Wednesday, July 7, 1999 | 9:45 a.m.
A recent letter to the editor suggested we establish state-sponsored religious indoctrination in public schools, i.e., teaching the cultic taboos of the Christian Ten Commandments (brought down from Mt. Sinai by one of the greatest genocidal monsters in Hebrew mythology -- Moses).
I wonder what Buddhist students would think of the commandment that states "we are to have no other gods besides Jehovah." And what about the one that commands us to make no idols? I'm sure that one would go over just great with Hindus. No doubt Free Thinkers would be just thrilled being commanded to keep the Sabbath holy. Clearly, state-sponsored religion (explicit or implicit) is deeply problematical and clearly anathema to the liberal democracy our Founding Fathers envisioned.
The greatest of our Founding Fathers were deeply suspicious of organized religion and expressed this sentiment in the First Amendment of our Constitution which institutionalizes the separation of church and state.
In fact, Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, our first six presidents and our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, were not Christians. Further, the Treaty of Tripoli (1797), clearly stated in Article 11 that this country was not founded on the Christian religion. The treaty was endorsed by George Washington, signed by John Adams and ratified by the U.S. Senate without one dissenting vote.
The fantasy of this country being founded on the Christian religion is a monstrous fraud promulgated by the ignorant. Further, it's a great danger to our democracy. Goethe, with good reason, defined evil as "militant ignorance."
KELLY KRIEG
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