Last week I received, via e-mail, one of those diatribes of the sort that I have seen on numerous other occasions. This one is an angry denunciation of the Democratic Party and for whatever that party stands for. I have no idea whether it was composed before the country voted for the Democratic candidate, President-elect Obama, or after he was elected. But the nature of this particular attack simply disgusts me.

It never mentions the Republican Party, nor does it make any specific reference to the Christian religion, but it clearly comes from the extreme fringe of the so-called Christian Right faction of the Republican Party.

The document, which is entitled Democratic Change, consists of 29 sarcastic statements, all of which begin, I voted Democrat because . . ., and all of which are sweeping overgeneralizations. Following these initial words are presentations of positions which whoever wrote the piece attributes to the Democratic Party, but which are half-truths, gross distortions of the truth, or flat-out lies. Here are just a couple of examples:

I voted Democrat because it’s time to change America’s class. The middle class is wasting space and we need only a few rich to manage things anyway.

I voted Democrat because there is no God; since there isn’t one, I suggest that everyone believe like me and let’s force all those who believe in God to change their minds.

Now, I’m as fearful of the extreme liberal fringe of the Democratic Party as anyone else is. But this attack goes way over the line. It strongly implies that all Democrats are over there on the far left with Nancy Pelosi and that they all affirm same-sex marriage, abortion on demand, pampering illegal aliens, reducing the freedoms Americans enjoy, and taxes, taxes, taxes.

I am especially disgusted by the suggestion that all Democrats are atheists. That implication, along with many others, is simply a lie. It is just about comparable to the charge that all Conservative Christians are so reactionary that they would vote for the Nazi Party if it were on the ballot. Of course, both are lies.

But I’m also grieved for our nation by the divisiveness such a document reflects. Whoever wrote it seems to be saying, If you don t agree with me, you’re wrong. Even more offensive is the implication that If you don’t agree with me, you’re evil. I see nothing of Christian love in that kind of attitude!

This nation was founded on the basis of freedom of thought and freedom of religion. There are some 300 million of us here at the present, and it would be a sad state of affairs if we all had to believe the same thing, or act in the same way. Why, if that were the case, we would be right up there with Hussein~Iraq or Stalin’s Russia. Fortunately, we aren’t! But I have the feeling that the writer of the insulting diatribe I have described here wants to divide the nation into two groups: Those who agree in every respect with him and Everyone else.

Even his Christianity is sadly amiss. That self-righteous bigot seems to forget St. Paul’s caution to us that All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). And Jesus himself has a word to say to the writer: You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother s eye (Matt. 7:5).

The kind of divisiveness this writer is inciting really has no place in America in the 21st century.