To the Editor – From Emil Worth, Vale
I am an 83-year-old veteran who has been a confirmed atheist for more than 70 years. In addition to my active duty years with the U.S. Army, I also worked for the Department of Defense for 26 years. In both instances, I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution even though our money displays a motto contrary to my belief regarding religion, our pledge of allegiance had been modified to include the “under god” insertion, and, I was not permitted to have atheism included on my military ID when others had religious beliefs so noted.
I believe that each person is guaranteed religious freedom. I applaud the Vale schools for neutrality as specified in the First Amendment and not emphasizing a specific religion.
The public schools should be places of education not religious indoctrination. With the large number of churches in the Vale area, a person should be able to celebrate Christmas in a number of venues away from the school.
I respect each person’s religious belief but will not support efforts to indoctrinate through public institutions. I like that we have the freedom to choose.
I am one of the amorphous “they” to whom Mrs. Johnson refers (“Vale woman takes up crusade for Christmas,” July 3 Enterprise) and I do like that America is a place where all religious beliefs are personal, permitted and not coerced. The Vale school actions are not “anti-Christian” nor do they interfere with free speech or violate the First Amendment.
Mrs. Johnson is obviously exercising her free speech rights, as am I. I agree that Christians are used to discrimination especially when their religion is cited in support of slavery, racial discrimination and treatment of native Americans. There are far more instances in the history of the United States where the Christians are the persecutor rather than the persecuted.
At present, we must vigilant of the Christian Nationalist movement which would replace our democracy with a theocracy. We only have to look to Iran to see how great that would be.
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