Letters

All You Need Is Love - Not A `faith-Based' Marriage Grant

My husband ad I are atheists and have been married to each other for 41 years. We didn't need taxpayer-funded counseling or other incentives to achieve this ("My Big Fat GOP Wedding: Bush Administration Marriage Grants Seek To Wed Church And State In Unholy Matrimony," February Church & State).

All it takes is commitment, love and forbearance on both sides.

-Mary Louise Thompson

San Antonio, Texas

St. Valentine's Day Massacre?

Here it is Valentine's Day, and appropriately I'm reading your article, "My Big, Fat, GOP Wedding," that I got in the mail yesterday. I have a great idea on how to promote marriages and prevent divorces. Well, it's actually two ideas, not just one.

First, make divorce illegal, under penalty of death.

Second, start a new government agency, the Federal Matchmaking Agency. All males and females must register with the Agency when they reach their 18th birthday. Anyone who is still not married by their 21st birthday will be drafted and required to marry whomever the Agency pairs them with. (I mean drafted to be married, not to serve in the military, which is a different agency's job.) Those who refuse to marry the person chosen for them will be executed on the spot by a firing squad using shotguns.

That ought to do it, don't you agree?

Happy Valentine's Day!

-Samuel Shaffe

Winter Haven, Fla.

Churches And Politics: Naming Names

Much has been written about the fine line separating religion and politics. In my mind it is crystal clear. Churches can and should teach and discuss moral principles and issues as much as they like, but when they name names of politicians as either for or against their principles, they have crossed over into politics. It's as simple as that. End of discussion.

-Phil Schultz

Racine, Wisc.

On The Commandments And Evolution

The posting of the Ten Commandments and opposition to evolution appear to be two of the main objectives of Religious Right activists. If they were to succeed in their efforts to have the Ten Commandments posted in public schools and courthouses, it is doubtful that they would have any impact on the behavior of anyone. Nearly everyone growing up in this country has had at least some exposure to the Ten Commandments and have consciously broken the majority of them at some time. (A handful of sculptors have even broken the one about making graven images.)

Posting them in prominent places can hardly be considered an effective deterrent to crime. The current scandals being revealed in the Catholic Church have been perpetrated by people who are extremely well versed in the Ten Commandments and other points of canon law, yet this did not prevent their doing unspeakable things.

Opponents of teaching evolution make the claim that if children are taught that they share a common ancestry with monkeys that they will "act like monkeys," yet few if any anthropologists, paleontologists or geneticists have ever been accused of acting like monkeys.

If we were to interview the inmates of a juvenile justice facility we would undoubtedly find that the majority were moderately well acquainted with the Ten Commandments, but would not have the foggiest notion about evolution. To carry this a step farther, and having read about the sexual behavior of other primates, we would find that those involved in the church sex scandals follow nearly the same sexual patterns as those followed by chimpanzees. The majority of these miscreants are able to recite the Ten Commandments verbatim.

We should stop and reflect upon the efficacy of posting the Ten Commandments and what possible benefit can be derived from the suppression of the established scientific knowledge of evolution.

-Wallace Downs

Santa Clara, Calif.

AU: Keep Up The Good Work!

I am a working-class single father of two teenagers, and the current U.S. economy is squeezing me pretty hard. But it scares me to see an erosion of my children's future liberties by forces which are gaining strength in American society.

For that reason I am enclosing my pitiful contribution to those who stand in resistance to those forces. I only wish I could afford more.

Keep up the good work.

-Dale Lockwood

Thornton, Colo.

Right Decision On The Pledge

The federal appeals court decision on the Pledge of Allegiance was the right one. The country has significantly changed in the 50 years since "under God" was added to the Pledge. We now have a pluralist society that is multi-religious. No one religion has the fight to impose its views and ideas on those who have different beliefs.

It may come as a surprise to Bible Belt fundamentalists like Attorney General John Ashcroft, but there are many people, religious and nonreligious, who do not accept the concept of a theistic God. They also have rights.

-James G. Updegraff

Sacramento, Calif.

Copyright Americans United for Separation of Church and State Apr 2003
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved