The Threat From Within

Dear Editor,
    Regarding "Slippage" by Michael Ventura [“Letters at 3AM,” Feb. 18]. How ironic that America is slipping backward at an accelerated rate just as it identifies another fundamentalist religious culture as its primary threat. When populist religious interpretation reverts to the archaic and unsophisticated, a nation is in grave danger of decline. One hopes that Americans soon realize that the greatest threat actually comes from within.
    Organized religion is often used by those seeking to gain or hold power. Deeply felt, personal faith can too easily be turned against a population in order to gain the upper hand. Religious leaders dragged the Islamic culture into decline when they set about to regain control by limiting and restricting "education" to fundamentalist religious teachings. That was hundreds of years ago and that once-great culture has yet to recover. This is the future of America if it does not soon shake off control by its religious right.
    How many Americans know that "In God We Trust" is contrary to the intentions of its founding fathers who understood the importance of the separation of church and state in democratic nation building? The U.S. is turning against the very values that made its greatness possible. So much for setting an example for the Islamic world!
    Powerful empires have always been the authors of their own destruction and the U.S. is starting to exhibit all the signs of a nation in decline. One must hope – indeed, pray! – that the U.S. citizenry will recognize the threat soon enough to turn things around.