You are here:
[Home]
-> [Separation]
-> [Articles]
-> [Allen#3]

Throughout these pages I will be adding commentary to the letters and columns by other authors.  My commentary will be in [ bracketed red text ]. - wjh

Editor:

Jack Penkethmans column opens with a misquote/misattribution. I believe that the quote is from Jefferson, not Franklin, and it goes something like this: "Those who would trade liberty for a small security will have neither."

Mr. Penkethman's column makes several sweeping generalizations regarding the positions held by 'liberals' versus 'conservatives' on various issues. I would like to take up the 'church/state separation' issue and argue against his generalization.

Separationists (those who hold strongly to the ideal of church/state separation) can be found in just about every flavor imaginable. Liberals, conservatives, athiests, christians, you name it, there we are.

I personally know liberal Catholics who argue that voucher systems such as the one recently halted in Ohio should be instituted here, giving government financial aid to parochial schools. I also personally know conservative Baptists who oppose any link between the church and the state. Look up the history of Rhode Island, and Roger Williams sometime.

Mr. Penkethman also appears to generalize what is 'conservative', associating it with Christianity. Not all conservatives are christians, not all non-christians are liberals.

The dichotomy may be more clear-cut on some of the other issues Mr. Penkethman mentioned, but at least on the issue of the Separation of Church and State, the lines between 'liberal' and 'conservative' are very blurry.

Phillip Allen
Gilroy