Comments
OPEN LETTER -
Dear Mr. Pence,
While I am somewhat surprised to be on your mailing list, I want to tell you how flattered I am to have received your recent letter and public opinion survey about your effort, “Saving The Soul of America.” I’m amazed that you wrote to me primarily because, with one notable exception, your views and mine are as fire and ice.
You assert that a “small group of radicals” are trying to force everyone to “go along with their insane, immoral, and unbiblical agenda” while “trying to silence the vast majority of those who disagree with them.” Bluntly, that’s hypocritical nonsense. Moreover, your thesis that we can’t survive without “true Christian revival” is completely at odds with the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom.
For starters, your long letter fails to mention the fact that there is now a fully empowered White House Office of Faith. While the President somehow managed to include one Rabbi in its membership, the rest of that body is Christian and evangelical. Ignoring the entire universe of religious beliefs which makes up our citizenry isn’t just silly, it’s an overt violation of the separation of church and state. By any reasonable standard, the White House Office of Faith appears to be precisely what you claim to oppose: “radicals” are “trying to silence those who disagree with them.” That fact by itself makes your appeal weak at best, but that’s just for starters.
You’ve included a survey in your appeal. The questions in that survey are slanted, of course, but they’re also an affront to the very religious principles you claim to uphold.
“Do you believe it is a good thing for families to attend church together on Sundays?” Nothing prevents them from doing so, sir, just as nothing prevents others from attending synagogues on the Sabbath or praying in mosques every day. You know as well as do I that worshiping in America is, and has always been, perfectly acceptable; you know, or should know, that nobody is trying to prevent anybody from going to church.
“Do you believe that traditional values such as marriage” “fidelity” and “self-control are good things?” I’m pretty sure most do believe in those values, although there are certainly some who do not make any effort whatsoever to uphold them. If you doubt that, you might want to check in with the man who asked you to occupy the Vice-Presidential residence.
“Do you believe government teachers are better equipped to teach morality than parents?” What, exactly, are “Government teachers”? Are they those who, with proper credentials and considerable skill, are hired by community-based school Boards or do you mean those in government who lead, and therefore teach, by example? If it’s the latter, then No, “parents” who’ve been convicted of fraud, sexual assault and large-scale corruption aren’t better equipped.
Finally, “Would you like to see prayer put back in our schools?” Maybe you’ve been somewhat out of touch since you left office, but the fact is that, every single day in schools from coast to coast, millions of children, supported by their families, their teachers and their classmates, pray. They plead to be able to go home when the last bell rings without being shot, killed, maimed or terrorized by gunfire.
With all due respect, Mr. Pence, your agenda is entirely at odds with reality, completely out of line and – coming from a man who once took an oath to uphold and defend the constitution – sadly deficient.
I do not regret to inform you that I won’t be contributing to your campaign.
Cordially,
David M. Hamlin
PS: I must note that, in a critical moment, you made the affirmative choice to support and follow the Constitution’s framework for Presidential elections. Perhaps with a bit of self-reflection, you can do the same for true religious freedom.
(David M. Hamlin’s observations appear regularly in Citywatchla. He can be reached vis his website, www.dmhwrites.com)
