
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 26, 1993                   TAG: 9305270311
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RELIGION TEACHES OBEDIENCE

LARRY Criner (May 17 commentary, "A fight between the religious and secular"), senior editor at Sun-Myung Moon's newspaper, writes of a "culture war" between the religious and secular.

He laments the past 40 years of Supreme Court decisions prohibiting government-sponsored prayers and tax-supported religion. His first sentence reveals his real complaint: " . . . religion can no longer expect any special or privileged status." He equates religion with morality, and secularism with license and disorder. He says, "Where there is no shared spiritual awareness . . . the life of society becomes a question of force . . . " In other words, we must all be religious, or fight.

The founding fathers knew of religious wars of Europe and of persecutions here. The First Amendment was the founders' agreement that religion would not be a question of force in this country. But for a long time, it applied only at the federal level, and few challenged state laws supporting Christianity.

America has grown more religiously diverse in the past 40 years. Minorities have sued to have the legal privileges of Christianity declared unconstitutional. The court has acknowledged their logic.

Criner's equation of religion with morality is false. Religion teaches not morality but obedience. The professionally pious long to pull puppet strings. Ethics is a matter of maintaining peaceful cooperation with your neighbors, and respect for others can be taught without fairy tales. JOHN HODGES BLACKSBURG

by CNB