Mitt Romney’s speech on Dec. 6, addressing his Mormon religion and its relationship to faith and “freedom” in America was in dramatic contrast to the framework espoused by JFK in 1960 with respect to “the separation of church and state.” Mr. Romney’s commentary would have greatly shocked our Founding Fathers who created a Constitution that does not support the position that we are a Judeo-Christian nation and that this religious orientation is responsible for the values and “freedom” in our country. They generated a document stating that our democracy is one that is “of the people, by the people and for the people,” not “of God, by God and for God.”

Mr. Romney excluded and insulted the more than 45 million nonreligious in our nation (many of whom are atheists or agnostics) who are accused of trying to establish a negative “religion of secularism.” He fails to accept that our Constitution is indeed a secular document and the real source of our “freedom” and liberty. He fails to recognize that the document reinforces the view that our forefathers not only objected to the “divine right of kings,” but also to the “divine right of the divine” and the forceful display of a particular God and religious symbols in the public square designed to “take back the nation for Christ.”

I fear that several of our presidential candidates who feel they are viceroys of a particular God, such as Messrs. Romney and Huckabee (who want to change our Constitution to reinforce religious mandates) would destroy our country as one that endorses and encourages all religions as well as those who are nontheistic. With the strength of the Evangelican vote, the coming election will be a pivotal one for our republic as we face the possible horrendous conflict between the Judeo-Christian West and the Islamic East.

Richard E. Faust

Surry