I don't want to say "unintelligent," but that is the most fitting word for what Thomas Harbecke said in his Nov. 15 Viewpoint "Religion pierces liberals." It was unintelligent and insulting to those of us who are also "strong Christians" and feel the Democratic Party embodies our values far better than any party led by a war-monger, death penalty-happy cowboy from Texas.

Last time I checked, Jesus was the prince of peace who came to save the poor and downtrodden — not the polo- and khakis-wearing Republicans of Harbecke's Viewpoint! How has my beautiful religion been hijacked as a propaganda tool for a party who would let four million more people fall into poverty in just four short years?

About the only thing I can imagine that is out of line with Scripture that Democrats promote is the right to choose an abortion. Other than that, Jesus would not be pro-capital punishment, pro-gun, pro-war and pro-defense spending at the expense of our public welfare system or pro-hypocritical Christians who go to church once a week and proclaim themselves holy.

Harbecke said, "The more often a person attended church, the more likely he was to vote for President Bush. It's that simple." I guess I missed that lecture in Theology 001 that said going to church equals immediate holiness. If Harbecke actually looked into the matter, he would see that "red" states are not as moral as they may like to seem. Crime rates are through the roof, education is horrible and — for an area that seems to know so much about marriage values — they have the worst divorce rates of anywhere in the nation. The top 10 states with the highest divorce rates all voted for President Bush,. while nine out of the top 10 states with the lowest divorce rates voted for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). Interesting…

The picture painted of Democrats as being young, tattooed hooligans and old hippies who never found work is not only unintelligent, but insulting. Is there something wrong with personal expression and freedom of speech? I thought that's what America was based on. I challenge Harbecke to walk around campus for a day and see if he can pick out every Democrat by their wild rantings about conspiracy and tattoos on their foreheads. While you're at your generalizations about Democrats, why don't you throw in women, immigrants, college students, minorities, the poor, the disabled and veterans too, because all of those groups are historically liberal.

Harbecke closed with, "The Democrats need to define who they are morally. They need to find a direction." Here's an answer. We are a party of the people. We do not need to base our politics on religion because our ideals are inline with moral human standards that go beyond a church, temple or synagogue. We believe in separation of church and state and therefore do not sink to the level of using an unpartisan Bible for political means. We work for equality of the disenfranchised — no matter what they believe about the Almighty.

The following passage from Deuteronomy 15:7-11 highlights just how well Democratic ideals about caring for the poor coincide with the faith of most Americans: "If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. … You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him. … For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and the poor, in the land."

Sjolund is a junior economics and political science major.

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