To the editor:

In response to Mr. Leiker’s letter and his comment about the founding fathers: It is important to note that our founders did not seek to take God completely out of the public sphere. Those who have read the Constitution know that separation of church and state is not a constitutional phrase.

The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This means that the government will not set up a state church or take away the people’s rights to worship God. It does not mean that the one true God should not be allowed in the public sphere. Our founders agreed that the only way for a democracy to survive was if it was grounded in the God of the Bible.

“It being the indispensable duty of all nations, not only to offer up their supplications to Almighty God, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general, and especially for great and signal interposition of his providence in their behalf.” This is the beginning of the Continental Congress Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1782, and it shows that the United States was once a place that relied on God. Hopefully one day we will return to that reliance on the one true God of the Bible.

Chelsea Rebman,

Baldwin