Regarding William Lincoln’s Aug. 29 opinion letter, “Majority outweighs minority in religion,” there are two important flaws in Mr. Lincoln’s argument I feel should be addressed.

The first flaw is Mr. Lincoln’s contention that the majority’s interests should always be held above those of the minority. It is true, in fact, that the founding fathers had this idea in mind when they designed the Constitution specifically to prevent the majority from imposing its interests on the whole of the population.

The intentions of the founding fathers in this regard are crystalclear in Federalist Paper #10, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in 1788; “To secure the public good and private rights against the danger of [the majority], and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our inquiries are directed.”

The truth is that throughout history the ‘majority’ has consistently been fickle and often wrong, and that nearly all advancements in culture, economy, and science have been the work of a small minority. The instances of this phenomenon are many, but considering the majority’s slow and unwilling acceptance of ideas like a round earth and Copernicus’ heliocentric model of the solar system illustrate just how confident the majority can be in its flawed beliefs.

The second flaw in Mr. Lincoln’s argument is his interpretation of the First Amendment’s “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” To say that the phrase “respecting” a religious establishment was meant to mean “establishing” a religion is absurd. Posting the Ten Commandments in a public building is a clear endorsement of Christianity. The purpose of the First Amendment is to enforce absolute governmental neutrality toward all religions, including Christianity. Where there is an endorsement of one religion, there is a non-endorsement of another, which creates the type of disparity the Constitution is designed to prevent.

It is ironic that Mr. Lincoln writes as if the “whiny 20 percent” is a major threat to religious beliefs held by an overwhelming 80 percent of the country. I would suggest he lose the victimized tone and realize that nobody is trying to take away his rights, but simply trying to secure theirs.

Noah Stahl

Junior

Computer Engineering