Dan Quayle

* So former Vice President Dan Quayle is concerned about what he sees as bigotry and intolerance directed against conservative Christians (Jan. 10)! When I think back in horror about all of the hatred, bigotry and prejudice that was spewed from the podium during the 1992 Republican Convention by Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan and Phyllis Schlafly, Quayle’s remarks seems downright ludicrous.

ROBERT J. KASTANEK

Los Angeles

* Quayle isn’t really taking aim at “bigotry” in defending conservative Christians against some mythical attack on their religious beliefs. He’s using the cry of “bigotry” to try to chill debate--the kind of open, unblinking examination of political groups’ agendas that the public needs to make reasoned judgments.

It is nonsensical to suggest that simply criticizing the views and tactics of conservative Christians is tantamount to an attack on their religious faith.

ARTHUR J. KROPP, President

People for the American Way, Washington

* President Clinton was right when he said there is too much secularism in our society. And now Dan Quayle is correct when he said, “Today, the only acceptable form of bigotry in our society is bigotry against conservative Christians.” The writer of the article showed his/her own bias when writing that Quayle “also complained that fundamentalist Christians are ‘taught to be tolerant of others,’ but are often the objects of intolerance.”

The Times writer could have used the word said , instead of complained . There are numerous benign verbs he/she might have used. Complained comes across as a put-down.

VIRGINIA GAYL SALAZAR

Whittier