OpinionMay 10, 2017

Seth Bloomberg's letter of May 5 said that we live in a theocracy, which was referring to an editorial about a certain church discussing "taking over" Moscow.

In America, you may believe in Jesus Christ or join a church or live under a theocratic system by your choosing, and that is fine. But no one can force anyone else to do so. No government can force any religious beliefs on anyone. If you want to pray, in school or in a government building or on a street corner, go right ahead. If you want to set up churches or schools based on those beliefs, go right ahead. But you cannot force anyone else to.

America was founded by a mix of people of many different beliefs and their references to God or the Creator in their writings and clearly in our two major founding documents did not establish any one God or Creator or religion as "American."

It is sad, truly sad, in so many ways that so much effort and spirit and money and time have been spent on religious arguments under the guise of "making America (your word here) again," instead of on the solvable problems of our cities, states and country.

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Enjoy and live in the peace of Christ, if you so choose, but in no way try to codify a religious belief system into secular law. Just because many civil laws agree with the Ten Commandments, does not mean we are a Christian (or more exactly, a Hebrew) nation. People exercising beliefs different than yours are not a threat to your beliefs. But when any organization, especially a church, states publicly that they want to codify their religious belief into civil law, it must be resisted.

John P. McNamara

Pullman

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