This is a response to Kenton Monjon, who may inadvertently be subject to the “ignorantia affectata” (cultivated ignorance, being subjected to false misleading data intended to obscure the truth) that he ascribes to his opponents (“Republicans embrace contradictory ideas,” Jan. 3 People’s Forum). I would like to invoke George Washington and his view on political parties in general, which potentially lead to despotism simply because the parties tend to “gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual.”

People have a natural tendency to gather in groups, but if those groups are not inspired by values of human dignity, religious liberty, solidarity and respect for subgroups in society, we will find ourselves oppressed one day.

When one group argues that control over one’s body somehow includes the right to kill a genetically complete human being, this group is profoundly misled. What people need is to take responsibility for their own actions.

Humans have glorious potential, but this potential can be robbed by those who fail to grasp basic human dignity. The current administration is making an all-out assault on religious liberty and the right to life. Political parties are not the solution, I would encourage everyone to think and become informed by real values and not be duped by the rhetoric that is so prevalent on all sides.

I am convinced that anyone who, like the slave owners of old, rationalizes some sub-human status of another human being — today the unborn child — has clearly fallen prey to the “ignorantia affectata” about which Mr. Monjon warns.

Our enemies are not Democrats or Republicans, or Protestants or Muslims or Catholics, but powers and principalities that are bent on division, hatred and death.

Father GLenn Kohrman

St. Vincent de Paul

Elkhart