CHURCH: Just the facts, please

The reporting of David Cole in “Long-haul trucker’s church allegedly has anti-Semitic ties,” (Coeur d’Alene Press, Nov. 3) is puzzling and enlightening. “Puzzling” because of the non-sequitur and “Enlightening” because it exposes an obvious bias for sensationalism over facts.

The article is about Kevin Sloniker, a self-confessed child molester, and his associations with Post Falls and the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, a chapel administered by priests who are members of the Society of Saint Pius the 10th.

The outrageous accusation in the headline has nothing to do with the actual story which is the arrest and investigation of Kevin Sloniker for child molestation. David Cole gets this anti-Semitic connection from none other than the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a left-wing anti-Christian group that conjures up salacious tidbits about any organization that disagrees with its political agenda.

The SPLC loves to fling the “hate” label against any Christian or pro-family group that disagrees with the redefinition of marriage, or with abortion or any Christian belief that it doesn’t like. The SPLC has been discredited even by leading liberal commentators.

The claim of anti-Semitism is based on the most flimsy bit of information, from a disreputable organization whose own source of information is inferred from a few acts of Christian charity subjectively taken out of context.

There isn’t enough room here to provide the facts to refute the awful accusation, so I hope the Coeur d’Alene Press will investigate further and present the unbiased and unemotional information that readers deserve.

CHRIS NORDSTROM

Post Falls