Religion’s place

RE “Fallout From Era of Falwell,” by Tim Rutten, May 19: Of course, Christianity in the service of eradicating slavery (ask Martin Luther King and William Wilberforce) is OK and commendable, but Christianity in defense of the murder of the unborn or upholding the moral values of Scripture is somehow a “consequence of the Falwell legacy” that appeals to the “lowest common denominator.”

When will the left come to grips with the fact that tens of millions of Americans are fed up with the cultural rot that has plagued the body politic of this nation and explains many of our current ills? Are we now to condemn Benedict XVI as being “Falwellian” for his call to prelates to deny the Holy Eucharist to Catholics who support abortion or for confirming the Catholic catechism that refers to the practice of homosexuality as an “intrinsically disordered evil”?

The separation of church and state was never meant to exclude the free exercise of religious speech in the promotion of civic government.

STANISLAUS PULLE

Thousand Oaks