Religion, government work better separately

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I write in response to the Jan. 31 letter "Founding Fathers' words evidence of beliefs": It is a risky game to use out-of-context quotes to make a case as to the full and true Christian beliefs of our Founding Fathers. These quotes can be countered easily by a simple search of the library or Internet.

To illustrate my point consider the following, taken from a page I found on the Internet: Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to William Short: "I have examined all the known superstitions of the world and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature."

Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 states, "The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."

Madison wrote, "Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."

My bottom line is that argument by selected quotes does little to prove anything. The fact is that it makes not one iota of difference if our Founding Fathers were Christians or worshipped at the altar of Zeus, they were wise and rational men who realized that a state-supported religion was incompatible with a democracy, hence the first phrase of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." God and Jesus are not mentioned at all in the Constitution; is there a significance to that?

Lee Witten
Ogden

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