Politics

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Dear Editor:
I get rather tired of the continuing idiocy over God, church and state. The current invective is directed at the “one nation under God “clause of the pledge of allegiance. You know, the pledge no one has to say anymore unless they really want to.
If they thought about it, the minority atheists, who feel their existence threatened by any casual mention of deity, should be glad that phrase is in there. Whether God actually exits or not, it’s meant to convey the idea that the state is not God nor equivalent to Him. Would anyone want to live in the various countries that are officially anti-God, setting the state and their leadership up as His replacements? How much do any of them respect human rights?
The establishment clause of the constitution has been misinterpreted and misrepresented by those who seem to have some hidden agenda roughly equivalent to the aforementioned countries. Exactly which church is being established by this phrase, or for that mater the display of the Ten Commandments? The same people who defend the filthiest tee shirts in schools and rap albums, such as “Cop Killer”, as free speech, seem to put forth the idea that the Republic is going to crumble at the mere mention of God in a public setting.
Much is made over the Jeffersonian quote, “There is an impenetrable wall of separation between church and state”. I notice no one ever finishes the quote. In that letter to a Rhode Island, Baptist minister, he indicated that the government should never have any control over religion, but religion should always have an influence on government. Consider that the founding fathers regularly and publicly invoked deity, sponsored various church meetings in public buildings and, like Jefferson, supported church organizations they didn’t necessarily agree with totally. They did not want a state founded and controlled religion as in England. This is the point of the first amendment. Also keep in mind Jefferson did not work on the constitution at all, was in France at the time of its creation and deferred questions about it to those who actually did work on it. He did not consider himself an authority on it.
Grow up people! There is nothing in the constitution that protects you from hearing that with which you disagree or what might offend you. This is the price of liberty and freedom of speech. This is what America is all about, the open and free exchange of ideas not just politically correct ones.

Ed Goyette,

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