By Janet McCleary
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 29, 1998

In defense of non-Christians

To the Editor:

I find many points in Rachel Alexander's commentary, "In defense of Christianity" (Apr. 28), to be grossly hypocritical and utterly nonsensical. How completely ludicrous it is for her to assert that Christians and their religion face daily verbal assaults and oppression from the media and many Americans. In light of the fact that Christians have been guilty of the oppression on non-Christians for centuries, I find this assertion utterly ridiculous. For centuries, pagans, Jews and Muslims have been harrassed, murdered and forced to convert to Christianity by the supposedly God-loving and righteous Christian community. In fact, saying that Christians are oppressed in a country where the vast majority of people are Christians is like saying that the Nazis were oppressed by the Jews during the Holocaust!

As far as the media's supposedly negative and stereotypical portrayal of Christians: the majority of negative stories about Christians come from the incidents of terrorism committed by a few extreme, right-wing radicals who feel that they have the right to kill in the name of God.

In addition, Ms. Alexander asserts that non-Christians are arrogant people who have not disproven the existence of God and therefore have no rightto attack Christianity. News flash: Christians are not the only religion to believe in one, all-powerful God. Jews as well as Muslims believe in God, as many people well know.

Finally, Ms. Alexander would have us believe that Christianity is the only religion that teaches values and morals and that non-Christians oppose Christianity because they oppose these values. I have news for Ms. Alexander. Christianity is not the only religion with a value system! All religions have some type of value system and all believe in the basic principle of being good to one another.

Janet McCleary
Creative Writing and Journalism Sophomore