America founded as a Christian nation? Nothing could be further from the truth

Christian nation?

Jesus said “Do not bear false witness.” Yet people who claim to be followers of Jesus routinely bear false witness when they say America was founded as a Christian nation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Recently, the president of something called the Idaho Family Policy Center stated that biblical principles were central to the American founding. Considering that the U.S. Constitution makes no such claim, one wonders where Blaine Conzatti got his information. Most of the principal founders (e.g., Madison, Jefferson, Washington, Paine, Adams, Franklin) were deists, not Christians.

The 1796 Treaty of Tripoli, which was ratified by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams, explicitly states that “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion”.

America’s founding motto was “E Pluribus Unum” (out of one many) but in the 1950s religious zealots changed that to “in God we trust” and inserted “under God” into the secular Pledge of Allegiance.

To force Americans to abide by biblical principles would be turning America into a hellscape like Afghanistan. There are over 600 commandments in the bible and many are harsh with deadly punishments.

Gary L. Bennett, Boise

Trump and COVID

As anyone who reads the news knows, there is a growing split between Republicans and Democrats, driven in large part by former President Donald Trump. Like most Idahoans, I too am a Republican and have been for almost 60 years.

However, I saw something that disappointed but did not surprise me: In The Week magazine, I saw one of the effects of that growing political split. A Yale University study examined the recent Covid deaths of 577,659 people in the U.S., and divided them into Republicans and Democrats. The study found that “the excess deaths among Republicans were an astounding 76% higher than those among Democrats. Tellingly, the big gap opened up only after the vaccines became widely available.”

In other words, those Republicans appear to continue to listen to Donald Trump, who has been tracked by research groups to have told over 35,000 lies per year. Those Republicans seem to still believe Trump’s lies, and they are dying off.

Chas Bonner, Eagle

Party platforms

This year’s campaigns have been long on voting against inflation, immigration and crime but short on plans to address these issues. How are Idaho voters to decide which party has plans and which party is only running against Biden and Pelosi? And with all due respect, voluminous voter guides are not much help. A better way to understand the difference between the two major parties is to take a look at their platforms.

The Republican 18-page platform addresses all kinds of hot button issues like abortion. For example, “Abortion is murder from the moment of fertilization.” And “We believe Social Security must be stabilized, diversified, and privatized…”

The Democrats’ one-page platform addresses quality education, a fair economy and equity, justice, opportunity for all, health care, strengthening Democracy and protecting natural resources.

Candidates are banking on voters’ knee-jerk responses to name recognition based on colorful signs and slick TV ads calculated to trigger emotional responses. Idaho’s future is too important to be tricked by slick TV ads and by signs that crowd every available corner.

Elisabeth Ratcliff-Tate, Garden City

Sound barrier

For a long time now, those of us who live in Bristol Heights, bordering Eagle Road (Boise) have requested a sound barrier to attenuate the noise from the ever increasing traffic on Eagle Road. I discovered the following report online: Traffic Noise Technical Study, Technical Memorandum, US 20/26, Corridor Study Jct I-84 to Eagle Road, Ada and Canyon Counties, Idaho, Project No.: STP 3230 (106), ITD Key No.: 07826, December 2, 2016.

This report provided a “Noise Abatement Decision Checklist” prepared by District Engineer Greg Vitley, dated Nov. 14, 2016. That checklist approved a Barrier (Noise Abatement) for Bristol Heights, Eagle Road at a cost of $139,351. But it was never built. Why not? Most of Chinden residents were approved, some Banbury residents were disapproved. And so was Bristol Heights along Eagle Road approved. We certainly would like to see that barrier erected as soon as possible.

Bill Burns, Boise

Defend Democracy

Are we so easily influenced by social media and carefully orchestrated GOP messaging that we don’t remember the Jan. 6 violent attempt to overthrow democracy? Have we lost a friend or family member to Covid, but forget the hundreds of thousands of people who died because the former president claimed it would be over by April and suggested injecting ourselves with bleach? Do we accept politicians defending “the big lie” and refusing to accept a peaceful transfer of power? Maybe we need to remember what is at stake here. It isn’t just inflation or gas prices while oil and gas corporations are making huge profits. Ukrainians are willing to die to protect democracy. We should at least be willing to get off our couches and vote for it.

Sheila Robbins, Boise

Trump lost

I cannot understand why or how, according to the Idaho Statesman, so many Idahoans believe that Donald Trump won the last presidential election. He did win the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton had the greater number of popular votes, 3 million, but Donald Trump won the Electoral College. The day after his inauguration, the nation’s women marched in tremendous numbers, joined by many men. The Washington Mall was filled with more people for the Women’s March than had gathered to watch Donald Trump be sworn in as president. In Boise we rallied and marched in a snowstorm.

This should have told Donald Trump that he had won by a narrow margin. He should have been on his best behavior and taken heed of the advice Republican insiders gave him. Instead he became a braggart. He ruled with executive orders. He used these orders to destroy laws and policies that previous presidents, both Republican and Democratic, had set up and that Congress had voted for. Twice, impeachment proceedings were brought against him.

Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He did so because of his own foolishness.

Janelle Wintersteen, Boise