Revisit Founding Fathers' words

To the editor:

In his writings, James Madison spoke of the danger posed by mixing civil and religious authority. Madison helped frame a secular Constitution so that, in his words, "the various Christian sects, as well as Jews, Mohammedans, and infidels" would all be welcome. For you talk-radio listeners, please note that secular means neutral toward religion, suggesting separation of church and state, not godlessness as implied by Limbaugh and O'Reilly.

The ultimate evidence of Madison's wisdom came this week when evangelist Pat Robertson recklessly demanded the assassination of a foreign leader unfriendly to the Bush administration. Bitter experience taught Founding Fathers like Madison that allowing politics and religion to mix invariably leads to politics being the priority and Christian values taking a back seat. Robertson, in an ugly outburst of McCarthyism, also branded the leader a communist. Rush Limbaugh recently did the same when he branded anti-war protesters in Texas communists and mounted a vicious smear campaign against the distraught mother who has become their focal point.

Incredibly, while these confused pundits heap praise on Bush administration efforts to establish a secular government in Iraq, they insist our Founding Fathers did not want a secular government for Americans.

These men are not about faith or original American values. They are about right-wing fundamentalist power politics. Their followers need to pry themselves away from talk radio and television's hateful propaganda long enough to read the thoughts of our Founding Fathers, whose worst fears were of demagogues who would scrap our Constitution.

WILL RICHARDSON, Jackson