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PITTSBURG —
Dear Editor:
During the 2012 election, my campaign relied solely upon a published resume of my history and responses to questions posed by The Morning Sun and Joplin Globe. I mailed no campaign rhetoric, took no one’s money, and never once bashed “religion” or my Republican opponent, who obviously sent out a politically negative ad declaring: “Garman Bashes Religion” and “His book The Religion Commandments blatantly attacks God and religion.”
The local news, if I am correct, never mentioned LaTurner’s politically negative injection of “religion” into the recent campaign: regardless, his above assertions are false. Anyone who knows me or read my numerous letters promoting the constitutional principle of “separation between Religion and Government,” James Madison, knows I was a religion major at a Baptist university, Baylor; am a Baptist seminary graduate, M.Div.; was one of the founders of The Interfaith Alliance of Southeast Kansas, composed of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Unitarians, etc., and attend a local church.
Simply, I agree with the Founding Fathers who commanded, “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office,” Art. 6., Sec. 3., and with the First Congress which commanded, “make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” First Amendment.
Finally, “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. ... where every man ... will ... promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood. ... That is the kind of America in which I believe,” President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1960.
Politely, Mr. LaTurner is wrong.
Gene Garman
Pittsburg
Dear Editor:
During the 2012 election, my campaign relied solely upon a published resume of my history and responses to questions posed by The Morning Sun and Joplin Globe. I mailed no campaign rhetoric, took no one’s money, and never once bashed “religion” or my Republican opponent, who obviously sent out a politically negative ad declaring: “Garman Bashes Religion” and “His book The Religion Commandments blatantly attacks God and religion.”
The local news, if I am correct, never mentioned LaTurner’s politically negative injection of “religion” into the recent campaign: regardless, his above assertions are false. Anyone who knows me or read my numerous letters promoting the constitutional principle of “separation between Religion and Government,” James Madison, knows I was a religion major at a Baptist university, Baylor; am a Baptist seminary graduate, M.Div.; was one of the founders of The Interfaith Alliance of Southeast Kansas, composed of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Unitarians, etc., and attend a local church.
Simply, I agree with the Founding Fathers who commanded, “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office,” Art. 6., Sec. 3., and with the First Congress which commanded, “make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” First Amendment.
Finally, “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. ... where every man ... will ... promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood. ... That is the kind of America in which I believe,” President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1960.
Politely, Mr. LaTurner is wrong.
Gene Garman
Pittsburg
