RUST COMMENTARY: FLORIDA LETTER WRITER SEES NATION'S TIES TO CHRISTIAN FAITH

Though I prefer flying, one of the nice things about driving across country (Cape Girardeau to Florida via children and grandchildren in Charlotte, N.C., and Fayetteville, Ga.) is to be able to read a number of different newspapers.

It seems every school board is having difficulties passing bond issues to repair or replace 50-year-old buildings (or older). They're having the same arguments about the curriculum and quality of their local educations. Unemployment is at a record low.

Abortion, taxes, concealed weapons and AOL tie-ups are hot-button issues everywhere. Letters to the editor are a must read in other papers as they are in ours.

The following is one I felt worth sharing.

Founding fathers based nation on faith

Lately, I have noticed quite a few letters to the editor stating something to the effect, "The U.S. was not founded on Christianity" or "It doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution that the U.S. was to be a Christian nation. Therefore, it was not one and was not founded on Christian principles, and by golly we can sin as much as we want to and thumb our noses at the Christians and God and nobody can stop us, and we have a right to do so, so there!"

One writer insists that most of the Founding Fathers weren't Christians, but deists. How sad that we have come to such a point. Now I am one of those people who won't accept anything at face value, but question just about everything I hear or read, and so I have done some digging into this matter.

While it is certainly true the founders of our country did not establish a national religion, they did mention in the Declaration of Independence that we are endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights. While some would have us believe that "Creator" means some vague, undefinable "spirit," written evidence shows that the founders meant God. But I do not want to argue this point on my own. Let the Founding Fathers speak for themselves:

In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, our second president, wrote: "The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite...And what were the general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United. ..."

(While the country was not to force Christianity, or any religion, on anyone, it was established under the principles of Christianity).

Thomas Jefferson wrote: "My views ... are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished anyone to be, sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others."

John Adams, in his address to the military, stated: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion...Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

I think our Founding Fathers would be horrified to see what is happening in our country. The Declaration of Independence reads "...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," not life, liberty and the pursuit of selfishness or lust. And the pursuit of happiness was obviously not to be at the expense of someone else's life-because "life" was listed first! -- Jamie Pritchett, Merritt Island, Fla.

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If the idea is good it will survive defeat. It may even survive victory. -- Stephen Vincent Benet.

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In the last 20 years I've flown over Chattanooga, Tenn., and I've driven through it ... but I haven't visited it. Coming home last week I visited the downtown area, and what a pleasant surprise.

They have a new (built in 1990) aquarium which is arguably the best in the United States (very unique and informative). They have a new Children's Creative Museum, Image theater, Riverwalk and tourist center all within four blocks of each other on the Tennessee Riverfront.

The following are three brief editorial comments from the Chattanooga Free Press.

Time for Coffees, Not Paula

President Bill Clinton, the record shows, had plenty of time for 103 "coffees" for political-money contributors at the White House. He had time to entertain Indonesian political givers on many occasions. There was even time for a Chinese Communist gun dealer at the White House.

He had time for plenty of political campaign activities, as his recent successful campaign showed. And there was time for vacations and other travel.

But, Mr. Clinton's lawyer pleaded, he doesn't have a time to go to court to face charges of sexually affronting Paula Jones.

Well, most people find time to do what they want to do, and dodge the rest.

TVA And Little Cedar Mountain

Whatever it did, TVA couldn't please everyone in deciding on use of land it owns in the Little Cedar Mountain area at Nickajack Dam and Lake in Marion County.

Some people want "everything" -- except where they live -- to be "untouched by human hand." There are others who want "development" to produce economic benefits from businesses, recreation and other facilities for our growing population.

There's something to be said for both sides of those arguments. But sometimes neither is willing to yield much to the other.

TVA opted for some of each at Little Cedar Mountain. It switched some land from industrial-development designation to provide for wildlife management. And at another site it OK'd residential condominiums, a golf course and a marina. It is tiresome that some want to stop every development by suggesting some Indians may have been there many years ago. There are protective rules for Indian graves and artifacts. There are reasonable places to maintain natural forests. There are sites where development is appropriate. Those who try to make the proper distinctions manage to make virtually everyone mad.

The Good Samaritan Approach

It is "politically incorrect" these days to be critical of anyone-except conservative, white, Protestant Christians. And they are especially fair game if they are Southerners. That explains some of the smirks aimed at the Christian Coalition.

Now the Christian Coalition has announced an expansion of its programs through the Samaritan Project. But just as it was criticized previously for not going beyond politics with its concerns, now it is being criticized by the arbiters of political correctness for proposing some social programs to help disadvantaged Americans, particularly at-risk black and Hispanic youths.

The Christian Coalition plans to add ti its conservative, constitutional political themes, and its support of prayer in schools and opposition to abortion, a $10 million campaign for scholarships for children in 100 of the poorest school districts, additional funding for mandatory counseling programs, provision for states to bypass government programs to contract with effective private drug-rehabilitation programs, and counseling services for parents of young children who are considering divorce.

"For too long this movement has been ... almost exclusively a white, evangelical Republican movement with its political center of gravity in the suburbs," Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed said. "Merely cosmetic changes," sneered some critics.

It should be remembered that the Samaritan of Jesus Christ's original story stopped, despite danger and expense to himself, to help an unfortunate victim who was of a different race, different religion and different nationality-simply because he needed help.

We need more good Samaritans and fewer "politically correct" sneerers.

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Right to Die

While the whole country was fixated on the Gingrich controversy recently, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the issue of euthanasia. The predictions made over 30 years ago are coming true -- when we undermine the right to life at birth, we set the stage for the elderly, the lame and the undesirable to be killed in the name of compassion. We may win the case, but the trendline is still running against life.

In the 1920s in Germany, a new phrase began to come into general circulation -- "lives unworthy of being lived." Once German doctors and German culture accepted that idea, it paved the way for Adolph Hitler and it served as the philosophical foundation for the Holocaust. Either all life comes from God and deserves protection, or it doesn't.

America is not Germany. But we must take care not to remove those safeguards that have historically protected vulnerable lives. The oldest rule in medicine, part of the Hippocratic oath is, "First, do no harm." If our society forgets that, the so-called right to die will become a right to kill. -- Washington Update.

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With their last seven games decided by four points or less (four wins, three losses) the SEMO INDIANS basketball team is definitely in the running for the Ohio Valley conference championship . Thursday at 7:30 p.m. they play conference leader MURRAY STATE in the Show Me Center.

Recent home games have not been a relaxing experience, but it has certainly been outstanding basketball. If you want to share the emotions of the joy of victory or the agony of defeat ... be there ... GO SEMO!

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.