Letters: Religion vs. human decency

Re “An evangelical welcome mat for the ‘stranger,’� Column One, Dec. 24

So the great evangelical Christian preachers — self-appointed arbiters of American morality — can’t agree among themselves that immigrants to this country, if undocumented, are human beings worthy of dignity and humane treatment.

Similarly, the hierarchy of the United Methodist Church can’t bring itself to consider gay people as human beings worthy of the dignity and validation afforded their straight counterparts.

Why is it that I, a humble atheist with no great theological learning, can hold these truths to be self-evident, whereas church leaders cannot? What good is religious dogma or political ideology if it blinds us to the simple humanity of our fellow man?

Barbara Carlton

El Cajon

ALSO:

Letters: A race to the bottom on taxes

Letters: Being wealthy isn’t a sin, but ...

Letters: African problems are world problems