Dear Editor,
I am responding to the Progressive Pioneer opinion piece by Jennifer Merecki on February 4, 2019. Her assertion is that the religious right must be Republican and not enough attention is paid to the religious left. Her piece seems to attack the Catholic Church in a roundabout way by asserting that the current Pope is bringing progressivism to the Church. Nothing could be further from the truth. He may be highlighting Catholic Doctrine in a way Ms. Merecki can understand better than from other Popes. Although she doesn’t say it, it appears she is attacking not just the Catholic Church, but also other churches she considers conservative.
Her attack on the religious right is unfounded and in attacking, she is doing the same thing she is accusing the religious right of doing. What would Christ think? There is enough of the same thing type of divisiveness in our political world, why import it to our religious world?
Perhaps she has never actually talked to a conservative Christian Catholic. I am one. I am not what she describes. I am a Byzantine Catholic by choice, not by birth. Pope John Paul II called the Byzantine Church the church’s conservative flagship. I am a retired US Army Infantry officer and Ranger. I spent 21 years defending her right to have her opinions and for her to have the right to vote. I believe in the sanctity of all human life. I have lived in Billings for 10 years. In that time my wife, children and I have hosted six families in need, at no cost to them. One family had been kicked out of a church property in which they were living, a church she might term evangelical, to the street, because they changed religions. They and their seven children lived with us for a year. They conceived and birthed a baby in our house in that year. They saved enough money in that year to put a down payment on their first home to own. Currently, we are hosting a young woman with four children that escaped from Warren Jeff’s polygamy cult in Utah. Their story is heart breaking and we are doing all we can to help her and her children. For one thing, they had never had a Christmas until this last one.
Ms. Merecki, when you say that “the faster conservative religion seen as crazy, violent, hateful, misogynistic and anti- science, the faster we as a society can move on” are you asking for us to just shut up? and die? I fought hard to protect your rights. Can you at least simply respect mine? Are you sure you are following Christian tenants, such as the Golden Rule, you refer to?
There is a saying that the political left seems to believe. Maybe this is what you believe. “You know you are right because you feel that way. You also know that I don’t deserve to defend myself because you know I am wrong.” We all need to respect each other.
Ed McCullough
Billings Heights
