Magna Carta column misses the point
Your June 20 Life section column, “Why Christians should celebrate the Magna Carta,” presents a complete misunderstanding of the 13th-century English Church on religious freedom.
Archbishop Stephen Langton supported the Magna Carta as a curb upon royal power to defend papal authority in England. But contrary to columnist Eric Metaxas’s inference, he was by no means a champion of religious liberty.
Langton’s concern was the freedom of the Church; he was uninterested in religious freedom for others. In 1222, a provincial church council convened by Langton resulted in the execution of an English deacon who had converted to Judaism for love of a Jewish woman. This nameless convert is sometimes confused with Robert of Reading; a plaque at Osney Abbey, Oxford, commemorates the martyrdom on April 17, 1222, of “Robert of Reading, otherwise known as Haggai of Oxford.”
There was, however, a later 13th-century English convert to Judaism – Richard (or Robert) of Reading. According to the Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds, he married a Jewish woman, took the name Haggai, and was then delivered to the Archbishop of Canterbury for punishment. Langton’s church, then, defended its own interests; its position on religious freedom was more like the Taliban’s.
Irven M. Resnick
Ancestors disrespected because of flag dispute
The Confederate flag isn’t about racism; it’s about a war that was fought on the very ground we walk on. To suggest burning it shows a low level of respect and dignity for our ancestors and a high level of ignorance.
Flojean Robinson, Chickamauga, Ga.
Writer of anti-GOP diatribe out of touch
Presumably you allot space at the bottom of your editorial page for intelligent commentary. How could that criterion possibly justify Timothy Egan’s Tuesdsay diatribe against the Republican Party (“A Refuge for Racists”)?
Drawing on a 2010 “Simpsons” episode, a tenuous connection between the Charleston shooter and a donor to several Republican candidates, Donald Trump’s recent comments about immigrants, a comedian’s remark about the Confederate flag, and a Louisiana congressman’s speech more than a decade ago, author Egan concludes that the party whose candidate received the support of 56 million Americans in 2012 has become a refuge for racists! Seriously?
Gary Lindley, Lookout Mountain, Ga.