I heard recently a quotation by Francis Schaeffer, Christian theologian and apologist, who said, “Christian orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.”

So, after contemplating Dr. William Phillips’ letter (“U.S. ‘can do better’ than supremacists, extremists,” Feb. 23) where he imagined a better world without “right-wing evangelical extremists” whose “warped interpretation of the Bible” threatens our national identity in a pluralistic society, I asked myself what a compassionate response might be, while still remaining faithful to the truth of the Bible.

In effect, every Christian is called to be an evangelist in light of Jesus’ words found in Matthew 28:18-20. Therefore, Christian faith and practice, which are clearly described in the Bible, require adherence to absolute biblical standards and directives first, which may automatically seem warped and extreme to the secular mind. But living as the Christian does in the public realm like all citizens, he is still afforded the same rights of citizenship.

Finally, I believe the Bible embraces unequivocally the right to life. But even if my thinking is warped, so is Dr. Phillips’ notion about “the most basic right” being control over one’s body, because he is substituting freedom for autonomy.

There can be no freedom without first embracing life, especially when we all are born the same way, never having a choice. Human biology requires birth, not death.

Otherwise, “choice” shreds the social fabric and autonomy reigns, causing all other biological constraints, to say nothing of godly ones, to appear as mere illusions, too.

Mark Wood, Poland

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