Editor,
I am writing in response to Richard Fagerlund’s letter in the June 28-July 4 Daily Lobo.
He wrote about Lauren Berrios, a teacher of two years at Hampton Bays Elementary School in New York, who was recently dismissed. She claims she was fired because of the administration’s intolerance toward her religious beliefs — she is a Wiccan.
She has taken her case to a U.S. District Court and is suing the school for $1 million. I myself don’t know who’s right. However, if she was fired on the grounds of religious discrimination, then I hope she wins.
But that’s enough about the case. I would mostly like to address Fagerlund’s complaints against the Christian faith. Admittedly, they’re not completely unfounded — we Christians are imperfect human beings who make mistakes just like everybody else. However, many of Fagerlund’s statements are false or poor representations of legitimate Christianity.
This is especially noticeable when he claims that the “so-called Holy Bible recommends that witches be killed ... ” He is actually taking isolated statements from the Bible and placing them out of context. You can look through the Old Testament and find laws that circumstantially justify the death of another human being. However, this is why the Bible also contains a New Testament, which nullifies these specific Old Testament laws, as well as some others.
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Regarding killing witches, or anyone else, who is seen in a controversial light, Jesus said, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
So, why do we keep the Old Testament in the Bible? That’s because it shows the events leading to the Christian faith. It also contains many great teachings that still hold true today.
Regarding love, Christianity teaches people to love their neighbors as themselves.
Fagerlund implies that “folks who take the Bible as the literal word of God” would like to see Wiccans killed. However, I cannot think of any legitimate church that would promote such an action. These same churches also oppose the murder of abortion doctors, which should bring Fagerlund some relief.
However, we can look at history and find several instances of religious people, including Christians, doing horrible things in the name of God, as Fagerlund rightly states. But he forgot the other side of the coin. Christians have done many wonderful things for humanity.
For the future, I challenge Mr. Fagerlund to check the validity of his statements before he submits them for publication and to give balanced perspectives of religions that are not his own.
-Absalon Gutierrez
School of Medicine
