To the editor:

I’m not sure which is worse, that the Douglas County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union thinks that the separation of church and state is in the Constitution (it is not), or that the Baldwin school district caved into them concerning the minister who visited as Santa so as not to cause any additional “entanglements.”

The establishment clause of the First Amendment was only about a national denomination (you can look up the original drafts of the First Amendment and check that), and the author of the First Amendment at the same time was writing the Northwest Ordinance, which required that the Christian religion be taught in the state schools. Maybe one of your other readers will look up the Kansas Constitution to see if it was originally written with the requirements of the Northwest Ordinance. If not, it matters little since the original intent of the First Amendment is clear.

People need to stand up and defend their rights under the Constitution and not be bullied by those who would deliberately misinform them.

Stephen Latta,

Telford, Pa.