Senior tutor Eugene C. McAfee declined to comment saying he had not yet seen the material.
Lowell residents said the mailing had the opposite of Wishnatsky's desired effect.
"I'm not sure it would change people's opinions," said Alvin R. Cabrera '00, a Lowell House resident. "It's run-of-the-mill evangelical text."
But the text was more than run-of-the-mill: it was targeted. Wishnatsky emphasized his Harvard connection throughout the letter by drawing attention to his career as an undergraduate, his Ph.D. in political science and the Veritas motto. In his e-mail message, Wishnatsky wrote that he remembered Harvard as "morally sick," and expressed fears that this moral laxity has grown. "The gross perversions were not glamorized whenI was an undergraduate,” he wrote in the e-mailmessage. "Garden variety fornication, of course,raged in those days," he added. But students said Wishnatsky used his Harvardaffiliation in an underhanded way to gain accessto students. "I think he uses his position as a [former]Lowell House resident to gain credibility with thestudents, while his letter indicates he is out oftouch with the Harvard of today," Silversteinsaid. Although the mailing material relates to theChristian faith, Wishnatsky wrote in the coverletter: "I am Jewish." Silverstein said thisidentification troubled him. "The author points out he's Jewish, and[Scripture quotations] aren't things you get inHebrew school," he said. Silverstein said he thought Wishnatsky madestrong judgements about Harvard, and Lowell Housestudents in particular, without any realjustification. "I think this is against the spirit ofpluralism here at Harvard," Silverstein said."Rather than a free exchange of ideas andopinions, it's a specific agenda targeted atspecific students, making them defensive abouttheir religious beliefs." Wishnatsky said he has sent similar mailings toLowell, Mather, Quincy and Dunster Houses in thepast. "I try to send a mailing to the Harvard Housesonce or twice a year. I went through Harvard withno knowledge of the Bible and assume most studentssuffer from the same deprivation," Wishnatskywrote in an e-mail message. Wishnatsky said the current moral state of theCollege continually distresses him. In 1990, hewrote to then-President Derek Bok asking Bok todenounce a same-sex "kiss-in" at Dunster House.Bok declined, suggesting Wishnatsky not attend his25th reunion if he felt discomfort. Wishnatskysaid he took Bok's advice