COMMENTARY: The real and the fake in `Christian Values’

c. 1997 Religion News Service (Frances Coleman is editorial page editor for the Mobile (Ala.) Register.) UNDATED _ In a nation pervaded by political expressions of religious fervor, one man gives fresh meaning to the expression “Christian values.” His name is Richard Coss. An ex-convict, Coss says God changed his life while he was “a […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Frances Coleman is editorial page editor for the Mobile (Ala.) Register.)

UNDATED _ In a nation pervaded by political expressions of religious fervor, one man gives fresh meaning to the expression “Christian values.”


His name is Richard Coss. An ex-convict, Coss says God changed his life while he was “a druggie bad guy” serving a 10-year prison sentence. He’s now a Baptist minister who counsels inmates across the country.

When Coss talks to prisoners about the importance of love, surely the angels themselves must appreciate the irony, for Richard Coss has every excuse to hate. When the Alfred P. Murrah building blew up on April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City, his two grandsons were inside.

Chase Smith, who was 2 years old, and his brother, 3-year-old Colton, both died in the blast.

Two men stand accused of the boys’ deaths and 166 others. But Coss believes Christianity requires he forgive them. He has written convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh and his alleged accomplice, Terry Nichols, to tell them so: “I love you, I forgive you, I care about you, and I would pray one day that you’d accept Jesus as your savior and become Christians.”

What a contrast with those who would use religion shamelessly to bolster their careers, political parties and personal agendas.

There’s Ralph Reed, outgoing head of the Christian Coalition, who came to Montgomery, Ala., not long ago to speak at the big Ten Commandments rally. With a $27 million budget, the coalition is indisputably the most influential conservative religious organization in America.

The rally was in support of Alabama Circuit Judge Roy Moore, who has been ordered by a state judge in Montgomery to stop opening his court with a prayer and to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom or display them with other historical documents. Moore is appealing to the Alabama Supreme Court and gathering support from many quarters.

Who are these dastardly folks who oppose opening court with Christian-only prayers, and who think the Ten Commandments ought to be displayed there in context with other great documents? Who are these people who insist that government isn’t supposed to favor one religion over another?


Reed explains: “They seek to undermine and destroy our faith in God, our rights as Americans, our values and our civilization, and we stand in the gap and will not let them do so.”

Alabama Gov. Fob James, who is up for re-election next year, has threatened to call out the National Guard should anyone try to remove the commandments from the courtroom in Gadsden, Ala. And in Washington, where everybody’s always running for election or re-election, Congress has passed resolutions supporting public display of the commandments in courthouses and other government buildings.

Some of these political defenders of the Ten Commandments surely are sincere. But I submit to you many of them aren’t worried nearly so much about defending God’s law as they are about preserving their own hides. The louder they holler that they’re upholding “Christian values,” the stronger the stench of politics grows.

Meanwhile, Richard Coss says he’d be a hypocrite if he worked with inmates who’ve hurt other people’s families, but didn’t forgive those who victimized his own.

If there is a better contrast between genuine and fake religious values these days, I haven’t seen it.

END COLEMAN

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