Alpha and Omega

First published in the Brunswick Beacon, 05.14.26

The April 30 issue’s first and last letters to the editor expressed opposing views. Brian Rupp, a candidate for Brunswick County’s Board of Education, warned against public school policies “privileging religious perspectives over non-religious ones.” Walter Carolus celebrated Abraham’s willingness to obey God’s command that he sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering. How should societies deal with religious differences? There are dramatically different approaches.

Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are theocracies. Islam is their state religion, Sharia law applies, and Christians cannot openly worship. Converting from Islam to Christianity carries the death sentence.

North Korea is officially an atheist state, perhaps the most restrictive of religious freedom. It persecutes believers, especially Christians. Possessing a Bible is considered treason.

The United States takes a hands-off approach, neither imposing nor banning religion. The Founding Fathers wanted no repeat of Europe’s religious wars or our own experience with intolerance. The Pilgrims fled religious persecution only to establish a Christian theocracy in New England, bringing us the Salem Witch Trials, where 19 people were hanged.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and inspired the First Amendment, which guarantees religious freedom. Jefferson explained that it was included in the Bill of Rights to build “a wall of separation between Church & State.”

Jesus called himself “the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22:13-15). Jefferson admired Jesus’ ethical teachings, but rejected claims of his divinity. Jefferson used a razor to remove all such references from the Gospels. You can read the result by Googling, “Jefferson’s Bible.”

Jefferson had no need to change Matthew 6:5-6, because Jesus told believers to pray in private, keeping their prayers between themselves and God, unlike “the hypocrites.”

Keeping religion separate from state institutions, including public schools, frees believers and non-believers alike. It enables believers, like Mr. Carolus, to write letters asking, “Would you sacrifice your son?” while allowing non-believers to answer, “No, thank you.”

Kristine Garrity

Calabash