Sunday, July 2, 2006 | 7:42 a.m.
People who defend Brittany McComb's defiance of school authority in her graduation speech present this as a freedom of speech issue when the reality is that it is a separation of church and state issue.
The school's actions have been compared to communist censoring of religion when our democracy has just as much to fear from the rise of religious fundamentalism. In his book "American Theocracy," Kevin Phillips has said that "Ralph Reed admitted that stealth and furtiveness are tactics of the Christian Coalition. They don't like to acknowledge what it is doing or where. They want to minimize public attention to its influence and back stairs power."
The effects of religion can be seen in science, climatology, federal drug approval, biological research and disease control.
For the first time, religion is beginning to have an effect on the electoral process. Conservative evangelical churches have become the "organizational engine of the Republican Party'." Pat Robertson sent mailings to 45,000 churches telling them that "short of endorsing a candidate by name from the pulpit they were free to do almost anything." So now we have a president who believes that he was called by God to lead.
Armageddon, or the return of Christ as seen through the world view of religious fundamentalism, supports a willingness for war and an acceptance of collateral damage. "The invasion of Iraq was for them a warm-up act predicted in the Book of Revelation," according to Bill Moyers.
The ultimate goal of the religious right is to erode the separation of church and state.
Nadia Romeo, Las Vegas
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