CORRESPONDENT Stuart Maders (Nov 28) quotes approvingly the views of a Kansas clergyman in his address to the State Senate, written in the form of a prayer.

I can readily agree with his condemnation of the abuse of power, courteousness, and exploitation often arising from gambling (though not only of the Lottery variety). However, I think most of his other points beg serious questions.

Taking them in order, I would ask:

Joe Wright and Stuart Maders surely can't be against freedom of conscience. So just what is the pluralism they condemn?

They surely don't think we must all have uniform lifestyles. So just what is the multiculturalism they condemn. Do they really think all "alternative lifestyles" are perverted? Aren't many of them an attempt to escape the rat race (albeit sometimes in a head-in-the clouds way)?

Do they really think most of those who exist on what, in the USA, is called "Welfare," Income Support and other benefits in this country, do so from choice? To me, that's the last word in smugness and ignorance.

I can come close to their feelings on abortion, but do they not feel that it is ever the lesser of two evils?

As for the need for discipline in children, why should it conflict with the building of self-esteem? A healthy balance is vital, not the extremes of a spoilt brat or a neurotically repressed child.

I get as annoyed as anybody about bad language in public, but I can't help hearing alarm bells ringing when freedom of expression is referred to in a negative way. Apart from swearing and incitement to hatred etc, do they want it curtailed?

While endorsing their view of the existence of time-honoured values, I wonder if they believe it is wrong to hold ethical debates which may, by seeking to improve our behaviour, lead to the conclusion that not all old-fashioned views were automatically wise ones.

Lastly, I wonder why the allegation of "political correctness" is often directed by those people opposing certain prevalent ideas. Is it not a smokescreen to hide the lack of moral ammunition they have for a debate on the ideas themselves?

JEFF LEWIS,

Wood Grove, Whitefield.