LETTER: Conservatives not heartless

To the editor:

I take serious offense to Mr. Blackham’s notion that hatred and bigotry are conservative values. They are certainly not my values, nor the values of millions of other conservatives nationwide. Unfortunately, this kind of propaganda is spewed out at conservatives all too frequently and many uninformed people believe it.

One of the many false myths Mr. Blackham uses in his column is that, “Conservatives ultimately serve the interests of the powerful….” He writes that “if anything, Jesus would have been a Democrat.” Certainly Jesus helped the less fortunate and the down trodden. He loved the sinner and hated the sin. As the ultimate example, he showed us how to live. Jesus gave to the poor by His choice, not by political law or decree. Liberals believe that it’s the government’s responsibility to create financial equality. For a Pro-Choice Liberal, doesn’t this take away the choice? I willingly give a good percentage of my income to the government for education, protection, roads, social welfare, and other programs. In my opinion, when I give more money to the poor, I’d rather give it to a reputable charity than a fat, bureaucratic government where little of the money I give goes to the people it’s intended to help. And I prefer to give to the poor because I want to, not because the government tells me it’s now the law to pay 10% more.

If Liberals care more about the less fortunate, you’d expect them to give more to the poor than conservatives do. The facts show just the opposite. As reported on ABC’s “20/20” and Arthur Brook’s book Who Really Cares, 24 of the top 25 states where people give an above average percent of their income to charity were “red” (Republican) states in the last presidential election. Conservatives give about 30% more to charity than Liberals.

The single biggest predictor of whether someone will be charitable is their religious participation. So organized religion isn’t as bad as some like to paint it. Religious people are more likely to give to charity and when they do, they give over 4x as much. These people give more than to just their churches. Religious Americans are more likely to give to every kind of cause and charity, including explicitly non-religious ones.

So, next time you’re prompted to think about how heartless conservatives are, put aside the emotional propaganda and consider the facts.

Glen Moore