Narrow views also are moral issues

To the editor:

I read Ray Epps' "Values include moral judgments" letter with extreme sadness. When he states "liberal Democrats have a gigantic moral-values deficit and don't even know it." I feel sad that his judgment is so narrow and pointed. And when he says that "to liberal Democrats, family values are about equal pay, minimum wages, health care for every American, federal assistance for the poor and homeless." I must ask if these aren't issues of right and wrong?

As a Christian pastor, like Epps, I too realize that issues can get very complicated, but I truly believe these issues are important if we are going to do what is right, and do as Christ taught: feed the hungry and clothe the naked.

On the other hand, it is a moral issue for me to be led into a war with Iraq due to the lies of Republican leaders. It is a moral issue to me for our country to be more in debt year by year. It is a moral issue when we are so narrow that we fail to see that there could be other views, that one way is not the only way all of the time.

Epps says: "Democrats will keep losing elections until they open their eyes to the truth, if that is possible." What is truth, Mr. Epps? Yours or mine?

RICHARD COMBS, Jackson