Religion and Violence

* As a show of sympathy, The Times should give Roger R. Ellis a chance to clarify the miscues of his article “When Feeling Good Comes at the Expense of Doing Good” (Ventura County Perspective, May 30).

The woeful state of our public schools notwithstanding, there is something more important: our Constitution. The 4th Amendment is currently crumbling under new powers the courts have granted law enforcement. The 5th is quietly sinking into a morass caused by abuses of the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act. The 10th is getting more and more overtly ignored by the feds, and all the latest blather about “controlling” guns is casting serious doubts onto the fate of the 2nd.

The last thing America needs is an expansion of this war to the amendment that protects us from government-ordered religion.

Given another opportunity, Mr. Ellis could more forthrightly explain all the “good” that is being done by those of one religious persuasion who purge neighbors who follow another, as we see in Kosovo, Iraq and India, to name but a few. He could also dispel concerns many Americans have about a moral base that incites some God-players to bomb family planning buildings and kill doctors in their quests to save children.

If unable to do this, perhaps Mr. Ellis and other overly righteous followers of the faith could temper their beliefs with the notion that “He” who made kittens put snakes in the grass as well and that the heathens among them are not solely responsible for all the “tragic aberrations” that take place in this world.

Furthermore, they need to accept the fact that the God-fearing men who crafted America’s Constitution left any references to religion out of it for a reason. And until Roger R. Ellis or anybody else can come up with a plausible way to decide which god will be allowed in our schools, the public will be better served if they, as their savior requested, would reserve themselves to spreading the word of God instead of trying to legislate it.

BRUCE ROLAND

Ojai

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* Writer Roger R. Ellis fails to mention that the high school student in Georgia who wounded six students was a Catholic church- and youth-group-attending Boy Scout.

Many decent and concerned Christian parents and educators, devoted to instilling good moral values and character in their children, rightly deplore the amount and degree of violence and sadomasochism in our society. They fully understand and appreciate the correlation between early developmental exposure to this perverted filth and the later moral and character defects that will result.

Yet these very same good Christian role models teach their children to worship under the depiction of one of the most sadistic images known to humankind--the cross. Indeed, many even choose to wear this medieval torture symbol around their necks. Then, when one of these teenage students brings a gun to school and sprays his teachers and fellow students with deadly gunfire, these Christian role models act greatly surprised.

Christians are consumed with the imagery of torture and blood and yet they cannot see the ill effects such preoccupations have upon themselves and their children.

The ugliness and perverse nature of Christians worshiping the image of their bleeding Christ nailed to a cross strongly suggests a culture “fixated on death.” This is the phrase that Mr. Ellis applies to today’s teen culture.

Mr. Ellis, perhaps the enemy you so gallantly seek is none other than the Christian religion! Perhaps, instead, you should “reexamine your beliefs.”

CHARLOTTE POE

Somis