Writings - The News & Observer

The News & Observer

July 4, 2002

Specifically religious

Edition: Final
Section: Editorial/Opinion
Page: A18

Index Terms:
Letter

Estimated printed pages: 1

Article Text:

Regarding the July 1 Op-ed page article "'Under God': as constitutional as the Constitution" by Marc Fisher:

It is disappointing to read still more hackneyed extremism in attacking the decision issued by the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Let's consider the primary religions of the world that worship one God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Not only do these religions believe in the exact same God (specifically the God of Abraham), but they also dominate nearly every country on the globe. Even if we threw in a handful of smaller monotheistic faiths for sport, it should be fairly evident that we're not pledging allegiance to some generic entity.

Now if someone wants to claim that government endorsement of the Old Testament is somehow materially different than government endorsement of a specific faith, go for it; although I think that argument would be disingenuous at best, at least we can all debate from the same set of facts.

But let's cut the cries of "the end of faith in public life," "tyranny of the minority," "political correctness run amok" and so on. Baseless vitriol is rarely a sound foundation for public policy.

T. Greg Doucette

Raleigh

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