Constitution not about religion

Some of your readers have submitted letters accusing the president and the administration of violating religious tenets specified in the U.S. Constitution. There are no religious tenets stated in the Constitution.

The Constitution is a secular document, not a religious document. In only two articles of the Constitution is religion even mentioned, and the word “God” or “supreme being” is not anywhere in the document or in any of it’s amendments. Article VI states “ ... no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Some senators violate this article when they insist on asking questions which serve as a litmus test on abortion for anyone considered for Supreme Court Justice.

The First Amendment to the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ...” The government, therefore, is prohibited from establishing or endorsing one specific religion, or establishing the beliefs of any religion as the law of the land. The signers of the Constitution clearly implied that the U.S. was not and should not be established as a “Christian country.”

Recently, when senior church officials protested the inclusion of contraceptive coverage in the insurance coverage for their churches on the basis of their beliefs, an exception was granted and insurance contraception coverage was excluded. But these bishops also want the contraceptive exclusion extended to all their hospitals and universities that serve many who do not adhere to these beliefs. So isn’t excluding contraceptive insurance coverage to these people imposing a restriction on the “free exercise” of their beliefs?

It seems only right that when someone complains about any violation of religious tenets in the U.S. Constitution, that person should first be required to read the Constitution.

Myrna Frankel

Schaumburg