Feedback: American doesn’t equal Christian

Howard Thomas’ letter (News-Times, Nov. 6) says he is troubled because the pundits, and, I would assume, others as well have been asking, “Can a President bring together a nation divided?”

He gives his own answer to the question by asserting that we are not divided. His proof is that because millions voted we are not divided, at least as far as democracy works. I guess he assumes that because we voted, the issues that we voted on were less significant than the process of voting. How this can prove we are not divided escapes any rational analysis.

His additional proof is his figurative allusion that “Lady Liberty is standing a bit taller, Jefferson, Franklin and Washington are smiling. They know the truth. We are, and will continue to be, One nation under God..” And concludes, “God Bless America!”

The divisiveness these remarks make is incalculable. The assumptions that the founders would countenance such religious outbursts are laughable. If Mr. Thomas were to research the writings and history of the above personages, he would find that they were not only not adherents to Christianity, but were only marginal deists. Also, the Statue of Liberty was given to us from France, an enigma to us at the present time, and a secular country. Secondly, by assuming we all fall under the aegis of this religious persuasion, Mr. Thomas excludes some 30 million of our citizens, who either do not buy into this ideology or are skeptical of this belief.

The fact is that our country was not founded on religious beliefs (the “creator” mentioned in the Constitution, does not equate to the image of a “God,” which is not in the Constitution, but of whatever the forces were thought to have initiated our universe) founded on the secular ideology that was inherited from the “Enlightenment” and its precursor in the Greco-Roman period.

The further proof of this fact is that the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court building and the other architecture of government buildings everywhere is not modeled after churches, synagogues or mosques, but for the most part, styled after the Greco-Roman fashion.

To ignore the divisive situation presently extant based on our world-views with respect to religion, politics, war and peace, the economy, social values and a myriad of many other topics, is to stick one’s head in the sand and feel good by denying it is taking place. The issues dividing 48 percent from the 51 percent who voted, will not be resolved by all of us genuflecting or singing Hosanna.

Basil Debnekoff

Coupeville

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