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December 16, 2019
Peter Mandell
San Francisco
Re “Secularism’s record,” Letters, Dec. 5:
Editor:
The author is taking liberties in both his language and the facts that are promoted by only the most extreme right wing of the Republican Party, and far darker forces.
First, to clarify, infanticide is illegal in the U.S. and not authorized by the legal pro-choice abortion laws in Virginia, New York or any other court-approved state laws that the “pro-birth” extremists like to term otherwise.
It is church doctrine, the very public condemnation of homosexuality, and also the blocked use of condoms – a medically proven response to the spread of AIDS – which is responsible for God knows how many millions of deaths. It’s church doctrine that is responsible for millions of unwanted pregnancies, and both the ensuing poverty that often follows as well as the increased rates of high school dropouts, illiteracy, single-parent households and abandoned children.
It’s church doctrine that in a growing number of right-wing, Republican-controlled states and their thinly disguised attempts to at best restrict and at worst completely deny a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions with the aid of her doctor.
Going further back in time, it was church doctrine which condoned the burning of witches, the excommunication and imprisonment of Galileo, pillaging of nations during the Crusades, the burning of Joan of Arc, even the forced indoctrination and destruction of many native populations around the world.
If we are going to take liberties in both the use of language and the facts to attribute credit where credit is due, let’s be “honest” about it.
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