In response to a recent letter to the editor (We need to wake up, not be ‘woke’,” July 29), I am still not sure what the term “woke” means, only that it is a trigger word for many people.

What I do know is that the letter seemed to be lacking detail regarding the writer’s solution to our problems today: that is, that a belief in Christianity and its power can save this nation from being “rotten fruit.” As a reminder, Christians are historically responsible for crusades, pogroms, inquisition, colonization, genocide, witch trials, slavery, Jim Crow, child sex abuse and the cover-up of it. It should be noted that the KKK considers itself a godly and Christian organization as well.

Time and time again, humans reveal the truth: It is not what we believe that matters; it is what we do that defines us. I have friends and acquaintances of all types of religious and political backgrounds, and all want a strong American economy, an end to drug addiction, gun violence and homelessness. They all have different ideas about how to accomplish this, but that’s the political process. In a proper democracy, no one is ever completely happy; we must work together and compromise to get things done.

Perhaps the gift Christianity can give our modern world are the words of the founder himself: “Love your enemies,” “Forgive one another,” “What you do to the least among you, you do unto me,” “Judge ye not, lest ye be judged.”

The Rev. Matthew Simpson
Portland