Not Amused by Moody Column

Your columnist Al Martinez can frequently be amusing. However his hostile diatribe against the Rev. Jess Moody and others was an outstanding example of poor taste, poor judgment, and gross insensitivity toward the religious commitment of others.

Theologically, I stand poles apart from Mr. Moody. However, I certainly endorse his expression of his commitment. To attempt to make a respected religious leader look ludicrous for the sake of a few banal jokes is beneath the dignity of The Times.

There are certainly many arguments about zoning and planning when large religious institutions wish to relocate. In attacking and denigrating one religious expression, one attacks them all. Mr. Martinez would do well to support or challenge those arguments like an adult and not produce a column that seems more like one in a student newspaper, striving to be offensive for the sake of rebelling.

Rabbi JOHN M. SHERWOOD

Woodland Hills