Home
Weather
Sports
Opinion
Obituaries
Special Sections
Forums
Archive
Search
Front Page
Subscription
Services
@ugusta Help
City Guide
Classifieds
Employment
Coupons
Autos
Real Estate
Yellow Pages
Maps
Directions
Applause
Dining
Movies
Travel
Television
Lottery
Horoscopes
Net Music
Quick Cooking
Remote
Your Health
Fitness Files
JobSmart
Food & Recipes
Newspapers
in Education
Xtreme
Citizen Activist
Augusta Golf
Augusta
Magazine
Business
Chronicle
F.A.Q.
Advertise
Chronicle Staff
Chronicle Jobs
Internet Service
The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your
letters to the editor.
We condense letters; most, as published, won't exceed 300 words. A letter must include the writer's name and city, which will be published, and an address and telephone number for verification, which will not be published. Writers may be limited to one letter every 30 days. Open letters, letters to third parties and poetry are not considered. Letters from people living outside the Chronicle's circulation area usually are not considered.
|
Hits religion as solution to violence
Web posted May 15, 1999
Most letters on these pages cited the banning of state-supported prayer and Christianity from the schools. Regina Franklin (guest column, April 28), obviously a caring, dedicated teacher, eloquently expressed the view that the ``Christian community'' should respond through the schools.
She and the letter writers are dangerously wrong. Which brand of Christianity would they teach in school? There are profound differences in beliefs between Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, etc. Do we send Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. to ``alternative'' schools? Atheists probably don't deserve a school at all. The United States has the highest church attendance rate in the industrialized world and by far the highest rate of violence. The dominant religion in Japan is Shinto, yet Japan's crime rate is 0.5 percent of ours. Maybe we should teach Shinto or Zen Buddhism in our schools!
Calvinists, the Inquisition, and the Puritans used state power to kill people for their beliefs. Ethnic cleansing and sectarian violence is rife in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, India, etc. The framers of the Constitution separated church and state precisely because they saw the evils that result from backing religion with state power. The First Amendment protects us all.
The tragedy of school violence has no simple answers. As bad as the current situation is, we can certainly make it worse.
Andy C. Reese, Augusta
Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
It is natural after a horrific incident such as the slaughter in Littleton to ask why. Unfortunately, the answers we come to as individuals usually reflect our pre-existing biases. Gun control advocates blame the ready availability of guns. Those who don't like the music or movies or video games of the young think they must be the cause. The racist views of the assailants must have played their part.
