Letter: Bible is framework for constitution

Monday, Nov. 7, 2005 | 8:40 a.m.

In the Nov. 3 Las Vegas Sun, letter writer Nadia Romeo cites the Puritans to support her belief that religion should not be forced down anyone's throats. I have read that the Puritans came from Europe not only to escape the corruption of the Roman Catholic papacy and its confusion of the role of the church and the state, but also to establish a new society based on the freedom that is found in the Word of God and through following Jesus.

Romeo makes the Puritans sound as if they were anti-religious and came to America to establish some sort of society free from the rule of God. Yet, was it not the Puritans who brought with them the Bible as their moral guide and foundation for establishing that form of government designed by God, the governor of the universe? Argue all you want, but please don't alter or distort American history to support your ideas of what the separation of church and state means.

Read the writings of Washington, Madison and Benjamin Rush on the Bible being the best and main textbook for public schools. Romeo seems to think that the Bible being the supreme law of land is a "new idea." May I remind Romeo that Congress still begins every day in prayer and in the name of Jesus.

To say that Christians are forcing our religion down people's throats is a flat-out straw man (an argument based on a false premise). Every good principle contained in the Constitution was borrowed by the Framers from the blessed Word of God. So naturally, I would conclude, this nation possesses its freedoms because of the Bible and because of people like the Puritans.

Timothy Carroll

Las Vegas