While Tom Krattenmaker makes some valid points about Christian persecution abroad, he dismisses our conference — The War on Christians and the Values Voter — as hysterical and reckless ( "A 'war' on Christians? No," The Forum, Monday). Apparently Krattenmaker spends little time at the movies, watching TV or reading the newspapers. If he did, he'd see countless examples of Christian persecution here in the USA, as well as Christians smeared, slandered and generally denigrated:
The new movie V for Vendetta, for example, fantasizes a totalitarian Christian regime — if you can imagine such a thing — ruling a future Britain. The film projects Christians as murderous megalomaniacs bent on global domination.
In a full-page ad in The New York Times last year, the names of Jane Fonda, Edward Asner and other Hollywood activists were attached to a statement that claimed our country "is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule."
Does Krattenmaker think such hate speech makes people like us?
In an article in The American Prospect magazine, former Labor secretary Robert Reich called conservative Christians "a clear and present danger to religious liberty in America."
Typical of the way we are viewed in academia, a professor of sociology at the City University of New York, Timothy Shortell, in a 2001 online publication described religious people as "moral retards" and "an ugly, violent lot."
Typical of judicial assaults, U.S. District Court Judge David Hamilton recently banned prayers in Jesus' name at opening sessions of the Indiana House of Representatives, claiming they amounted to "an official endorsement of the Christian religion." As if this were a catastrophe.
And in October 2004, a group of Christians was arrested in Philadelphia for peacefully witnessing at a city-sponsored gay pride event. The City of Brotherly Love tried to prosecute the group for a number of felonies for which they could have served years in prison if convicted.
That Krattenmaker can dismiss objections to the above as hysteria and fear-mongering speaks to his bias. Whether Krattenmaker likes it or not, some of us are finally pushing back. Our conference is only the beginning.
Rick Scarborough, president visionamerica.org; Nacogdoches, Texas | 
