Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Letter to the editor:

Don’t mix government and religion

Regarding Darrel Welch’s Saturday letter to the editor, headlined “A day of prayer actually isn’t such a bad thing”:

First, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment makes it clear that a second cornerstone of our secular government is freedom from religion, as far as the government is concerned. Mr. Welch is correct that in our secular lives, we are exposed to differing beliefs, however the Constitution mandates that government stand above these and favor none.

A day of prayer recognizes certain religious practices, and in the process favors those practices. This should be unconstitutional.

The problem with religion that the Founders saw, and enacted the First Amendment in response to, is that religion is corrosively divisive when government is involved, whereas what our republic needed then, and certainly needs now, is people coming together with a common cause to address the secular problems of state and country.

A country succeeds not by getting involved in religious squabbles, but by addressing the secular issues of governance, such as establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquillity, providing defense and promoting the general welfare — as mandated by the preamble to the Constitution.

Mr. Welch mentioned that in praying for help, our leaders humble themselves. That doesn’t seem to have worked very well. What we need is leaders who will, in their governance, humble themselves to the needs of the people they serve, and do whatever their practice might be in praying (or not) to their God (if any) in private.

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