Re: Terry Paulson’s May 30 essay, “Bitter battle over judges”:

Paulson’s essay on the battle over judicial appointments reveals that Paulson has finally unsheathed his Christian sword in hopes of inculcating a 21st century crusade.

Paulson has always circuitously addressed the predominance of evangelical Christianity in his promulgation of his deeply conservative politics. In this essay, he finally laid bare how his evangelical Christianity will be deployed to proselytize our secular government.

His quotes reveal that he is not interested in dialectic polemics but instead on “converting one’s neighbor” and “preaching and presenting the Gospel.”

He leaves no rhetorical stone unturned in his inquisitional “auto-da-fe,” as denoted by the gold standard of all dyed-in-the-wool theocrats: that “freedom from religion” is rammed down their throats by liberal judges or Democratic senators.

There is a reason that the Constitution is devoid of all references to religious underpinnings and why there is no religious test for political office — and the reason for that resonates throughout Paulson’s essay.

Evangelical Christians who, by their Manichean viewpoints, insist on a religious test predicated on New Testament theology in order to anoint (sorry, I meant appoint) a member of the judiciary, are a fifth column that threatens not only American democracy, but also the freedom of religion of  all those Americans who are non-Christians.

— Marc Rogers, Thousand Oaks