I’m sorry, but who is Walter Backstrom addressing in his article (“If believing in God is wrong, then I don’t want to be right”) on Sept. 13?

He rails on and on about secularists, and I assume atheists too, who, by definition, are indifferent to religion or simply do not believe in God.

I have lived in Washington for 60 years and have two observations on this matter. One, we tend to be a liberal state (God forgive us), and for the most part practice a “live and let live” philosophy.

And two, of the thousands of people I have met in my time here, from all walks of life, I do not know one atheist and very few secularists. I believe that most people would acknowledge a higher being that created the universe and all within. As for the left-sided “Hollywood elites” who question how God could allow the evil that has been with us since the beginning of time, it’s safe to say that one, he’s talking about less than 1 percent of our society, and two, everyone knows that God gave us free will and doesn’t micromanage our lives — something that Mr. Backstrom and the right-sided people would love to do.

The problem that so many people have with religion, especially organized religion, is the people who run them. I am sure that Mr. Backstrom has heard many times before from people who say, “If I had a nickel for everyone who was slaughtered, tortured, etc., in the name of God…” Or, perhaps, how difficult is to deal with the followers of Jesus who always seem to be broke and need our money.

For me, however, the most disdainful aspect of Mr. Backstrom’s religious beliefs are found in the tenent that God is good, God is wonderful and God should always be in our lives — provided, it’s his God. It is almost funny that he he would say we are all God’s children knowing fully the innumerable examples of religious intolerance the “right-sided” people have demonstrated time and again.

As for his previous views on the sanctity of life, I suggest he read the story of Jesus when he was questioned about a coin with Caesar’s image on it. My interpretation was that Christ was simply acknowledging the fact that we live in a temporal world when he said: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.”

Mr. Backstrom will probably say that my interpretation is wrong because I don’t belive in his God or donate to his church.

In this country, we have the freedom to enact or overturn laws. While I make no argument for or against abortion, Roe v. Wade is the law of this land and will remain so until a majority change it. The “right-sided people” make much ado about activist judges who promote their liberal beliefs, and yet have no problem believing it is God’s will to stack the Supreme Court with conservative judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade. If it stands, it is the will of the majority. “Render unto Caesar…”

Having said that, I hope that when my time is done, I will attain a heavenly reward and watch people try to explain or justify to God what they did on Earth, and that includes abortion.

Larry Ramirez

Federal Way

I wish that God would save …

I wish that God would save every child in the whole wide world…

From starvation.

From homelessness.

From being afflicted with disease.

I wish that every child in the whole wide world would never experience war.

I wish that every child in the whole wide world would have a safe and warm home, a cozy bed to sleep in at night, loving parents to tuck that child every night.

I wish that every child in the whole wide world would never go to bed hungry.

Or never cry every night because that child’s parents had been blown to bits in an air strike because of a senseless war.

If God were a loving God, wouldn’t that be so?

Karen Hedwig Backman

Federal Way