Church, state issue has a history

I must respond to Ron Feldman's Nov. 30 letter "Government and religion co-exist".

Feldman insists that separation of church and state was not a founding principle of our nation -- this is blatantly incorrect.

In the early days of the Republic, there were intense struggles within the state and federal governments concerning state-established religions. During the American colonial period, alliances between religion and government produced oppression and tyranny on our own shores.

By the time the U.S. Constitution was written, the secularists (such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) had won the argument against the theocrats, thus enshrining church-state separation in the First Amendment.

Judges did not make up the phrase "separation of church and state". Thomas Jefferson actually used the term in a letter he wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists of Connecticut wherein he stated that the U.S. Congress had built "a wall of separation between Church & State."

And despite the claims of the religious right, the U.S. Constitution (upon which our law is based) is a wholly secular document, just as the Founders had intended. I challenge Mr. Feldman to find a single reference anywhere in our Constitution to God, Jesus, Christianity, or the Bible. He'll be looking for a long time, because no such references exist.

The United States is the most religiously diverse nation on Earth, and we're becoming more diverse every year. We are a nation of Christians, Jews, Atheists, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Humanists, Wiccans and many others -- and we are all considered equal under our Constitution. To imply otherwise is not only historically inaccurate, but it is also an insult to the founding spirit of our great country.

Learn more about this issue by visiting the Web site of Americans United for the Separation of Church & State -- www.au.org.

Matthew Lowry

President

North Shore AU Chapter

Vernon Hills