Shooting was attack on liberal values

As ministers of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Canton, the Rev. Anne Marsh and I join with so many others in feeling revulsion at the tragic shooting that took place recently at our fellow church in Knoxville, Tenn., and we grieve the death and suffering inflicted upon members of congregations there. Our world should have no place for hatred and violence directed at any religion, though, sadly, there is far too much of that. But our country has always stood for the ideal of religious freedom within a tolerant society free of fear and intimidation.

The attack, we now know, was against more than a few people in one church in Tennessee. It was an attack against liberals and the values for which they stand. Our religious movement has, indeed, embodied liberal values for over 400 years — values that lead us to new and broader ways of finding truth and inspiration throughout the spiritual resources of the whole world, and new and fuller forms of social justice that include ever more of the repressed and neglected people in our societies under the banner of human dignity.

We do not expect easy or wide agreement with such views. We only ask for a rightful place to offer them within the public arena, along with others. And while we recognize the shooting to be the act of a single, disturbed individual, we can call for a repudiation of those voices who encourage a virulent, disparaging hatred of all with whom they disagree. May our "culture wars" remain humane contests of values, struggles for hearts and minds that are respectful of our common humanity. That should be a value upon which all of us can agree.

The Rev. Wade Wheelock

Canton