Here we go again. Once more we have the religious right sanctimoniously raising up on their hind legs to try to force their particular ideals into every citizen’s life. This time through Initiative 250 (excluding unmarried partners of state employees from receiving insurance benefits). Another initiative sponsor, Tim Eyman, can’t get it through his head that we have a representative republic form of government, and the religious right refuses to believe that there is a reason for the separation of church and state.

I was raised as a Christian but I have not referred to myself as such for many years because I cannot follow a religious concept so filled with bigots and hypocrites. There is a simple solution to this problem of insurance coverage for same sex partners: allow same sex couples to be married. But the political righteous Christians are not after solutions, they want to punish those who do not fit their severe definition of Christianity. Since, by their own definition, we are all creatures of God, nothing says you have to be heterosexual to love God or have God love you. But there appears to be many in the Christian leadership who have no problem preaching hatred to the choir because they have found many who love the message, and it fills the collection plate.

What they still don’t get is that the congregation is much bigger than the choir, which is why the abortion and hate laws they continue to propose aren’t passed by the electorate. From my readings of their works the two men I most respect in the founding of this country, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, would be repulsed by this vindictive initiative. As Jefferson wrote, “When there is a union of church and state, tyranny will follow because those who do not believe in the state sponsored church will be subjected to tyranny and oppression.” He believed, appropriately, that religion should never be forced on the people. The originators of Initiative 250 obviously do not.

Snohomish