Antelope Valley Press

Separation of church and state

amela Caldwell sent in a letter addressing the pros and cons of separation of church and state, (“A moral code,” June 11).

Supporting her belief that accommodation is a better choice than separation, she states, “May I remind people that Bibles are allowed in federal prisons.

“Besides a religious book, it presents a moral code for living together in society. Perhaps if prisoners had Bibles in schools, they wouldn’t be in prison, but law abiding and caring citizens looking out for the rights of all.”

Federal prisons have libraries, and there are books in them including the Koran, Life of the Buddha, and Why I Am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell.

Perhaps if prisoners had read “Why I Am Not a Christian” in schools, they wouldn’t be in prison, but law abiding and caring citizens looking out for the rights of all.

Making a religious text required reading in public schools is not the same thing as allowing inmates in prison free access to library books. The former violates the principle of separation of church and state while the latter does not.

Bertrand Russell wrote, “One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.

That is the idea — that we should all be wicked if we did not hold to the Christian religion.

It seems to me that the people who have held to it have been for the most part extremely wicked.

Every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored racers, or every mitigation of slavery, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world.” Art Sirota Lancaster

OPINION

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2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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