If you would like ‘one nation underneath one God,’ chances are high it will not be your faith

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Benjamin Escalona of Salinas carries a statue of Jesus Christ on a cross while attending the annual anti-abortion Walk for Life event at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco, Calif. Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019. (Photo by Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

An opponent of abortion rights carries a crucifix throughout a Stroll for Life occasion in San Francisco in 2019.
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(Jessica Christian / San Francisco Chronicle)

To the editor: Former nationwide safety advisor Michael Flynn’s proposal to have America be “one nation underneath God and one faith underneath God” is harmful, delusional, divisive and a distortion of historical past. (“No, Michael Flynn, America doesn’t need one religion,” Opinion, Nov. 20)

Moreover, simply what would that one faith be? Clearly, in Flynn’s view, it could be neither Islam nor any of the myriad religions regarded as being “Jap.” And, no matter when the time period “Judeo-Christian” was coined, it doesn’t describe one faith, however reasonably a supposed shared moral perception system.

So, does Flynn imply Catholicism or Judaism? My guess isn’t any. That leaves Protestantism. However even that contains many separate faiths whose adherents vehemently disagree about minor and main tenets of their beliefs.

Flynn is blowing a canine whistle, hoping that every one that hears him will consider that his or her faith would be the chosen one. Even my canine is aware of higher than to pay attention.

Andrew Rubin, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The colourful spiritual tradition we take pleasure in in the present day because the West’s most pious democracy exists not despite our secular custom however due to it. The tolerance, pluralism and unfettered expression we expertise are assured solely by state-sanctioned freedom of conscience.

Flynn’s Christian nation argument is engaging. Many Individuals would like an “established” state church and an implied covenant: If we revere God, He’ll defend and bless us.

However secularism has additionally added to our id as a beacon of freedom. With out an age of cause, for instance, the abolitionist motion wouldn’t have been capable of de-contextualize Scripture’s implicit sanction of slavery and segregation. The political emancipation of girls would have been forestalled, and marriage equality could be unthinkable.

Certainly, whereas Christian heritage advocates see divine windfall within the founding of the nation, secularists have fun 1776 because the delivery of a brand new type of elevated state, a society with no throne and no altar, the place human cause is ascendant. Reconciling these two impulses is a core problem of our political system.

David DiLeo, San Clemente

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To the editor: Flynn says America wants one God and one faith. Could I simply say that if his model of “faith” is the one he is promulgating, depend me out.

I may very well be flawed, however I’ve at all times lived underneath the idea that believers in God have been ethical, truth-telling, first rate folks. If anybody has “overlooked that,” it is Flynn.

I repeat: Depend me out.

Rebecca Hertsgaard, Palm Desert

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To the editor: Randall Balmer, an Episcopal priest, reminds us of makes an attempt in earlier occasions to harness perception in God into one type of expression. President Lincoln and Mike Mansfield, the Senate majority chief within the Nineteen Sixties, have been instrumental in thwarting such makes an attempt in their very own time.

I can not assist however be reminded of Germany in a time many people have been born — a time when one man mesmerized the nation towards Jews, who have been murdered in ungodly numbers.

God is simply too huge to be relegated to 1 faith. The first Modification stays America’s finest concept.

Mary Leah Plante, Los Angeles

This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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