Keep church, state separate

Well isn’t this special. Douglas Benn (“Return to Christian roots,” April 8), thinks this is a Christian nation and tries his best to try to prove this by citing founding documents. He goes as far as to cite the preamble to the Constitution and claims it “includes the phrase, ‘our Creator has endowed us with certain inalienable rights.’” (sic)

The phrase is, “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” But it is not in the Constitution but the Declaration of Independence, a document with no legal weight. The Constitution never mentions Christians and cites in Article VI that “no religious test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or Public Trust under the United States.”

The only other place where religion is mentioned is in the Bill of Rights and in a prohibited sense: “Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion” (Amendment I, emphasis added).

Our Constitution is a secular document and our founders meant it to be like that. They knew too well how religion and government is not a good mix from hundreds of years of religious persecution and wars in Europe. Church and state … keep ‘em separate!

J.E. Hill

Kettle Falls