I am Roman Catholic. I don’t particularly care what anyone else is, but I say with pride that I am a Christian.

I feel that everyone is entitled to identify with whatever belief system they feel best explains the otherwise unexplainable.ÿ

I don’t harass others about their choice of religion, and I expect the same courtesy from others.

But Daily opinion editor Greg Jerrett says that I don’t.

Rather, Mr. Jerrett says I hate those who are of a different religious persuasion.

Mr. Jerrett says that I can’t stand it when others think differently than I do. Because of this I am “the loamy, fertilizer-rich soil from which hate springs.”

There is no doubt that he says this about me. There is no qualification on this statement.

Allow me to cite the text leading up to this assertion: “[Some people] assume that hate is like a big gnarly garden and Christians are the gardeners.ÿThey aren’t. They are just the loamy, fertilizer etc.”

I am Christian. Therefore, I am a source of hate.

Mr. Jerrett, your accusations and absurd generalizations don’t stop there, however.

You say that “the one thing Christians can’t stand is honest criticism.” Mr. Jerrett, you don’t know me.ÿ

You don’t know my family.ÿYou don’t know my friends, many of whom are Christian.

You don’t know at least 99.9999999 percent of the Christians in the world, and yet you feel absolutely justified in saying that NONE OF US can take “honest criticism.”

How dare you.

You say that all Christians would kill “blasphemers” except that there are rules against it.

You say that our response to “ANY criticism these days is that [we] deserve the same kind of respect, consideration and protection as minority groups.”

You say that “amidst the merest whisper of dissension in the ranks, [we] get all wiggy and start calling to be included in hate crimes legislation.”

I didn’t know I felt these things, especially since it means I apparently yearn to kill some of my best friends.

But Mr. Jerrett argues that all Christians feel this way.

And I am Christian. I feel compelled, given this personal revelation courtesy of Mr. Jerrett, to warn my friends not of the Christian persuasion that they don’t have much longer before I lead the Inquisition to their doors.

Among the main themes that my English teachers and professors over the years have stressed is that I must NEVER make broad generalizations about groups of people.ÿ

Mr. Jerrett, that is precisely what you have done.

You made no fewer than a dozen grievous accusations about all Christians in a column of approximately 1,000 words.

Were I to do that in an English class, my teacher would have come down on me like a ton of bricks.ÿ

While I feel that I have learned that generalizations are improper and offensive, you apparently have not. At this point, I would say that your only course of action is a remedial English class.ÿProbably English 105.ÿ

Give me a call and I can suggest an excellent professor.

For now though, the fact remains that you accused something like 80-90 percent of this student body (not to mention two or three billion other people) of, among other things, wishing to kill those who disagree with us about religion.

This is absolutely inexcusable, and I demand your resignation.ÿ

Mr. Jerrett, I can take personal criticism when it is justified, backed up by fact and presented to me by someone who actually knows me.ÿ

But I am absolutely intolerant of bigots, yes, BIGOTS, like you who would make claims like those I cited here.ÿ

You said that because of my religion I would murder.

You said that because of my religion I cause hate.ÿYou said that because of my religion I oppress others.ÿ

You said this of me and every Christian without qualification.ÿYou have lost all credibility and are beneath my contempt.ÿOf this I am sure.ÿ

I am, however, unsure that you will have the decency to resign. Please prove me wrong.

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Nathan Ellefson

Junior

Computer engineering