Nate Kibby

To the editor:In response to Josef Keller's letter regarding preaching from the pulpit as illegal, printed on Nov. 20:First of all, there is no "separation of church and state" in the Constitution. It is not in the Bill of Rights or Declaration of Independence. It is a guaranteed right provided in the First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, that a preacher can talk about God, faith, morality in any way he or she chooses, or anywhere or at anytime. Sadly, you have been misinformed, our founding fathers didn't want a state-sponsored religion or vice versa, a church being interfered with by the government. The church can influence government, however. You see, as a christian, I cannot leave my God outside the voting booth. Where I go, he goes. Since the government influences and regulates social behaviors, it is very important to me that I know how candidates stand on issues of social policy (abortion, education, free speech, etc., etc.). The church provide religious-minded people a view on these topics. For example, a candidate may have an economic play, wouldn't I consider an opinion from an economist I see on T.V. If a candidate had a plan for Iraq, wouldn't I want the opinion from a soldier or a TV general? Contrary to your statement of a religious voting block, church goers vote both Democrat and Republican, so in the end voters have many view to balance and sift through and no one can say for certain how anyone votes or why. It's a personal matter.Personally, your viewpoint scares me, as it sounds like an attitude that would lead to the suppression of free speech. Historically, greater evils have been done to the civilian population under Godless governments who can rationalize any evil having no God (socialism, communism, China, Russia) than governments who took religious views and twisted them into crimes against humanity (Spanish Inquisition). I have observed an alarming trend, those on the left are always pushing their agenda, standing tall on their first Amendment soapbox, and yet they are the first to silence the objections of the right.Beware the sound of one hand clapping in an argument.