In Lewis Richards’ July 11 letter retorting Brenda Norris’ June 30 article, Mr. Richards cites the erroneous “separation” of church and state argument, which is nowhere mentioned in the First Amendment or anywhere else in the Constitution.

One must read the phrase he cites in its context: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

The First Amendment indicates that the federal government shall not establish a national church, but not that it would censor public religious expression or that the church and government could not work together. Every American colony with the exception of one supported and sustained in some form the Christian religious principles on which our country is founded. The reader should study not just the Constitution but also the Declaration of Independence.

The irony is that as a result of the faulty “separation” argument, we are on our way to creating a new national religion of atheism and secular humanism. A doubter is reminded of recent legal attempts: removing the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court building; the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives firing their chaplains; official Christian chaplains in the military being banned from using Christ’s name; banning the use of “In God We Trust” in all currency and public documents; banning “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, to name a few.

In our schools we have moved from Christmas to Holiday to Winter Concerts, children get reprimanded for saying “Merry Christmas,” talking about God or saying prayers on school grounds, get taught that the theory of evolution is fact, with no mention of creationism. In the guise of “separation of church and state,” we are denying our children their First Amendment rights of free speech and free exercise of religion and promoting state-sponsored atheism and secular humanism.

Sara Alexander

Etna