To the editor:

Chelsea Rebman is correct. “Separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution. But she is mistaken that the founders practiced the same faith known to contemporary fundamentalists. Although some were traditional Christians, more were influenced by the Enlightenment, which saw God as pure rationality, removed from man’s daily affairs. Notice in her quote from the Continental Congress that the words “Jesus Christ” are not mentioned, but repeatedly “God” is. The founders were religious men, but never endorsed a particular religious view.

Their religion is irrelevant because they acknowledged that societies change, thus they created a system future generations could amend. For those who scream that we should not “corrupt” their original intent, keep in mind that many founders could not visualize a country without slavery, where women vote or where the western border reaches the Pacific.

America today is a multicultural nation with many diverse religions. Even if all citizens, except one, believe in “the one true God of the Bible,” they are no more justified in imposing their belief on that one man than that one man would be in imposing his beliefs on everyone else.

America enjoys a rich religious tradition because we practice separation of church and state. By contrast, in Europe, great cathedrals sit empty and are regarded as mere relics because the people have become cynical about faith, the consequence of government-sponsored religion. This struggle is not between “liberals” and “conservatives” but between those who know enough history to understand the institutional foundations that protect their spiritual freedoms and those who don’t.

Jim Leiker,

Eudora