Conservative Think Tanks; Rushdoony’s Views

In your July 8 article, “2 Wealthy Conservatives Use Think Tanks to Push Goals,” a quote appears from my book “Institutes of Biblical Law.” I wrote that one of the tragedies of our century is the cheapening of human life. We are no longer shocked by the death of one individual; we are shocked only by the deaths of millions.

In one of the hundreds of books and articles I have written in my 80 years, I quoted an anti-Semitic writer who wrongly argued that the murder of millions of Jews by the Nazis was not as bad as the world believed because it was “only” 1 or 2 million, not 6 million. This writer was attempting to exonerate the church in its role in dealing with the Nazi genocide. I criticized this man because in God’s eyes the murder of a single innocent man, woman or child is as abhorrent as the murder of millions.

As an Armenian American, many of whose relatives were murdered in a similar case of ethnic genocide in 1915, I have been dismayed by similar arguments which discount the horror by attempting to adjust the total death toll. Others try to minimize the bloody record of the century’s worst butchers, the Communists.

It was not my purpose in the passage cited to make a pronouncement regarding the veracity of death tolls in any of these massacres. I despise not only Nazis and their heinous crimes, but also the ungodly prejudice of their present-day successors.

R.J. RUSHDOONY

President, Chalcedon

Vallecito, Calif.

* Regarding the Rob Hurtt-Howard F. Ahmanson Jr. funding of conservative think tanks and lobbying groups: If, subsequent to the funding, these groups contribute money to political candidates, their exempt status ought to be revoked and they should pay taxes in the same manner as “common” citizens.

Not to do so, I’m convinced, would be to abrogate the substance and meaning of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees equal protection of the laws.

CHARLES R. BARR

Upland

* I read about the drug traffickers buying public officials in south Texas (July 7); I read about the rich conservative Christians in Orange County who are pouring money into political campaigns to elect the faithful; and now I read that Rep. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) says organized labor is “trying to buy” the election (July 8). There’s not much difference, is there.

We have to rewrite Lord Acton; it’s not so much power that corrupts these days but hard cash and lots of it.

BESS CHRISTENSEN

Lompoc