Readers React: Irvine residents deserve freedom from religion too

To the editor: I am sick of these holier-than-thou politicians warping our country to pander to the religious right. (Re “Irvine will display U.S. motto at City Hall,” July 19)

Irvine Mayor Steven Choi is quoted as claiming a duty to “remind our children how our nation has been founded on this principle” — referring to religion. He and his other misguided Irvine City Council members are promoting an oft-claimed lie that this country was founded as a theocracy.

There is no mention of religion in our Constitution except to state the crucial founding principle of church-state separation.

This bald insertion of religion into city functions is all about God, and specifically the Christian religion, to the exclusion of all other religions and, most important, non-religious citizens who are sick of having religion shoved at us and of subsidizing its tax-free status.

Mark O’Connell, Irvine

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To the editor: During the Eisenhower administration, the president and others wanted to show how godless the Soviet Union was and indicate that God was on our side. So the president and others drummed up the idea of adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance as well as formally adopting “In God We Trust” as our national motto. It was purely a Cold War ploy and had nothing to do with religion.

Unfortunately, it is now an “American tradition.”

Ray Uhler, Rancho Santa Margarita

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