Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Of course, as one of 40 million (or more) nonreligious Americans, I resent my tax money going to religious organizations, just as I suspect pacifists object to billions going for military hardware.

Still, I would be more accepting of this constitutional violation if any evidence existed, beyond the good feeling of turning troubles over to spirits, of an improved nation or world in any way, shape or form.

Religious fervor has always pushed its way into public life—on our money, in our oaths of office, in the alteration of the Pledge of Allegiance, in our movies, at our front doors.

But when presidents sanction religion with millions of tax dollars, I share Susan Jacoby’s alarm. A religious cash cow is stampeding across our secular lives! I was hoping our new president would allow this insult to reason to slip quietly into our past.

Robert Corya
Indianapolis, March 1, 2009

Note from KBJ: Did you notice how the letter writer slipped "this constitutional violation" into his letter? It would be nice if he supplied the premises for this (false) conclusion.