LETTERS

Seducing The Church

The Republican Party wants churches to send their membership lists to state Republican campaign headquarters ("Partisan Use Of Church Directories Is A Problem, IRS Officials Say," People & Events, September Church & State).

It's hard for me to believe that many of our Christian churches have been seduced by a political party. But what I hear from some people suggests that it actually happened. Years ago, our Lord cleaned the temple in Jerusalem, saying his house is supposed to be a house of prayer and it was made a den of thieves. Can we now say it has been made a den of Republican political activity?

Would Christ drive the seducers out? If this facility has lost its mission to be a house of prayer, should we continue to call it a Christian church?

-Harley J. Stucky

North Newton, Kan.

Churches Should Respect The Law

Congressman John Boozman (R-Ark.) says that we need to change the IRS ruling so that churches promoting political stands do not lose their tax-exempt status ("Church Service Or Campaign Commercial?" September Church & State).

Change the law is one point of view. Keep the law is another.

Those churches with a political pulpit can show their respect for law by taking responsibility for their political views and fulfilling the IRS ruling: pay taxes as do other organizations with a political agenda and put respect for law above money.

What a sermon that action would preach!

-L. H. Furst

Springdale, Ark.

Oversimplified Baptist History?

I believe that the statement in the July/August 2004 issue of Church & State (People & Events, "Southern Baptist Leaders Embrace Bush, Push 'Bible-Based' Voting") concerning the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention may be oversimplified.

My understanding is that the northern Baptists wanted to use the church to put pressure on slaveholders to end slavery they wanted to refuse to allow slaveholders to attend the Baptist churches. The southern Baptists thought that more could be done to end slavery by allowing the slaveholders to continue attending church, hoping that the influence of the church would move them to end slavery.

An analogy in today's world would be U.S. reaction to human rights abuses in China: some people feel that the best way to address these abuses is through economic sanctions; others feel that the best course of action is to continue trading with China, hoping that interaction with U.S. culture will change attitudes in China and thus end human rights abuses.

-Jim Jones

Colonial Heights, Va.

Editor's note: According to historian Forrest G. Wood's The Arrogance of Faith: Christianity and Race in America from the Colonial Era to the Twentieth Century, Baptists in the South formed a new denomination after two national missionary societies refused to allow slaveholders to be appointed as missionaries. "Slavery, " he says, "was the fundamental and irreconcilable issue. " Due to its policy of congregational independence, Wood says, the Southern Baptist denomination became "one of the most contentious proslavery religious bodies in the nation. " In 1995, Southern Baptists adopted a resolution apologizing to all African-Americans for "historic acts of evil such as slavery. "

Theocracy In Texas

The public display of a Bible outside the Harris County (Texas) courthouse is theocratic ("Bible Lawsuit Sparks Death Threat Against Texas Attorney," AU Bulletin, October Church & State). Theocracy involves the excessive involvement of clergy in running the civil affairs of government. Such governments frequently endorse one religion to the exclusion of all others, which fosters discrimination against people who follow other religions or even dissent from the official state religion.

That is why America's Founding Fathers placed a clause against the government "respecting an establishment of religion" in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In fact, there were many governments, including the Papacy, in Europe that had a history of persecuting religious minorities and people deemed "heretical" by the clergy. In the modern world, there are many Islamic governments that severely oppress the unfortunate inhabitants of their benighted countries.

-Laura Borst

Houston, Texas

One Nation, Under Good

As a public high school science teacher in New York, I watched the Supreme Court Pledge of Allegiance issue with interest. Though I know there would have been a huge backlash from the Religious Right if the court upheld the 9th Circuit Court's decision, it would have been the right thing to do.

I happen to be an atheist, and for the last 20 years or so, as 1 recite the Pledge, I say "one nation, under good," as it keeps with the cadence, and I like the idea that as a country, we should strive to do good.

New York State education law prescribes the Pledge, and actually includes the whole Pledge in the law. I have a feeling I've been breaking the law by reciting a different pledge, and have often thought it would be interesting to have my principal and superintendent give me a directive to say the "right" pledge, have me refuse, and take it up the ladder into the courts. That might make it successfully through.