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To the Editor:

In every brief piece of writing, somewhere will appear the core of what the writing is actually about. In my opinion, in the most recent piece from Mr. J.W. Ballard, the following was that core: “Our Judaic-Christian values must be respected. We can no longer ignore affronts to please the secular society.”

I imagine those of us who went regularly to Sunday School would agree whole-heartedly with his first sentence, but the problem comes when we pick the values we want to respect. For example, Mr. Ballard seems dead set against immigrants, so perhaps he believes that Exodus 23:9 and Matthew 25:35, for example, are just misprints. Mr. Trump’s behaviors around sexuality don’t seem to bother him, either, so we can ditch First Corinthians 6:9-11, too. And paying for the food and medical treatment of poor children is certainly just another liberal boondoggle, so away with Matthew 18:10. Real Biblical scholars, of which group I am surely not one, can certainly locate other helpful educational examples.

Finally, I must say with regret that the tone of Mr. Ballard’s piece is one of contempt and anger toward those who don’t agree with him. So Psalm 37:8, Ephesians 4:31, and James 1:20, may be helpful for him. My own take on Jesus’s values is that anger against our neighbor is the real “affront” — to God, anyway.

Kenneth Bradford

Richmond