Dear Editor:

I was very disappointed though not terribly surprised to read the responses in the opinion section in the local paper to the situation regarding the Gideon’s at Auburn Elementary.

It does not matter what the particular religious beliefs of the person who complained are. It does not matter if she is Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, or any other belief system or lack thereof. What matters is if the school follows their own policy or not. According to their own admission, they did not.

The admission of any religious group on to any campus is a courtesy. Children come to school to be educated, not indoctrinated, and certainly not proselytized. There should be no wonder if a child will be converted at school. Religious liberty in this country applies to every person whether their beliefs align with yours or not. To act as though Logan County should be immune to this reality is to essentially remove this geography from the United States of America, because the founding fathers of this country fought to make sure that church did not decide matters of state, and state did not decide matters of church.

There is a separation for a reason. Imagine the reaction if a group of Muslim believers came to any school in the area and instead of simply making their materials available they willfully put them in the hands of your children. Understand, please, that the reaction that you might have to that idea is the same that someone who believes differently than you might have to the Gideon’s doing just that to their child.

I am a Christian, but I also recognize that this is not a “Christian Nation” - this is a nation with a whole lot of Christians in it. There is a huge difference between the two. That difference is one of the things that make this country great. It’s part of Social Contract - the agreement of mutual respect that we must all abide by to make sure that the great experiment that is the United States continues to endure.

Lee Coursey

Russellville