LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBOX.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Religious debate goes nowhere

In response to the current discussion about whether the United States is a Christian nation, I would like to add my two cents.

The United States, in my opinion, is not a Christian nation in an official sense, as we have no state-sponsored religion. This makes us a secular nation, which is the only way to guarantee freedom of religion for all.

However, the majority of the citizens of the United States consider themselves Christians of one denomination or another. This makes us a Christian nation, though unofficially.

I do not want to argue about the religious convictions of our Founding Fathers, as none of them are around to ask. What we should take away from this debate is that religion is a personal thing and should be applied to personal situations.

We should be concentrating instead on the direction we should take as a nation that would have the most benefit for all of humanity. Arguing amongst ourselves as to what label best describes our philosophy is a good way of going absolutely nowhere.

JIM BACHELDER

Springfield

It's useful to understand evil

Should we try to explain evil? Andrew Pine (letters, Aug. 14) suggests that there is no point in attempting to understand the mindset of individuals such as Nazis, who commit evil acts.

But I think that it would be useful to explore how average German citizens of the 1930s could blindly support their leaders and participate in the invasion and bombing of other countries, in addition to the imprisonment and torture of innocent people who committed no crime against them. Maybe then we can understand today how normal, average people still blindly follow their leaders and justify supporting and participating in all kinds of invasions and atrocities.

I wonder if geological history had somehow been different, if the primordial swamps and shifting sands had never produced any significant oil under the Middle East, how things would be different today. I suspect that we would never have meddled in Iran and installed an oil-company-friendly dictator there, never have supported and armed Saddam Hussein, never have built military bases in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, supported a despotic royalty and fueled Wahhabist fundamentalism there.

In that case, I suspect we would not have been attacked on Sept. 11, we would not have invaded Iraq, we would not have arrested, tortured and killed many innocent Iraqi people, we would not have suicide bombers and roadside bombs killing our young men and women, and we would not now be asking ourselves why are these people so evil and full of hatred for us.

JOHN DONOVAN

Eugene

Sheehan story is incomplete

There are missing elements in press coverage of Cindy Sheehan. We know her son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, but we don't know when and why he enlisted in the military.

We don't know if he was angry and disillusioned about the war or if he believed he was protecting his country and helping Iraq establish a democracy. Those who served with him could tell us.

Finally, we have yet to hear from his father. Cindy and the father separated shortly after Casey's death.

Without this information, we can't tell if Cindy is honoring her son and all he stood for or dishonoring him by her actions.

DICK TAYLOR 

Eugene

Bush won't meet with Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan's son died in an unnecessary, illegal war of President George W. Bush's making. In refusing to meet Sheehan and hear her grievances, he dishonors her, the soldiers who have sacrificed for his war and the American people.

No, Sheehan is not inviting the president to speak at a contrived "town hall meeting" before a carefully screened audience of blindly loyal followers. She is an angry, distraught mother, demanding that he publicly confront accusations that he lied to lead us into war, and once there, he put our soldiers at further risk with incompetent management.

We, who believe the Iraq invasion is tragic, foolish and immoral have no illusions that President Bush will seriously consider Sheehan's concerns. To do so would be a complete about-face from the narrow-minded myopia he has consistently demonstrated throughout his presidency.

We are left to take our inspiration from Cindy Sheehan and continue to raise our voices until there will be too many to drown out.

PAUL CHASMAN

Waldport

LETTERS LOG

Letters received in past week: 173

Letters published: 63

What's on readers' minds: Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, helped mail volume shoot up this week. Sheehan's high-profile effort to have Bush explain the "noble cause" for which her son, Casey, died in Iraq prompted an outpouring of local support. Also, letter writers continued to debate whether the United States was founded as a Christian nation and whether intelligent design should be taught alongside evolutionary biology in high school science classes.