Letter: Linking abortion to loss of school prayer is unfair

Cale Judd, author of "We need to do better to stop abortion," Jan. 15 letter to the editor, ties the demise of school prayer to Roe v. Wade. Judd is wrong.

When I was a lad, we said the Lord's Prayer and read the 23rd Psalm at public school, John Eaton Elementary School in Washington, DC. This ritual did nothing for my buds and me; we were all as wild as the hair on a hound's ass.

My first baptism didn't take either (all Mormon kids get baptized at age 8). All that school prayer did was to force non-Christians to repeat Christian prayer, which made pushy Christians happy and non-Christians unhappy.

Megan Ewan wrote to you that public schools should teach about "intelligent design" and "Creation." If Ms. Ewan wants her kids to learn about old testament myths, she should send them to Sunday school. She shouldn't try to muddle science.

Pushy Christians need to quit trying to invade the secular and instead appreciate the free secular education. The French have it right on this one: Students aren't allowed to wear religious paraphernalia to school in France because the state is providing the free education.

People who believe in our secular institutions need to back-slap these fundamentalist churches that are trying to invade the secular: These churches should pay taxes on their property. They don't want to respect the secular/religious division that we've arrived at in this country. This, of course, doesn't include Catholics: The Pope recognized the veracity of evolution.

Decent people need to push back against these pushy fundamentalists.

Charles Scarfe

Yuba City