Conservatives

* In response to your editorial of June 21 which personally attacked me as “spewing intolerance and hate,’ I must ask some simple questions.

Why is it that when principled liberals make a public denouncement of something they disagree with, or disapprove of, the media label them “principled,” and when conservatives do the same the media label them “hateful” and “intolerant”?

Is it not rank hypocrisy for the media to obsess over what they see as conservatives’ use of “hot-tempered rhetoric” only to engage in that very practice themselves on their own editorial pages?

Traditional Values Coalition represents over 31,000 churches across America, we have been in existence for 15 years, and we take principled positions on the issues our members care deeply about. We could not have reached the status we now enjoy by “spewing intolerance and hate” toward anybody.

Our members flatly reject the movement by some radical homosexual rights activists to legitimize and condone homosexual behavior, and we do so based on principles of morality that have been a staple of American society since America became a country.

THE REV. LOUIS P. SHELDON

Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition

Washington