To the editors:
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In re your story “Is Nothing Sacred?” [June 9], the issue for the so-called “conservatives” is not language but rather theology. It has to do with God’s relationship to human beings and our relationship, one to another. In the American psyche there run ugly and stubborn strains of individualism and fascism. These ideas inform the conservative approach to human relationships–i.e. I have a right to vaunt myself against you for my monetary advantage and I have the right to use violence against you to accomplish this. I must maintain control over you. This means against persons, classes of persons, and sovereign nations. American civil religion (God=country/flag) has customarily supported this thinking. Thus, conservatives may be good Americans but their thinking is devoid of Christian value and bespeaks a deep spiritual sickness.
Chicago
