To the Editor:
During the past week, an anonymous person or group sent offensive and hateful publications to religious advisors and student leaders on campus. The senders chose as their targets those who would be most offended, those who would be most hurt, not those who would be most likely to learn. Their intent, apparently, was not to educate or enlighten, but rather to attack and injure.
The offensive cartoon booklets, published by a right wing Christian group called Chick Publications, depict various offensive scenes. One addressed to Rabbi Edward Boraz, for example, tells the story, with offensively stereotypical pictures, of a Rabbi who is denied entrance to heaven after death because he did not believe in Jesus during life. One sent to the leaders of the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance emphasizes passages in the Bible that prescribe death for homosexuals.
What do we, as a community, make of this distribution, timed to coincide with Passover and Easter? How do those who call themselves Christians reconcile the call to "love thy neighbor" with such material and behavior?
We are lucky in this country. We are lucky to live in a place where people can say the most offensive things at the most offensive times without fear of retribution. In Kosovo, Christians are killing Muslims. In India, Hindus are killing Christians. In Ireland, Christians have been killing each other for years over offenses far less inflammatory than the distribution of degrading religious propaganda. The authors of our Constitution protected our right to speak offensively because they believed so strongly in our right to speak openly.
Having the right to offend, however, does not mean that we are right to do so. We are wrong when we attack and demean others. We are wrong when we hold so righteously to our beliefs that we cannot consider or understand another's point of view. We are wrong when we do not accept responsibility for maintaining standards of civility and respect in our community.
The person or persons who demonstrated such callous malevolence during Holy Week did not sign their names. I hope that they hid their faces because they understood the shame of what they did. Those of us who care about our community have a moral responsibility to show compassion for those who have been hurt, and a civil responsibility to preserve principles of common decency.