When Dwight Creech asked, "What fool?" questions in his July 8 letter, I decided to introduce myself as one of the fools.

I've read the letter several times and have concluded that rules and their enforcement are central to Creech's religious convictions. I, too, want to be safe, moral and Christian, but I don't think rules and the judgments they sometimes set up foster safety, morality and Christianity.

Dwight doesn't sound neighborly to me. When he calls me a fool, I have difficulty listening. The words of Hafiz, the Sufi poet, come to mind, "Everyone is God speaking. Why not be polite and listen ...?" I'm trying to listen and love, but I have a confession -- what I experience as Creech's critical and fearful anger make it difficult.

I suggest he consider the injunction from Jesus in Mark 12:30-31. Loving God, ourselves and our neighbor not only sounds socialistic to me, it also sounds like we are to transcend our fears and the rules they breed.

We are to learn to love rather than call each other names. I'm all for rules that guide us; not rules that oppress us and the marginalized of our society. Many times our well-meaning rules foster greed, self-righteousness and arrogance.

Chas Griffin

Seven Lakes