While there may have been problems with Ms. Days' Oct. 29 column, Mr. Mootz's comments on Christianity and the Bible were not only obnoxious but erroneous. To state that "the Nazis also thought themselves good Christians" is ludicrous. The Nazis were neo-pagans, drawing their ideology from occult theologies of racial superiority. Does Mr. Mootz truly believe that the Nazis ardently supported a religion whose primary figure was a Jew? His attempt to pin slavery and discrimination on the Bible also fall flat. Both institutions are abominable to any remotely reasonable reading of the Bible.

The only way to reach any other conclusion is to take a single isolated story from one book, combine it with highly questionable theological reasoning, while simultaneously ignoring whole other books from the Bible. It should also be noted that the Abolitionist Movement, which bears much responsibility for ending slavery, was founded predominantly on a more reasonable reading of the Bible.

Christian bashing with such shabby reasoning and knowledge of history continues to grow in popularity, all the while ignoring the inconvenient truth that Christendom has done many tremendously positive things in the world. To those who consider my faith (the first in the Western world to preach equality for the poor and women, a separation of church and state, amongst other radical ideas) to be some sort of blight upon humanity, I shall simply have to turn the other cheek.