A Letter To The Editor of The Washington Post In Response To Sally Quinn's Remarks

Oct. 6, 2012 - PRLog -- A Letter To The Editor of The Washington Post In Response To Sally Quinn


Dear Editor,

The National Atheist Party would like to directly address the bigoted remarks made by Sally Quinn in The Washington Post. Her claim that “This is a religious country,” is culturally ignorant and factually inaccurate. Furthermore, her statements that “Part of claiming your citizenship is claiming a belief in God, even if you are not Christian,” reeks of the type of theocratic oppression rampant in the Muslim Middle East, and is antithetical to American’s First Amendment right to the freedom of (and from) religion.  Her disregard for the non-religious, Secular Humanist, Agnostic, Atheist, Wiccan, Buddhist, and the many other American citizens  who do not profess a belief in her Judeo-Christian god, which she incorrectly estimates to be only 15% on this country (the recent Gallup Poll shows this number as closer to 30%), is blatant bigotry.

   The National Atheist Party would like to offer Ms. Quinn a sociology and history lesson. Ms. Quinn, when you present as evidence that we have “In God We Trust” on our coins and paper currency, you are proving that you are grossly ignorant of the historical facts. This inherently divisive slogan was added to our coins in 1864 in response to a letter from a single pastor, representing only eleven churches - hardly a majority. The phrase was added to our paper currency in 1957, as one of the last desperate gasps of the McCarthyism hysteria, in reaction to communist Russia. As for the presence of “one nation under god” in our pledge, while the Supreme Court has upheld this phrase by majority vote,  Judge Stephen Reinhardt gave a  dissenting opinion, writing that "the state-directed, teacher-led daily recitation in public schools of the amended 'under God' version of the Pledge of Allegiance... violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution." It has only been upheld due to what the court felt were “patriotic reasons,” not the purported truth of that statement. These inclusions were for political reasons Ms. Quinn, not holy reasons.

   In response to Sally Quinn’s statements, Troy Boyle, President of the National Atheist Party, would like to offer a rebuttal:  "If American citizenship requires a belief in God, that requirement is strangely absent from the Constitution, which directly contravenes Ms. Quinn's statement. The Constitution, often referred to as the “Law of the Land" instead announces in Article VI, paragraph 3 that all public officials ‘shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.’ Since these public officials MUST be American citizens, there is no way that her statement is accurate."

   Ms. Quinn, your willful ignorance of our First Amendment rights, your obvious bigotry towards anyone who does not believe in your spiritual ideas, and your complete lack of understanding of political history undermines not only your journalistic integrity, but the integrity of The Washington Post as a publication.