Opinion: Take it from an ex-Alabama Baptist: Roy Moore does not need to worry

To the editor: I was born and raised in Alabama in a Baptist church, and I doubt that GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore has much to worry about. In fact, I largely credit my religious upbringing with my having become an atheist. (“The Roy Moore controversy is a thorny issue for Alabama Baptists,” Nov. 15)

After I turned 15, the preacher invited ministers from the “black churches” in the neighborhood to sit with him up there on the pulpit while he delivered a sermon on racial tolerance one Sunday. Shortly thereafter, the deacons held court in the church’s basement and, with the preacher and his wife and children nearby, he was fired by the congregation.

I learned from an older brother that 15 was the age that my mother couldn’t make me go to church anymore, and she didn’t go either after being sickened, I reckoned, by the deacons and their kangaroo judicature.

No, I don’t think Moore has much to worry about.

Ronald Webster, Long Beach

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To the editor: No doubt ultra-pious Baptists who decry extramarital sex wouldn’t mind reviving a colonial-era punishment. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Scarlet Letter,” convicted adulteress Hester Prynne was forced to bear a conspicuous letter “A,” even into death.

Alabama Baptists who steadfastly back Moore, despite further accusations that he pursued sexual relationships with teenage girls, should similarly be branded for life. How about a bright red “H” to designate these shameless hypocrites?

Glenda Martel, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The most confusing opinion expressed about Moore in this article is from those who say that they are “hesitant to speak out against Roy Moore because we believe in innocent until proven guilty.”

One woman said that Moore had sexual contact with her more than 30 years ago, when she was 14. The woman has been attacked for coming forward.

How do the Alabamans supporting Moore expect to reach a guilty or not-guilty verdict to make up their minds?

David N. Hartman, Santa Ana

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