Buchanan on Funding for Art

I take it as a given that anything Pat Buchanan writes will reflect some perverse mangling of the Constitution or of what America really stands for. His paranoid ravings about “pagan” art, however, show that he’s gone far beyond the merely anti-constitutional, repressive leanings of his conservative allies into some new realm that can only be explained as end-of-the-century lunacy (“This Is the Battle for America’s Soul,” Opinion, March 25).

Especially disturbing is his opinion that there is an assault on Christianity merely because schools, wisely if belatedly, have addressed the national crises in teen pregnancy, venereal disease and AIDS by promoting condom use. (Note to Pat: Teen-agers have always had sex and they always will. Blame God for it; it’s in their genes--no pun intended.)

He also misses two points: One, that there is a separation of church and state; religion is a private affair. And two, that his argument seems to ignore that non-Christians also use public schools and visit galleries: Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims--yes, even agnostics and atheists. How, exactly, is “The Handmaid’s Tale” bigoted and inflammatory for portraying Christo-fascism when we have the utmost spokesman for the Christian right raving about paganism?

As for objecting to the use of our tax money for offensive works of art, let’s just say there are many of us even more offended that while our country is falling apart at every level our tax money goes towards such favorite projects of Buchanan’s as “Star Wars.”

ALEX TORRALBAS

Venice