In George Bush and Rick Santorum's evangelical America, this system has been destroyed. In their world, as we have seen time and again, there is no public debate necessary because whichever solution is closest to their interpretation of Christianity's answer must be the "best" one by definition. To them, the messenger is more important than the message.

This narrow approach inevitably produces poor, limited "solutions" that we are all forced to accept on "faith." Over time, Christianity's teachings have inspired effective solutions to many public problems including social justice and equality, but they have also brought Roman numerals and theories suggesting that the Earth is flat and is the center of the universe.

Thankfully, other traditions have stepped in giving us Arabic numbers and independent, fact-seeking science. But how will we effectively solve the problems of tomorrow with a narrow-minded president and narrow-minded senators like Rick Santorum? Well, at least we can remove one of them from office in 2006.

Mark J. Senediak, Mt. Lebanon

Letter to the editor, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Jan 28, 2005

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