We separate church and state for a reason

I would like to respond to Joseph H. Hawkey’s July 14 letter titled, “Godless people are dictating the rules.” He states, “Our songs praising Him are no longer sung.” The songs that praise him should be sung in our own personal time and in our churches. What does he want us to do? Should we burst out in hymn at work? There is a separation of church and state for a reason. Many radio stations play Christian music, so listen to that and sing along with it.

He also states, “Without the Ten Commandments, we would not have civilization as we know it.” Not everyone has religion in his or her life, and not everyone follows the Ten Commandments. Nothing in civilization would change! I can bet that a good number of murderers in jail grew up with religion. The majority of all religions (although, he seems to be specifically talking about Christians) want their believers to be like Christ, or Allah, or whoever. In the Bible it even says that no man is perfect, and that we all sin – those who repent and truly mean it will be blessed.

“Out goes God when we pledge our allegiance to the flag.” Can you not remember the rest of this pledge? “One nation under God” – it clearly shows that we are pledging ourselves to be true to a nation, under a god (whatever god that may be)! It is in no way even close to implying that we are picking a flag over God.

His letter made very little sense to me. His statement that “we must get rid of godless judges if we want to survive as a nation” was just absurd. He talks of all the men and women that are in jail, and then says this? Obviously those people are being punished if they are in jail. It makes no difference whether a judge is a Christian or an atheist – what matters is that criminals are still being punished just the same.

Everett

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