Un-American campaigns

The ISIS recruitment videos featuring Donald Trump’s call to ban all Muslims from the U.S. and Ted Cruz’s proposal to carpet-bomb enemy-controlled areas are just two examples of those Republican presidential candidates’ bigotry and disregard for innocent civilian life.

In their campaigning, Trump tries to assert his American patriotism and Cruz tries to emphasize his Christian faith. But I find their attitudes and proposals both un-American and un-Christian, portraying us as similar to ISIS, a recruitment argument for ISIS, rather than separating us from ISIS.

Although these two are the extreme, the other remaining Republican presidential candidates, with the possible exception of John Kasich, have provided similar un-American and un-Christian fodder for ISIS recruitment.

Although not evident from these Republicans, the U.S. culture does embody Christian values. However, our country’s founders were very consensual in establishing the separation of church and state. John Adams, a devout Christian, argued that mixing government with religion, Christianity in our case, would corrupt religion.

Some Republican presidential candidates’ remarks would suggest opposition to this separation concept. But certainly ISIS is the “poster child” for such prescient thinking by Adams and the other founders of our country.

Norm Luther

Spokane