Re: Frank Bland's Nov. 28 letter, "Logical-sounding illogic," a response to Richard Larsen's Nov. 25 essay, "The republic must stand":
Let me begin to reply to Bland's letter by stating that I am a Christian and a minister. I believe that Christ is my Savior, and that the Bible is the word of God. That said, however, the legal basis of our society is not the Bible, but the Constitution.
Bland says that Larsen's arguments regarding Proposition 8 are not acceptable because the God of the Bible is "of sufficient evidence to take that God out of the realm of personal belief." Thus, laws based on the Bible are true, and all must observe them.
However, our laws in this country are based on the Constitution. In that document, the Bible is nowhere claimed as the basis of its laws. The God of the Constitution is Providence, Nature's God and The Creator, the one who, according to the Declaration of Independence, created humans (at the time, as we know, not including slaves or women as of equal rights) who are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The oath of allegiance to which new citizens swear is an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Throughout the more than 200 years of our history, we have welcomed people of all religions and of none. What religion a person claims is not relevant to their fitness to become citizens. What is relevant is that citizens identify with this society and are willing to defend it, and seek to play an active part in our society. America is a tapestry woven of a diverse set of threads drawn from all nations and cultures, brought together in the lives of men and women of every possible background, and joined together in what is perhaps the richest society in terms of its culture than any other the world has seen.
But when we claim that "our" part of the culture is more valid than another's, we diminish the greatness of our national society. The men and women who fight in Iraq and Afghanistan in our names are of every religion, and of none. They are of every color, by birth of every state, and of a number of foreign countries. Some are not yet even citizens, and yet they have offered their service toward our society. The greatest gift we can give each other and our society in this 21st century is to dedicate ourselves to this great nation, and respect the rights and desires of all others to do the same. We have learned long ago that creating division harms us as a people.
I was commissioned a Navy chaplain in 1975. My job was to minister to the troops in my command. At times that meant that I could meet their needs; at other times it meant that I connected them with chaplains of other faiths who could. At times it meant that I never saw some of them in any other than a military context. At all times, it meant respecting the individual sailor's or Marine's beliefs and choices, so long as he or she did not violate Navy regulations. That has proved to be a good model for citizenship, as well.
Perhaps a fitting "New Year's Resolution" for each of us is to reread the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States, and try and live according to our citizenship.
-- The Rev. Christine Miller, Camarillo