fall. And sometimes the church is the army that shoots its wounded. Some church members are baby Christians and have not yet grown up in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some church members are spiritual toddlers, or teens, or young adults. Church members should be striving to become mature Christians — become all that God wants them to be and will enable them to be.

However, in spite of her blemishes and warts, the church is the last best hope of the world. God left the church here to carry out His purpose — to reconcile people back to God and reconcile people back to each other.

Yes, there are hypocrites in the church. But, I would rather go to church with them, then go to hell with them. At least in church they come under the influence of Christian songs, Christian prayers, Christian Scriptures, and the godly influence of Christian people. How come people criticize and condemn the church for her faults and failures and hypocrisy, but never criticize secular institutions. We bank with hypocrites. We shop with hypocrites. We belong to civic clubs with hypocrites. We play with hypocrites. Politics is full of hypocrites.

You know that there are genuine Christians in the church, because there are counterfeit Christians. People counterfeit money, because genuine money exists. It is not our place to separate the wheat and the chaff. God will take care of that at the judgment.

We need to be church every Lord’s Day to meet with Christ at His Table, to fellowship with the people of God, to study God’s Word, to speak with God in prayer, and to worship the Almighty God in all of His holiness. God will honor those who worship in spirit and in truth.
— Bob Kastens

I feel for Mr. Henry. I have been where he is and, to some extent, find myself in and out of that same sympathy even today. But as someone once observed, “Everything rises and falls on leadership” (especially in a church!). Much of the frustration, dissatisfaction, and unease felt by many in their churches comes from a failure of pastors and ministers to fulfill their God-given duty to truly feed and nurture the flock under them. To many it has become a job rather than an actual ministry — for some, simply a job promoting their little personal kingdom; for others, a job, period, where it is a matter of just earning a living. Additionally, there is a huge failure of believing members to recognize and utilize their God-given gifts for ministering one to another. Church has become more a “spectator” sport where the redeemed in the pew expect it all to be done by the church “staff.” No wonder that there is such widespread dissatisfaction among membership and such burn-out among ministerial staff.
— Jeff Vowell
Memphis, Tennessee

The Church as believer, body and bride is a deep mystery beyond my grasp, and also the source of great pain. I’m only one of many who, in searching for a deeper life in Christ and with His people, have found instead abuse and heartbreak.

I stopped going to church several years ago due to the cult-like atmosphere of my small group at the church I was attending. I was drawn in by their zeal for God, and family-like caring and closeness, and didn’t see at first the abuses woven in, such as: condemnation, manipulation, coached peer pressure, intimidation through their spiritual authority. But my time in the crosshairs eventually came, and it finally woke me up, though it took many months to break the spell enough to leave.

It’s been a long slog since then, but eventually I’ll “go back to church” because I still believe we His body will someday be what He has called us to be, and I want to help us get there: full of Jesus’ love, power, wisdom, humility, courage and mercy.

Thanks, Mr. Henry, for asking.
— Tim Wade
Belpre, Ohio

“Is a church its people, or is it the body of Christ, or both? When you feel like certain people — perhaps key people — have let you down, what do you do?”

You remember that the Church is not a resort for saints, it is a hospital for sinners. Of COURSE people let us down, including — perhaps especially — those who are leaders in religious organizations. They are Fallen creatures, they fail. The Church teaches us to accept this. It is only the secularists who believe in the perfectibility of mankind who have reason to be “shocked” when the people they’ve placed on pedestals prove to have feet of clay. Except that they almost never are. They make excuses for *those* people. They’re only “shocked” (and secretly delighted) when religious leaders fail.

“In the best Utopia, I must be prepared for the moral fall of any man in any position at any moment; especially for my fall from my position at this moment.” — G.K. Chesterton, ORTHODOXY
— Joseph DeMartino
West Palm Beach, Florida

I can understand Mr. Henry’s frustration with human fallibility in churches. And yet, that’s the whole point of going to church. Sick people go to hospitals because they need physical healing; if doctors threw their hands up every time a patient wasn’t helped, then what would be the point of the hospital? Christians should support each other because of our fallibility, not in spite of it. Even the best congregation can’t prevent every hardship, or do the right thing in all circumstances. What we need are people like Mr. Henry, who recognize this shortcoming, to choose action over retreat. If you see a failure, make a step towards correcting it. If you’ve been let down, do something to lift someone else up. The church is more than just the sum of its mortal parts. We should work through our communal faults, rather than isolating ourselves from them.

If the people who care enough to notice choose to disengage, all that’s assured is more disappointment. I hope Mr. Henry finds a way to see his situation as an opportunity to make a difference, not a burden to seek refuge from. After all, a “perfect” church wouldn’t let him — or me — in, would they?
— Jeff Laird
Cleveland, Ohio

A few observations about Lawrence Henry’s article:

1. I suspect people from all denominations can identify with Mr. Henry’s feelings, although for different reasons.

2. Reading St. Paul’s letters to the early churches informs us that congregations have always been less than perfect Christian communities.

3. A church is a community of sinners that recognizes this fact and its members seek forgiveness through repentance.

4. Mr. Henry asks, “Is a church its people, or is it the body of Christ, or both? When you feel like certain people — perhaps key people — have let you down, what do you do?” I believe the answer to the first questions is both. What do you do? I’ve been taught that Jesus asks for faithfulness; he doesn’t demand that we be successful in order to be saved. He also warns us against judging others. And, he wants us to be in community.

God’s speed, Mr. Henry.
— Mike Roush
North Carolina

I would say to Mr. Henry this: Peter failed Christ many times, to include denying him, but our Lord continued to love him and to entrust him with the Church’s leadership.

Why? My guess is that Christ knew that Peter loved the Lord. “Do you love me?” Christ asked of Peter, three times. That is the key question for those of us who believe in Jesus Christ. Not “what have you done for me?”
— Paul Melody
Gainesville, Virginia

What you do, Mr. Henry, is remember that we are all sinners, whether baptized or not, whether church members or not.

Humans do not become perfect just because they profess a belief in Jesus Christ, nor are they saved just because they profess faith. They are saved by the grace of God.

Secondly, what you must do is investigate the Catholic Church, which preaches the Truth on this and other matters of salvation. Start reading and thinking.
— J. Marchaterre

A church of any size has members that have experienced problems and bad circumstances. As human beings, some of them have done things that are considered terrible wrong. This is a problem that occurs naturally because humans are not perfect. If a church has some questionable members, that alone it is not a motive for questioning a person’s own faith in God. The fact that someone is fat or fatter has no significance in their spiritual walk with God. The curt comment concerning the location of the Church and the fact that the building was white suggests the writer has deeper issues against the Church of Christ than what he is revealing in his article. He has cherry picked some individuals and used their shortcomings as a platform for criticizing a church and is also using that as an excuse to disregard attending church and for evading his own responsibilities to God. A careful examination of biblical scripture will confirm in detail that one is expected to attend church and to work diligently to help other members cope with their personal problems. Retreating from the responsibilities assigned by God to each believer and dodging those responsibilities assigned by God to each believer is not an alternative. Certainly huddling in an emotional corner all alone is not a solution. The Bible speaks very clearly on this subject. A believer has to attend the assembling of the church and the bible even warns believers not to forsake the assembly.
— Bill Messer
Houston, Texas

This article just begs for a response. We all tend to wear our masks and not minister to one another as we should. But it doesn’t have to be that way. May I recommend Mr. Henry consider the book TrueFaced by Bill Thrall, John Lynch and Bruce McNicol?
— Martha Stum

You did the right thing. Stick with the Bible and don’t worry about church.
— Paul

ARMENIAN RESOLUTION
Re: Andrew Cline’s Hippie Diplomacy:

I agree with Mr. Cline that the barrage of politically expedient non-binding resolutions that we’ve seen issued by Congress in recent years is a national embarrassment. However, his argument for toning down our rhetoric about the Armenian genocide is just a plea for geopolitical expediency. If the U.S. is going to regain any credibility as a champion for the freedom of individuals, races, ethnic groups and democracy in general, we can’t pick and choose between atrocities. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied the reality of the Holocaust, we called him a terrorist and threatened to invade Iran. Turkey is in complete denial of a gruesome past that actually served as an inspiration to Hitler. Although it is unfortunate that we are strategically dependent on Turkey at the moment, we are supposed to be a nation based on principles. Instead, the Bush administration is cozying up to Turkey with a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude towards basic moral standards. With this thinking, if the Armenian lobby had been as effective as AIPAC, we may have invaded Turkey instead of Iraq. Conservatives have principles, don’t they?
— Paul Dorell
Grandson of Vahan Nigohossian
Evanston, Illinois

My first thought was that the Bush-haters were using this to make his life and conduct of the war more difficult — along with maintaining our security. I didn’t know about “Schiff and Co. doing it to help their electoral prospects.”

My second, even more horrible, thought was that Nancy Pelosi has learned the Clintons’ black art of triangulation. What evil let loose upon the planet that would be if she has.

Next they’ll be introducing another meaningless resolution condemning the Crusaders so they can alienate even more of our allies.

Now that they’ve flung a century-old brickbat, what’s 11 or 12 centuries, more or less?
— A.C. Santore
Pennsylvania

Mr. Cline’s suggestion of Democratic constituent pandering in the Armenian genocide legislation may be much too gracious. A more likely explanation may be good, old-fashioned Democratic treachery. If they can’t defund the Iraq War, why not agitate Turkey to deny transit of supplies, or, worse, propel it to attack Kurdistan? Anything that can be done to defeat our Iraq war effort can and will be done by the Democrats. Undoubtedly, they would like to accomplish this goal with the cover of this cheap, symbolic stunt, but cover or no, the goal’s the same. And, no, I’m not “questioning their patriotism.” We have far too many examples of perfidy to waste time on that question.
— William J. Dye, Jr.

Andrew Cline is right on about how the Democrats capriciously undercut our foreign policy and enrage our allies to pander to domestic constituencies. My only objection to his article is the standard (but careless) description of an ally like Turkey as a “friend” of our country. England, Canada, and Australia are friends of the United States, maybe even Japan and Germany. France, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and Turkey are important allies but will never share enough of our values or even long-term interests to be friends. The distinction is important; the failure to grasp it leads regularly to foreign-policy debacles like the grandstanding against the Dubai ports deal, even when there is no domestic constituency involved.
— D.M. Duggan

You might want to get your facts straight before you blowing off on a subject that you obviously have very little knowledge of (The Armenian Genocide).

Yektan Turkyilmaz was held in an Armenian jail, not a Turkish one.

Also, since when is representing your constituent’s a bad thing for a member of Congress?
— Kevin Sarkisian
A second generation survivor of the Armenian Genocide.

During the Iraq invasion, Turkey refused the American request to transit Turkish airspace, thereby jeopardizing American lives.

America does not need yet another we-give-they-take ally.
— David Govett
Davis, California

DROWNED OUT
Re: Quin Hillyer’s Will the U.S. Be LOST at Sea?:

Our president just doesn’t get it. From signing McCain/Feingold, to NCLB, to comprehensive immigration reform he moves from pushing forward on a good thing one time to going completely the opposite way the next. My liberal cousin and her even more liberal husband gave me a bumper sticker that says “Can’t Wait Until 2008” and the W in wait has a circle with a line through it. It was a great laugh at the time but perhaps it is time to put it on my car. At least if we get Hillary or Obama I won’t have conflicting emotions about how to support them.
— Roger Ross
Tomahawk, Wisconsin

My advice is, use the power of the tide that’s coming in!

If the LOST gives 151 other countries the power to dispose of the resources of our own oceans, it’s completely clear they could issue licenses to drill oil off Alaska and California — or Martha’s Vineyard for that matter. And to companies that aren’t even American. Will the U.S. greenies approve of THAT?

BY the same token, by controlling the transit of military shipping, it’s also clear that the LOST committees could have prevented U.S. aircraft carriers from entering the Gulf in 2002 — or in 1991, for that matter, in the Kuwait war. Will our right wing buy that one?

Politics makes strange bedfellows, but we will need a full bedroom to defeat this socialist abortion. Take your friends where you can get ’em I say!
— Martin Owens
Sacramento, California

Having read “Will the U.S. be LOST at Sea?” by Quin Hillyer, my recommendation to the American people is: take a long hard look at how neutered Britain has become since its weak “leaders” have consistently ceded powers, and therefore sovereignty, to the EU. Don’t do it America, you truly will be sorry!
— G. Constable
Sydney, Australia

THE HECKLER
Re: The Prowler’s Rush Week:

Cheers to putting Rep. Waxman in his place in your Washington Prowler column. He deserves it after putting the kibosh on a great American like Erik Prince of Blackwater USA. Hank can deny investigating conservative talkers till he’s red, but who are people going to believe: Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California, Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, or “a house leadership source?”

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s column, where you’ll get Kevin Martin of the FCC on the record about Waxman’s plans to bring bask the (un)Fairness Doctrine (he just hasn’t gotten back to you when you called him before the original story ran, right?) While you’re at it you should finally get to the bottom of the inside plot behind 9/11, it’s all one big conspiracy and Waxman is only a red herring. We’re through the looking glass now. The truth is out there!
— Sam Winford
Olympia, Washington

LEST THOU BE JUDGED
Re: W. James Antle III’s Left Behind and Rob Curtis’s letter in Reader Mail’s Evangelical Turnout:

It amazes me that the Christian Right in our country has so quickly denounced basically all the GOP candidates for president. Apparently, it’s OK in this situation to turn a deaf ear to “Judge not so that you will not be judged,” and the biblically-stated fact that we all fall short of the glory of God.

I am a church-goer and live a stone’s throw from both Focus on the Family and the New Life Church complexes in Colorado Springs. I’d like to see those institutions survive and not be shut down by elected liberals that will favor Islamic mosques over a Christian church any day of the week — including Sabbath Sundays. I’d like for the Christians that are out there promising to not vote for anyone unless they align completely with their social views to tell us why they didn’t put forth a candidate long ago? Now that we are mere weeks from the first primaries and the selection of the two major party candidates, they are whining about having no one they can support, and that they’d much rather give Hillary Clinton eight years in the White House than to go with a person that will defend our nation and preserve this country.

If they feel they will have just as much liberty in the coming Nanny State as they have now, then I hope they rest comfortably each night, knowing they did their part in securing a secularist, liberalized social environment for their children and grandchildren. All these folks have to do is study their history and look at what happened to European cultures post-World War II to see what is our future if we lose the White House and the Congress, along with a majority of state governor’s offices in this country. I don’t know what is in the heart of each candidate — only God can judge that, but I do know what they say, and I do know that abortion was greatly reduced while Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York. George W. Bush was voted into office twice with the help of the Christian Right. Married just one time, anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, President Bush has held up his end of the bargain on those issues, but he has failed his country in securing our borders, effectively handling the illegal immigration issue and has failed in fiscal responsibility. The point being, there is no perfect president and no one man that walks this earth in the perfect image of God. This is a disappointing moment in the history of Christian Conservatism. One person wrote in Reader Mail that the lesser of two evils is still evil. How wonderful for this person that no evil whatsoever lives now or ever in their heart, and that their life is obviously without sin, thus enabling this individual to cast stones without conscience or need for any kind of inward examination.
— Melinda Geddes
Colorado Springs, Colorado

I believe the Republicans are in for a bad election cycle this coming year. I am a very staunch conservative (both socially and politically). While I as often as not disagree with James Dobson on his viewpoints, he has stated a pretty good case for why I am still in a wait and see posture toward the republican nominees at this point. There are none I really like and I refuse to compromise my principals for immediate gain in the hope that something good “might” happen. While this could allow someone like the Clinton woman to be elected — I view it as a republican failure to connect with my views rather than a win by the Democrats. The Republicans need to get with the base or we will teach them again in 2008 like we did in the House and Senate in 2004. I will vote because I stood in the gap for over 20 years serving in the Army for everyone’s right to vote, but I won’t compromise and the Republicans better think twice about what they want because all my friends are likeminded.
— Pat

Rob Curtis said in his letter of 10/12/07, “I’m with Dr. Dobson one hundred percent. I will not vote for someone like Rudy Giuliani. If that causes Hillary to be elected, so be it. I have faith that things will work out as long as I do not compromise by voting for the lesser of two evils. A lesser evil is still evil.”

Sorry Rob, but to re-use a well worn phrase, in this case doing nothing which good men like you are proposing will allow a greater evil to triumph. Hillary will be MUCH worse for you and all that you and others like you believe.

She may very well end the United States as we have known it, she could, in my opinion, very well plunge the nation into civil war.

I am no Rudy fan but even behind enemy lines in Seattle I would take him in a heart beat over a much greater evil.

The action you must take and the ultimate responsibility will be yours. Sitting it out is not an option.
— Craig Sarver
Seattle, Washington

TWO-FOR-ONE
Re: Philip Klein’s Ladies First:

Maybe if Billary wins they will bring back all the items they stole from the White House when they were leaving.

If you want “ladies first,” first you have to have a lady running, which is different from just having a female.
— Elaine Kyle

COLD SOROS
Re: Jeffrey Lord’s Soros: From Dots to Patterns:

If you ever try to present this George Soros influence peddling information to your liberal friends, acquaintances, or contemporaries, at best you will be shouted down with arguments that the Evil Greedy Big Oil Companies are doing the same thing and worse. It seems that’s what liberals like to do: cover their ears to your conservative arguments while shouting their own, usually unsubstantiated, liberal arguments.

Since we conservatives have come to realize that debating issues with most liberals (including those elected to Congress) is like arguing with a brick wall, don’t just ask the question, “What are conservatives going to do about all of this?” without suggesting some answers, too.
— Bruce
Texas

MEDAL RESOLUTION
Re: Doug Welty’s letter (under “Pedant, Counterpedant”) in Reader Mail’s Evangelical Turnout:

Hello to Mr. Doug Welty.

Who cares what the stylebook says? The OFFICIAL name of the medal is Medal of Honor, and to call it anything else, in my opinion, is a disgrace period. If some author is so casual that he does not really care about this FACT, he is not doing his job. End of discussion.
— David Menard
Huber Heights, Ohio