Public Confidence in the Military

Had I been polled by Gallup, I would have been one of the Americans who expressed a diminished confidence in organized religion, but not for the reasons glibly assumed by Wattenberg.

I have no objections to the recent actions of the Methodists and Presbyterians concerning the arms race and South Africa. Such global statements do not in my mind constitute an endorsement of any political party, candidate or political ideology. They are actions any organization genuinely concerned about the survival of mankind should take.

The religious organizations that frighten me are the plethora of Johnny-Come-Latelys, Evangelists-cum-Entrepreneurs, who equate sanctity with multimillion-dollar fund-raising drives, and salvation with the 700 Club.

I am disturbed by those religious organizations eager to launch pogroms against minority groups, with gays as the first victims and anybody’s guess as who’s next. I’m concerned about those religious groups that are promulgating fears of witches, witchcraft and an Organized Satanist Conspiracy.

I’m worried about those religious groups that seek to expurgate from public schools many of the world’s greatest literary classics, and those that would snuff out any knowledge of humanistic thought, including men of great religious faith like Erasmus and Sir Thomas More.

I worry about those religious organizations that preach bigotry and intolerance in the name of brotherhood, and insist that programs are missiles for Jesus and that our nuclear arsenal is merely an assortment of Christian bombs.

WILLIAM JOSEPH MILLER

Lynwood