opinion

Letters to the editor: April 1

Anti-religious right crowd and fad-driven pandering

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is essential for protecting the conscience rights of those opposed to same-sex relationships and our ability to participate in public debate. Contrary to the victim mythology promoted by same-sex activists, they seek to forcibly impose their consciously chosen lifestyles on everyone at any cost. This is done with bullying tactics which would receive the approval of ISIS. These tactics have also been aided and abetted by popular culture, the media, educational institutions, courts, governments morally compromised religious institutions.

It has occurred in cases involving Barronelle Stutzman in Washington, Elaine Huguenin in New Mexico, Crystal Dixon in Ohio, and Jennifer Keaton in Georgia. Claims that this legislation will injure Indiana’s economic climate or that of other states passing similar legislation are completely fraudulent. If true, this “injury” would have received saturation media coverage and been the subject of congressional and legislative committee investigations.

Hoosiers are capable of making sound public policy decisions without the militantly secularist bleatings of Apple CEO Tim Cook, Hollywood celebrities, and short-term popularity driven Indiana organizations such as Cummins, Eli Lilly, Emmis Communications and Angie’s List, which have lost their moral compass in pursuit of ephemeral, fad-driven pandering and appeasing group identity political proponents.

Bert Chapman

Lafayette

Gov. Pence, it’s time to just say, ‘My bad’

Dear Gov. Mike Pence, though I agree with you on few topics, I feel compelled to help you out of this mess you’ve gotten yourself, and your state, into. First: Admit you screwed up.

What you fail to understand is you can defend legislation by focusing on what you think are the favorable aspects of it. Instead, perhaps you should be looking at what this legislation represents at its worst, which is what everyone else in the country is doing. Its like touting a car you are selling for its good gas mileage and failing to mention the motor is missing.

You have two options. Kill this bill, let your ego take a beating for “Team Indiana,” and just admit it wasn’t well thought out. Your bad. Or do what everyone fears you will do and keep trying to sell this bad idea, and represent yourself and your state as the slack-jawed, prejudiced, backward folk this bill makes us look like.

David Cress

Lafayette

Take it as one man’s opinion on religious freedom

I consider myself a Christian. It is not something I can prove; it is something I believe. I believe in a book that inspires my choices on how I live my life, not to tell others how to live theirs. It serves as a model on how to be a servant to all mankind, the tax collector and the Samaritan alike.

My faith leads me to believe that God created a person, not Senate Bill 101, Section 7. As used in this chapter of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, “person” includes the following: A partnership, a limited liability company, a corporation, a company, a firm, a society, a joint-stock company, an unincorporated association, or another entity that: (A) may sue and be sued ...

My faith guides me to accept all people as they are and to understand that my beliefs may be wrong, so try to stay humble in its application to others and respectful of their beliefs.

The point of this letter is to share with my representatives that our constitutionally protected freedom of religion is designed to include and respect all persons of all faiths or the lack thereof, and not to create an avenue to disenfranchise or discriminate against a person because they do not share the same belief or live a lifestyle different from our own.

I respectfully oppose SB 101, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, because it does not protect the individual from religious intolerance; it creates an avenue to impose religious intolerance on others.

Mike French

West Lafayette

Other religious counsel on a religious freedom law

Recently a Lafayette pastor stated his support for the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act (Journal & Courier, March 26), but I’ll take my leadership from Dr. R. Scott Colglazier, a nationally known Christian leader, who wrote: “Human Rights: Religious Beliefs.”

“How sad it is when human rights are diminished in the name of religious beliefs. If, for example, we believe that Jesus calls people to love their neighbors as themselves, and if Jesus believed in welcoming the stranger, and if Jesus was about affirming the value of all human beings — men, women and children — and if Jesus believed in reaching out to the poor and called his followers to do the same, and if Jesus believed that, in the end, what makes us whole human beings is not personal achievement but God’s infinite goodness and grace, then why wouldn’t people of faith always (not sometimes) but always be on the leading edge of human rights? Right now in my home state of Indiana, the state legislature and governor (have promulgated a law), under the guise of ‘religious freedom’… that states (I’m summarizing) that if a person has a business, he or she does not have to transact business with a gay or lesbian person, because it could violate a person’s religious belief. From my perspective, there’s only one thing worse than discrimination, it’s discrimination in the name of God. Take a breath today. And if you’re so inclined, say a little prayer for the Hoosier State. After all, shouldn’t religious freedom be used to accept and not reject our neighbors?”

Richard Nelson

West Lafayette

Don’t buy that they didn’t see this coming

I’m sorry, Sen. Ron Alting and Rep. Randy Truitt, but I have to suspend belief to accept that you couldn’t see that Religious Freedom Restoration Act is primarily about some Hoosiers being legally able to discriminate against other Hoosiers who happen to be gay or lesbian.

First, this new Indiana law was written differently from the federal law and virtually all other similar state. Others knew that (besides the crafters of the bill).

Second, didn’t you know who were the real driving forces behind this law? Was it the “progressives” that a Lafayette pastor has disdainfully written about in the J&C — or the right-wing, fundamentalist, anti-gay crowd? Well, just take a look at who the governor invited to the private signing ceremony. (And, if this law was something truly needed and that which Indiana could be proud of, why was the ceremony private?)

Didn’t you know that the (oh-so-far-left) Chamber of Commerce and others in the business community came out against the law’s passage? And various religious leaders and churches?

Pure and simple, this was a law promoted to allow certain discrimination, not to protect from discrimination. This was so obvious.

This is not now an issue about dealing with the blowback (“it’s something we didn’t anticipate”), but about why there wasn’t previously a willingness to read where this was clearly coming from, understanding key differences in the proposed law and why so many, from varied streams, opposed it.

Douglas Paprocki

Lafayette

Big businesses boycotting RFRA should read that letter

To all the CEOs and leaders of big companies in Indiana protesting the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by threats of withdrawing their money making opportunities from Indiana, you need to read the letter to the editor from a young West Lafayette writer (“Don’t contribute to the problem with #boycottindiana,” J&C, March 31) to see the reality of what you are threatening.

This girl has more wisdom than all of you put together. You are making this about money. She is making it about saving the gay community. Read it and learn.

Chloe Harshman

Lafayette

Knew it was going to be bad under Gov. Pence

Looks like Gov. Mike Pence and his legislative buddies really stepped in something this time. I said that Pence would make former Gov. Mitch Daniels look like a liberal. I really was disappointed with the last election that gave conservatives a supermajority in the Indiana House. Big mistake. Team that with a tea party-supporting governor, and you have a recipe for stupid stuff. Need I say more?

Roger Daugherty

Flora

Stand your ground for Indiana’s religious freedom

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Statistics Report dated July 15, 2014, “96.6 percent of adults identified as straight, 1.6 percent identified as gay or lesbian, and 0.7 percent identified as bisexual. The remaining 1.1 percent of adults identified as ‘something else.’” Regardless of where the data comes from, the number of homosexual, bisexual or “other” never exceeds 4 percent of the total population in the U.S. So we can easily say 96 percent of the population of the U.S. is heterosexual.

So then why are we subjected, on a daily basis, to news stories about gay and lesbian rights, accomplishments, marriage or any number of other things about homosexuality? A woman wrote in a few weeks ago stating that perhaps supporters of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act recently passed and signed into law should wear “yellow armbands” like the Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany, and even suggested there was a “propaganda machine” pushing this legislation that the Nazi Reich minister of propaganda would “be proud of.”

I would suggest that if less than 4 percent of the population can bully (that’s right, I said, bully) the other 96 percent of the population using the mass media, then it is that small percentage that has the overwhelmingly excellent propaganda machine and have used it exceedingly well.

All we have is a tempest in a teapot. Stand your ground, Hoosiers. Soon the rabble rousers will shine their spotlight somewhere else. I love irrefutable statistics.

Brian Ruby

Camden

Why are we legislating religious freedom?

Our country was founded on the principle of religious freedom. Why are we legislating that?

Do unto others.

Sharon White

West Lafayette

Don’t use us as an excuse on adoption records

We are birth mothers from Indiana who relinquished our children during the state’s “closed records period.” We are writing to say just how disappointed we are that our governor’s office and some of our state legislators are using birth parents as an excuse not to pass Senate Bill 352, which would open access to birth records for adoptees.

It just goes to show how little they understand us. When we relinquished our children, we signed a document which simply said we gave up my legal right to be our children’s parents. In the closed records period from 1941 to 1993, “open” adoptions were never discussed, because they weren’t allowed. I think most of us would have loved the option for our children, if they wanted to, to contact us when they were adults.

This is what the governor is forgetting. By making it so incredibly difficult for our children to find us, he is keeping us hidden in the shadows, still.

The governor’s office testified against this bill, saying there was a “silent majority” of birth parents too afraid to come forward. Birth parents overwhelmingly want this bill. You need only look to the states where open access bills have passed and see how many birth parents exercised their rights to come forward to sign a “do not contact” form — an average of one out of every 1,429 birth parents. The silent majority is silent because it doesn’t exist.

It’s time to move SB 352 forward.

Eileen Drennen and Robin Lynn Schneidt

Lafayette

(also signed by nine other Indiana birth mothers)

Screening for autism is key between 18 and 24 months

Autism spectrum disorder affects about one in 88 children in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Autism is about four times more likely to occur in boys than girls. Currently, scientists do not know the cause of autism.

April is Autism Awareness Month. Autism spectrum disorder is a neurological and developmental disorder that usually appears during the first three years of life. Autistic children often have communication and social development problems, as well as rejecting physical contact.

Identifying autism at an early age provides the most time for effective treatment options. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children should be screened for autism spectrum disorders at the age of 18 months and 24 months. Children should be screened even if they are not currently demonstrating autism symptoms.

Treatment for autism spectrum disorders includes specialized behavioral and educational programs. These programs help teach social, motor and thinking skills. Treatment plans are developed for each child depending on his or her age, health, extent of the disorder and the parent’s preference.

Because no cause has been identified, there are no preventative measures that will lower the risk for developing an autistic disorder. If your child is exhibiting any symptoms of autism, talk to your physician. They can recommend the appropriate next steps including screening your child for autism.

Anne Marie Bianculli, MD

pediatrics, Riley Physicians, Lafayette

Let court know that we won’t stand for animal abuse

Please circle April 7, at 9:30 a.m., Superior Court 6, first floor, Tippecanoe County Courthouse, as a time and place where you want to be.

That is the date when Randy Sanders will appear for his hearing to answer charges of chronic cruelty and outrageous abuse of the seven border collies rescued from his property recently. Tippecanoe County attorney Doug Masson stated to the Journal & Courier after the rescue, “We’re asking to have those seven dogs that were seized permanently removed from him and additional relief in preventing him from having dogs on the property in the future.” A county ordinance passed last December gives the county greater latitude to punish Sanders and those like him. He also owes nearly $25,000 in fines from the previous violations of inhumane conditions, which he has also ignored.

We need strong state laws to include jail time for him and his ilk. Illinois has what is considered a “model law” outlining definitions of levels of abuse and jail time up to five years plus stiff fines. Please contact your legislators to enact similar laws so we can punish those who abuse helpless animals. As a first step, please join me at the hearing April 7, and let the judge know by our presence that we support legally severe punishment of Sanders and those like him.

Shirley Chapman

West Lafayette

What you need to do before going with charter school

Before enrolling your child in a charter school consider:

• Are corporations’ bottom line the public, children’s interests or making money?

• Have charters proven better than public schools?

• Do experts in education wholeheartedly endorse charters? If not, why not? Who is best qualified to understand your child’s education, educators and scholars who have studied assiduously for years the many aspects of education or politicians and corporate CEOs? Why are professional teachers quitting, college enrollment for prospective teachers decimated?

• Can you trust politicians who circumvent a duly elected superintendent garnering more votes than the circumventing governor emulating the policies of a disgraced Tony Bennett?

• Do you wish to promote political policies which interfere in public education, destroying public schools?

• Do you believe that teachers who may not have been thoroughly trained to teach in its many aspects, licensed by the state, often with minimal training will give superior education to those who have?

• Does an education that prepares your child as a widget for millionaire CEOs better than education that strives preparing children for a democratic society, develops their human potential while preparing them for the workplace? Compare public schools with corporate mentality.

• Do you care enough about the future of your child to educate yourself? Or do you take at face value propaganda demonizing our public schools, which have arguably made this nation great?

Begin by familiarizing yourself with Diane Ravitch. Read her blog. Study the impeccable research of “Reign of Error.” Find and study other educational experts. Then decide.

Gordon Wilder

Highland

Your turn

Submit letters to the editor of 250 words or fewer to editor@jconline.com or to 217 N. Sixth St., Lafayette, IN 47901. Please include your name, town and phone number, for confirmation purposes.