RELIGION: Christians have been progressive leaders
BEN GREGG; Gig Harbor
Re: “Soldiers don’t serve to protect Christianity” (letter, 11-16). It’s this writer’s secular, humanist view that insults American history. My father was also a veteran of the Korean War. He fought for our American way of life, our Christian heritage and his buddies against the secular atheists of North Korea, China and the Soviets.
President Eisenhower put “In God We Trust” on our currency to distinguish the freedom of Christian America from the oppressive, atheistic communists.
The writer bashes Christianity as oppressive when in fact it was Christians who started the abolitionist movement and the progressive social gospel which has led to what the writer states is “a more humane nation” today.
At the 1912 Progressive Party convention in which Theodore Roosevelt was nominated, the delegates sang “Onward Christian Soldiers” as they supported a platform of women’s suffrage, better working conditions, direct government aid, conservation of natural resources, among other social justice measures. Of course this movement was hijacked in the 1960s by the anti-American secularist movement under Tom Hayden, Bill Ayers, etc.
Contrary to the writer’s belief, America has always been a Christian nation as evidenced by the thousands of churches that permeate its landscape. The founding fathers decided not to prefer one Christian denomination over another in the Constitution while leaving the Capitol littered with Bible verses, including the 10 Commandments on display at the Supreme Court.
Even the few founders who were not specifically Christian had great respect for the Bible and claimed Christianity as indispensable in keeping the Republic.
