LETTER: Pastor is the one who is closed-minded

Talk about it

To the Editor:

When someone who others are to respect as a “spiritual leader” attempts to guide us as Kristi McLaughlin did on the “pro-life” issue, someone has to address it.

I was offended at her saying that “claiming to be pro-life is really a pronouncement of being against abortion rather than a consistent ideology of being pro-life.” She then attempted to make us feel guilty if we don’t see things her way — to feel bad if you don’t support “all policies, systems, legislation, budgets, etc., that support and honor life.” Somehow, someone who doesn’t want to pay taxes to support programs that have failed and only wasted money is the bad guy.

That doesn’t mean I don’t support helping the needy, because I do. However, if any person runs a business the way many government programs are run, they go broke. That is what I’m against. It gets old having to pay taxes for somebody else’s ideas, watching it not work, and then be chastised for not wanting to continue. It has nothing to do with being “pro-life.”

I have to address her bringing the homosexual issue into this. Calling people “narrow-minded” if they don’t see things her way does not sound very “open-minded” to me. What has that got to do with the pro-life issue? Pro-life has to do with whether it is acceptable or not to kill a living, unborn, God-created human being.

I am involved with the pro-life movement. I see those who volunteer time, energy and resources to help save unborn babies and help mothers with legitimate problems in pregnancies and other needs, as good people. I was offended by her implications that we don’t care. We do care. I care and am concerned for Kristi. When I read in Proverbs 6:16-19 about the things God hates, the third thing is hands that shed innocent blood. Nothing is more innocent than an unborn child.

Dan Hargreaves is president of South Dakota Right to Life.

Tags: opinion, letters, religion