AMERICA'S CHRISTIAN CRUSADER

"Ralph Reed may be the right hand of Pat Robertson, but I'll be damned if either one of them is the right hand of God." ROB JOHNSON Mount Vernon, Washington

Thank you for introducing your readers to Ralph Reed, a tough and winsome advocate of a particular kind of theocracy [COVER STORY, May 15]. The trouble with Reed and the Christian Coalition is that while he is a very good diagnostician of the country's ills, he is a menace when it comes to public policy. There is no greater pathology in religion than that of confusing one's own will with God's. As for Americans, for whom so many presume to speak, we need to be wary of the God-is-on-our-side rhetoric. Politicians who worship at the altar of Reed's agenda are in danger of losing their souls. (THE REV.) ALAN JONES, Dean Grace Cathedral San Francisco

We love Reed. we are not that fond of TIME. JOYCE AND JERRY ATWOOD Arlington, Texas

We have much to fear from people who use their religious organizational machine as a club to beat the U.S. government into submission. Spiritual values and beliefs have no place in the affairs of the Republic. Attempts to legislate religion-based issues have perpetrated more evil than anything else in the history of humankind. The progress of civilization requires as a minimum the separation of church and state. ANNABELLE REEVE Oakland, California

Reed describes his Christian Coalition as "the McDonald's of American politics." What a perfect description. They both have a limited menu. ROBERT A. EBERLE Kansas City, Missouri

We should bear in mind the late Senator Sam Ervin's admonition: "When religion controls government, political liberty dies, and when government controls religion, religious liberty perishes." Notwithstanding persistent disclaimers, Reed and the Christian Coalition continue to raise genuine concerns that the powerful Coalition, in the name of one particular religious group, seeks to tamper with an incredibly successful constitutional arrangement between religion and state. DAVID A. HARRIS, Executive Director American Jewish Committee New York City

I did not realize that God is a Republican and an advocate of the Contract with America. As long as these religious groups are transformed into prosperous business organizations parading under the umbrella of theology while basking in a tax-free haven-they must be held accountable to the public. MITCHELL GOLDSTONE Irvine, California

The Christian Coalition and religious conservatives in general are not intolerant extremists but ordinary people who are working together to try to preserve the values that made this country great: faith, family and freedom. As more and more people slowly awaken to the excesses of failed liberal social engineering, they realize that the beliefs and concerns of the Christian Coalition are not extreme but very much like their own. CHRISTOPHER KARAS Lowell, Massachusetts

What kind of pro-family message is Reed promoting when he says he tries to get home often, "even if it's only for a day"? GAIL POLLICITA Plantsville, Connecticut

Reed must be given credit for knowing what he wants and aggressively going after it. Because God is ambidextrous, those on the left hand of God are as valued, loved and utilized as those on the right hand. Also, inasmuch as God is whole, balanced and infinitely wise, there is no possibility that the limited and biased views of Reed will be allowed to control the religious and political climate of the U.S. Reed will be permitted to make a needed contribution if he can avoid becoming overly self-serving and rigid. He must keep in mind that, like all religious and political leaders, he will remain a few notches below God. FARIES J. MCDANIEL Dallas

A REFUGEE'S V-E DAY

Thank you for TIME editor Karsten Prager's account of his family's journey to freedom in the last days of the war [MEMOIRS, May 15]. Few remember that the Third Reich spread a blanket of suffering over everyone -- victors as well as vanquished. Like Prager's family, mine fled westward from advancing Russian troops. When my mother escaped with her four underage children, there were only cattle cars available on the last train. Like Prager, I spent time in refugee camps. With a Polish father, a German mother and a grandfather named Abram, "Germans" such as us were about as responsible for Nazi atrocities as are today's Serb peasants for "ethnic cleansing." The community of man requires empathy for the suffering of all, free from concepts of race, nationality or religion. ELFRIEDE H. KRISTWALD Decatur, Georgia

I found Prager's wartime story "Flight to Freedom" moving and nostalgic. I am one of thousands who had a similar experience. I grew up in Latvia and was a green high-schooler when, in 1945, I was sent to work at forced labor by the Germans. After the war, I ended up in a displaced-persons camp and managed to emigrate to England. There I studied art, and finally came to Canada. Powerful memories of those chaotic days are with me still. ELMAR DAMBERGS Rosseau, Canada

Prager's memoirs provided a refreshing contrast to the flags, fanfares and festivities commemorating V-E day that we in Britain were subjected to. It is well known that the British are not particularly Euro-friendly, but if the British adult population wishes to partake in and build Europe for my generation, then surely the time for anti-German propaganda, abundant during the past few weeks, is over. Realistically, our German counterparts cannot enjoy watching Britain relive her glory in the face of so much German suffering, shame and sorrow. Victory in today's Europe is what is important, not the atrocities of the war-torn '40s. BALVEEN AJIMAL, age 16 Guildford, England

When I was seven years old, I fled from a town near Prague with my mother, sisters and brothers. My eldest brother, just 15, was left behind to be a soldier in Hitler's army, like my father. During our escape to the West, I was almost left behind during a rest stop. I had to run to catch the truck. On our 14-day journey to Cologne, a black American soldier gave us a bar of chocolate; it was sweeter than anything I have ever had in my life. My father and brother were captured by the Soviets and served time as prisoners of war before we could all be reunited. I do hope that no one will ever again have to carry such grim memories, and that peace and freedom will always be what our children and grandchildren have to recall. LI SCHMITZ NORRMAN Stockholm

TAKE ACTION NOW

We have commemorated the end of World War II in Europe [V-E DAY, May 8], a war in which, only 50 years ago, unspeakable atrocities occurred, brought about by one crazy right-wing extremist. Each year we all say, "Lest we forget," but I fear we have already forgotten. You may call me paranoid to think that farmers from a small American town could lead to such inhumanity as the Oklahoma bombing, but who would have thought a lowly, unsuccessful painter like Adolf Hitler could do what he did?

America's right-wingers, like Germans in the post-World War I Depression era, are looking for someone to blame for thei woes. My advice to non-white, non-Anglo-Saxon, non-Christian Americans is: Either stop these people in their tracks now through any means possible, or get out while you still can KEVIN JUDELMAN Perth, Australia

SMART CARDS FOR EVERYONE

After a disaster like the one that occurred in Oklahoma City, it is necessary to identify victims quickly and to have access to their medical records [OKLAHOMA CITY, May 15]. It is also important to hunt down criminals by identifying suspects, Both of these tasks could be carried out faster and more economically if Americans had identity cards, as residents do in some European countries. Some of these advanced "smart cards" with magnetic strips carry information about blood groups and instructions in emergencies. Only people with criminal intentions could object to these cards, which would bear a photo and be handed out to legal residents (a handy way to identify illegal immigratns). Such a measure could be tried at the state level and, if successful, implemented on a nationwide basis. ANTOON, PENNINGS Javea, Spain

PRESIDENT AT LAST

After biding his time for almost 20 years, Jacques Chirac has made it: he has been elected President [FRANCE, May 15]. But now that Chirac is in, he faces a most fearsome task, as he will have to steer a tricky course between the conflicting aspirations of voters who range from youths and unemployed people to the upper class. What's more, boosting growth by hiking wages and limiting the public deficit might turn into a headache. Let's just hope that the political animal's cherished slogan, "France for All," won't become a dead letter. So many hopes and dreams would be blighted if "promises for all" became "actions for the happy fews." FRANCOIS VANNEREAU Tours, France

French voters failed to note that the salient change needed is not one of politicians, but an alteration in the French people themselves. LAWRENCE R. GORDON Paris

THAWING RELATIONS WITH CUBA

President Clinton should be commended for his ethical and principled decision to admit the Cuban refugees at Guantanamo to the U.S. [CUBA, May 15]. He has taken some flak from that small minority of ultra-conservative Cuban Americans who would have been happy to let their Cuban brothers and sisters rot at Guantanamo, but instead of caving in to their pressure, Clinton took the moral high ground. Cuban Americans will think highly of him for allowing the rrunification of Cuban families. RAYMUNDO DEL TORO, PRESIDENT Cuban American Commmittee for Peace Linden, New Jersey

The American public must realize that many of the people protesting in the streets of Miami are not just Cubans but U.S. citizens. We are offended at the new policy that "our" government has assumed toward Cuba. President Clinton has not just ignored Cubans' feelings but those of his own people as well. JULIO C. FERNANDEZ Miamim AOL: Silfe