Letter to the Editor

A case for moral responsibility

To the editor:

For decades, Republicans mounted a public relations campaign to convince people that they are the moral party. They shifted public attention away from life-shattering, economic issues by playing on emotional, wedge issues like abortion and gay rights. This morality strategy worked, as many middle-class and poor people voted against their self-interest and helped elect candidates whose real allegiance is to corporations and the wealthy.

I reject the claim that liberals are morally inferior. We are concerned, for instance, with a shared responsibility toward children in poverty, with "the least among us." Like the early Christians (Acts 4:32-35), liberals want everyone in our society to be treated fairly, to live in dignity and to have equal opportunity -- especially the poor. This is wholly in keeping with Jesus, who never identified with the wealthy but was always with the poor.

Many conservatives don't see a moral problem when a lazy person, born into money he didn't earn, has the best medical care, while a poor, working person perishes for lack of a simple treatment. This is no accident. Many conservatives have literally been brainwashed into ignoring issues of social fairness and collective responsibility. Through conservative radio, Fox News and, ironically, some ministers, they have learned to emphasize abortion, for instance, while ignoring or explaining away the growing numbers of malnourished, poorly educated, homeless children among us.

But Jesus never explained away such children or the poor. In many ways, he was more a liberal than a conservative.

JOY BELL, Cape Girardeau