The reactions to the abortion-clinic vandalism in our paper have been of great concern to many of us. The facts are we have a suspect who is a troubled young man who acted out in a very wrong and unfortunate manner. No one has condoned this action. All of the details are currently unknown yet many in the community have and already tried this young man. Many appear prejudiced and presume to know his mind and motives. This deeply troubled young man does deserve a fair trial first. Ironically there has been hate mail sent by some who are angry about this so called hate crime. The hypocrisy is glaring on many levels.

Even more disturbing, our Christian and pro-life community is also now on trial for this crime by letter writers such as Debi Strong, Donna Harris, Susan Cahill and her husband and others.  There is not a shred of evidence to support such accusations. This behavior dramatically shows the growing hatefulness especially toward pro-life Christians. It seems every time there is any incident tied to abortion clinics, we see this same vicious attack on the Christian populace. The Muslim religion is never treated this way in our country even when actual terrorist attacks do occur.

In this past year several churches have been vandalized in Montana and elsewhere along with hate messages sprayed inside the churches. I believe that irresponsibly tying Christians to crimes like this could increase this growing trend. Sadly vandalism perpetrated by youth is on the rise everywhere. We as a society need to figure out why and then find ways to help our troubled youth. Many of us believe the increasing attacks on Christianity have led to the ever growing moral decay of our society and are a large factor in this problem.

McCormick is a resident of Kalispell