Editor, Commonwealth:
I have never even met Vincent J. Venturini, much less do I know him. So I also don’t know his heart.
Nevertheless, although I agree with some of his points, I take serious issue with several of Vince’s (mere and unexpert) opinions expressed in the Aug. 31 paper (“Religious freedom for all”).
First, not only are, as he says, (some) “televangelists ... charlatans,” so also are the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. The main difference between those “charlatans” is that most televangelists preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, however and admittedly imperfectly. To the contrary, Sharpton, Wright, Farrakhan and their ilk espouse hatred, vengeance, retribution and violence, not the Gospel, and not even love or peace in general.
Vince also provides not a single reference or shred of evidence that, as he alleges, “right-wing evangelicals” attack the religious freedom of pagans and witches in those persons’ practice of “Witchsfest” and “Pagan Pride” worship “sessions.” Based upon Christ’s own teachings against pagans and witches, I would hope that Christian evangelicals would “attack” such practices as being of the devil and, therefore, contrary to God’s Word; not to mention, like the practice of voodoo, something that should be avoided at all costs because of the consequences of eternal damnation.
Clint Guenther
Vince also baselessly and with unashamed bias accuses the “Republican right” of having “moved into or at least acquiesced to the Christian Nationalist movement” (whatever that is). And he continues, with unabated self-appointedness, to say, “Their belief is that America is a Christian nation that exists for Christians alone.” How does he know that? Has he been one of them? I challenge Vince to produce a scintilla of evidence in support of that claim. It may be his opinion, but as they say, like a certain body part, we all have one of those.
As for his comment that those “so-called” Christians dismiss “our nation’s long-held belief in the separation of church and state,” Vince is mistaken at best, misguided at worst, and possibly even delusional. There has never been such a “belief” in this country except in the cloistered and paranoid minds of radical liberals, who, for the most part, despise Christianity and would like to see its demise and disappearance from the face of the earth.
Nowhere in the history of our nation will you find any documentation or constitutional support for such poppycock. The whole inane, if not insane, idea came from the musings of Thomas Jefferson (who, by the way, was not a Christian) expressed merely in a single letter, one of hundreds if not thousands he wrote in his lifetime. The one and only religion or “church” our “founding” forefathers opposed and constitutionally provided against was the sanctioning and establishment of a single, state-run religion or church like the one in England, known literally as “the Church of England,” which they came to America to escape.
And Christians have never maintained that Christianity is or should be established as this country’s “religion,” if for no other reason than Christians know they are citizens of another “country,” a heavenly kingdom, not of this world, and certainly not of some mere piece of ground or group of people that happen to live there.
Finally, with regard to Vince’s reference to an actual quote by that same Jefferson, “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no god,” it may not have done Jefferson any injury, but if Vince is, in fact, a Christian, as he claims to be (or at least he claims to worship in a Catholic church), then surely he knows what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said about that and about Himself in the Holy Bible: “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to (God) the Father except through me” (John 14:6); and “Now this is eternal life: that they may know You (God, the Father), the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
If, after all this time as a Catholic (and, therefore, I assume as a professing Christian), Vince does not know and believe that the words of Jesus, not Jefferson, are true, then nothing he says, has said or ever will say will amount to a hill of beans. Sadly, however, Jefferson’s words were, in fact, of eternal injury to him, as they will be to anyone else who believes such words to be true. And that’s not just my opinion, either; you can take it to the bank. That’s what God says, so argue with Him if you’d like. I’ll be glad to take bets on who’s going to win that argument.
Clint Guenther
Greenwood
