Thursday, May 24, 2007

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, speaking at the commencement ceremony at Liberty University, decried a "growing culture of radical secularism" [news story, May 20]. He went on to say "in hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive."

Of course it is. As a history professor, Mr. Gingrich should know that because of the divisiveness of religious beliefs, even the word "God" was intentionally left out of the preamble and the Constitution. The Founding Fathers also saw fit to say, in the First Amendm ent, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus establishing a firewall between church and state.

Hail the Founding Fathers, the first "radical secularists."

BERNARD SINGER

Springfield