By Andrew Jaw
Arizona Daily Wildcat
May 4, 1998

'Just saying you are a Christian does not make you one'

To the Editor:

It is funny that Janet McCleary found Rachel Alexander's commentary ("In Defense of Christianity," Apr. 28) to be "hypocritical and utterly nonsensical" in the same way I find her letter to the editor to be ("In defense of non-Christians," Apr. 29).

Ms. McCleary said she thought it ludicrous that Christians today claim verbal abuse and oppression, since in the past Christians have persecuted non-Christians. Does that make it alright for present day Christians (who probably weren't around during the Crusades) to be oppressed? Can I assume that all wars and injustices were committed by only Christians? I guess no other group, ethnic, religious or otherwise in the history of mankind is guilty of such acts. Apparently, Ms. McCleary is stating that it is acceptable to blame Christians for atrocities of the past. In light of this, it is ironic that she would then compare Christians to Nazis.

More importantly, just saying you are a Christian does not make you one. Throughout civilization, the guise of Christianity was used to manipulate the population for power by rather unscrupulous, clearly non-Christian people who skewed the message of Christ. Some examples are the Nazis, popes of the Catholic Church before the Reformation and, to a much lesser extent, several current politicians. The majority of Americans may claim to be "Christian," but do they really know what that means? True Christianity is not determined by lines on a survey.

Furthermore, never was the point made in Ms. Alexander's commentary that all other faiths are to be considered arrogant, morally deprived and without God. The issue of validity and ideology of other religions wasn't even mentioned once in the entire article!

Ms. Alexander was trying to point out that individuals who consider Christians (as a whole) intolerant are often guilty of the same mindset of intolerance and misinformation that they accuse Christians of. What a coincidence that the next day such a letter would appear.

Andrew Jaw
Materials Science and Engineering
Sophomore