To the editor: Stunningly, I discover myself in settlement with contributing author Josh Hammer (“The American Revolution sprang not from individualism, but from the Bible,” July 3). I’ve been a card-carrying atheist because the age of 17, however readily admit that my morals and values are nearly completely based mostly on the Judeo-Christian faith.
This doesn’t imply, nonetheless, that I need to have fun the Bible on the Fourth of July. Hammer acknowledges that the founders had been “intellectually heterodox” with out stating that it was one of many deists amongst them, Thomas Jefferson, who insisted on the separation of church and state as a foundational doctrine. Equally, he castigates Third World dictators and the Chinese language authorities for his or her ethical indiscretions with out acknowledging our personal assist of slavery, the destruction of Native American tradition, the incarceration of Japanese Americans throughout World Conflict II or the obvious want of our present administration to deport any nonwhite immigrants.
With all of that stated, it’s exactly as a result of I wouldn’t have to have fun the Bible that I’m a proud American.
Maurice Smith, Carpinteria
..
To the editor: Hammer ignores the established indisputable fact that our Founding Fathers abhorred the best way during which biblical religionists in Europe for hundreds of years distorted the Bible’s message and wrought havoc, wars and cruelty upon these with differing interpretations. It’s this historical past that compelled them and even an Anglican minister, Roger Williams, to strongly advocate for establishing and sustaining a wall of separation between church and state. Paradoxically, with out secularism, range of non secular beliefs can not survive.
To the extent that there would have been biblical influences on our nation’s founders, it’s extra prone to be positioned within the humanistic citations equivalent to Leviticus 19:34, Exodus 23:9, Matthew 25:35 and 1 Peter 4:9 than in Hammer’s referring to Genesis 1:27.
Sheldon H. Kardener, Santa Monica
..
To the editor: It’s a poor historian who can not distinguish between correlation and causation, which is the case with Hammer’s current column. Thomas Jefferson, and John Locke earlier than him, didn’t suppose human equality and rights had been axiomatic due to Genesis and the overarching milieu of biblical inheritance, however as a result of 18th-century Enlightenment thinkers had analyzed man in his pure state and located the frequent denominator of human dignity and liberty. Jews and Christians can have fun that the Bible’s anthropology aligns with these conclusions, however it didn’t trigger them.
Let’s not rewrite historical past. The American Revolution and republic are based mostly on purpose, not revelation. It’s math, not mysticism.
Bruce Dickey, Costa Mesa
..
To the editor: Whereas Hammer insists that the ethical underpinning of our Declaration of Independence is derived from the Bible, he appears to overlook that, amongst different flagrant incongruities, the Bible evidently had no downside with slavery. Whereas the identical might be stated for the Founding Fathers, in time our nation did have an issue with it.
William P. Bekkala, West Hollywood
