Your Opinion: Response to Bruenger

Dear Editor:

As an atheist, Democrat, and proud American, I hardly know where to begin to address Mark Bruenger's letter to the editor (Aug. 10).

First, a piece of advice: Anytime you refer to folks whose views you disagree with as "Nazis," you're going to find it hard for people to take you seriously. (Unless you're speaking of actual Nazis.) If you believe Hillary's ill-advised words "dehumanized" Americans the same way the Nazis dehumanized the Jews, I suggest you reread that book you mentioned.

I'm the only atheist in my family. I love my mother, siblings, their children, and my cousins. They are wonderful, caring people and accept my atheism - as good, tolerant Christians do. I do not "hate Christianity" and good luck finding anyone who believes I'm "completely amoral."

When you make the argument that Democrats/Socialists "hate Christianity, freedom, a constitutional republic," you'd do better to use more recent personifications than Karl Marx - who died 134 years ago - and Vladimir Lenin, dead since 1924. The Democratic Socialists of America's website - dsausa.org - shows DSA members "believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few." In the Bible - which I've read - Jesus says pretty much the same thing. He says it a lot.

You mention Democrats have a lie we "like the best." "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." There's a guy in the White House right now who does not seem to be even on close terms with the truth. From the trivial - his inauguration crowd was "the biggest ever" - to the possibly impeachable - his denials regarding his family's and his campaign's involvement with Russia - this man seems to believe you don't need to repeat the lie. Say it once, it's the truth. Or as he once put it, "truthful hyperbole."

I wish you well, Mr. Bruenger. Your letter makes you sound angry and unhappy, a person who not just studies history, but laments it and takes it personally. I hope you find it in your heart to have some love for us who don't share your beliefs. You may wish to read the top of the Aug. 10 Opinion page and remember "no one is cast off by the Lord foreverhe will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love." Even as an atheist, I can see the joy and hope in those words.