Letter: Founders’ belief in government, not God, matters

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 3:48 a.m.

In his letter of July 21, Mike Miller incorrectly implies that it was our Founders' devotion to God that made this nation great. He should do some research which would clearly show that what made this nation great is our Founders' insistence that our country not be based on gods or any other religious belief.

Miller quoted Benjamin Franklin's speech where he requested that the Constitutional Convention start each session with a prayer. But Miller conveniently fails to mention that Franklin's suggestion was turned down by the other delegates and the sessions did not start with a prayer.

James Madison represented the majority view when he said that there should not be "even a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion."

We can swap quotes forever trying to prove that a Founder was Christian or Unitarian or Deist or Atheist, but the only relevant point is that the Constitution they wrote, which is the law upon which our country is based, is god-free.

While some of our Founders may have been religious, they had the foresight to know that if we are to become a great nation, their religious beliefs must be kept completely separate from our government.

Unfortunately, some of our politicians today lack that foresight, and for the sake of being elected, pander to those who do not believe we are "one nation indivisible" but who think the 30 million non-believing Americans are not part of our nation.

MEL LIPMAN