Some of the claims in Keith Gallagher’s letter grossly misrepresent the actual history; a more complete one tells a different story that Christians should be deeply ashamed of.

The relationship between Christianity and the U.S. government is littered with atrocity, disease, death and destruction committed by Christian leaders and followers, dating back to the 1500s. There was official sanction for centuries of efforts to kill or convert the Native American population to Christianity by any means necessary.

Christian nationalism also gave the U.S. the Confederacy and the institution of slavery that it was based on, whose leaders saw their project as based on the Christian domination it promised.

Most recently we have millions of evangelical Christians who have betrayed the principles they claim to revere because Trump (who has called for violence dozens of times) promised them power and revenge against their “enemies,” thus normalizing discrimination and violence against women and other marginalized groups.

This intolerance of many white Christians to those who do not share their supremacist views makes the call to elevate a single religion’s deity (out of many) deeply misguided..

The Constitution is not only secular, but two amendments prohibit any requirement for or endorsement of either a specific religion or religious belief in general, thus establishing the foundational principle of the separation of church and state. The most fundamental right of all here is the flip side of choosing a particular religion: to not choose that one, or to live your life with none at all.

Chris Esposito

La Grande