Letters to the editor

The role of the church

In response to your article about the religious left attempting to broaden “moral values” to include “economic justice,” I view with skepticism those in the religious left who want to use the power of the government to push a social agenda that broadens moral values to include economic justice (“Economic morality?” Culture, et cetera, Thursday).

Are they not aware that the more we are taxed and the more government does, the fewer the reasons we have to rely on the benevolence of the church? Will the government also pay for mission projects in Africa?

One just has to look at what happened to the churches in socialist Europe. They have become irrelevant to any agenda, social or spiritual, as governments have taken over an expansive role.

There is no doubt the leadership of liberal denominations like the United Methodist Church would rather talk about the poor, the needy, and the homeless, because if their flock knew where their church stands on abortion, homosexual rights and “marriage,” gun control, and capital punishment, perhaps the tithing would not be as reliably blind. Again, we conservatives are the intolerant.

BORIS NAZAROFF

Sterling

Second thoughts on CAFTA

I read with great interest Bernardo Callejas’ support of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in your Dec. 21 edition (“CAFTA and the economic guard,” Commentary). It’s no surprise that the senior investment adviser to Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos’ ProNicaragua Investment Promotion Agency would take such a stance. After all, according to its own Web site, ProNicaragua is a newly created agency “dedicated to support foreign investors seeking offshore opportunities in Nicaragua.”

Those familiar with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) all know what the term “offshore opportunities” means: sending more American jobs elsewhere where cheaper labor can be found and exploited at the expense of hardworking Americans.

I particularly enjoyed Mr. Callejas’ reference to ” ‘economic-freedom’ fighters” whose hopes lie in U.S. adoption of CAFTA. I’m guessing these “freedom-fighters” aren’t your average everyday Nicaraguan farm and manufacturing laborers, but rather the wealthy elites who are the only ones who stand to gain from CAFTA in the Central American region should it become law.

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