In response to Steven Martens’ article regarding prayer in the public schools, on one point I agree.

One particular religion, belief or philosophy should not be “forced” on students in a public school setting.

I would, however, like to point out the general terms of Christianity and prayer. A Christian religion is one that recognizes the person of Jesus Christ to be the Messiah, the Son of God and its Lord and Savior and belief in the Trinity.

I believe prayer can be any form of meditation, contemplation or reflection. There aren’t many religions that don’t include prayer of some form, although the object of the prayers, who or what they are praying to may differ. Even the New Age Movement could be considered to have prayer in the form of meditation.

If there was a time set aside for school prayer, as far as I know, the only people who would be let out would be the people who had no one or nothing to pray to. The only group that I can think of off-hand would be the Atheists.

I believe if your religion required you to listen to whatever song you desired, that should be honored as long as you had ear phones and would not interfere with those who desired quiet meditation.

Maybe the Christian groups you singled out in your article are a little “radical” for your tastes, but whether you realize it, they are opening the way for all religions and beliefs to have a time of prayer in school if they so desire.

I would like to comment on the attention that discrimination has received in the Daily in the last weeks.

There are many more groups of people that are discriminated against than those because of the color of their skin or their ethnic origin.

People who are adopted do not have the right to know their biological parents, their ethnic origins, any genetic health problems or possibly even where they were born. They can, after they turn 18, hire a lawyer, petition a judge, try and convince him or her their reasons for knowing is worthy and hope they get an understanding judge.

A divorced person in many churches is denied the right to re-marry, sometimes even to date people who have not been married before because the dating could result in the desire to be married.

Single parents in lower-income, working families in most circumstances, are denied the right to affordable health insurance for their children.

Fathers very rarely get custody of their children in a custody battle, fathers of a child conceived out of wedlock have no rights if they want to keep the child and the mother doesn’t and even though many women are awarded child support in a court order, getting the payments are sometimes a different story.

Discrimination happens in very subtle ways in every area of life. We will not be able to change it through laws, but only when people’s hearts are changed. I could relate many references from the Bible supporting this, but I have a feeling that is not up your alley.

I wrote a letter in response to your editorial regarding the federal recognition of same sex marriages. I read quite a few responses to my letter in the editorial section, but two really were memorable.

I was accused of being a single minded bigot, having my opinions likened to an anal orifice, claims that I considered the Mormon church immoral and that I just spouted off without anything but air between my ears.

I wrote responses to those two letters specifically, yet they never appeared in the Daily. I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact I included very strong Christian references in my response?

Discrimination happens, but not all events are the result of discrimination. We should not jump to that conclusion until we know all the facts.

Some events have very reasonable and explainable facts where discrimination played no part. This world will never be perfect.

Some things will never change and we will be forced to adjust, seek alternatives or roll with the punches. The problems we face in our own little world may seem horrifying, but when you look at other places around the world, especially in Southeast Asia where fathers sell their 9-year-old daughters to pimps for $200, we should count our blessings.

Discrimination won’t be stopped by laws, only by a change in people’s hearts.

Marsha Harmon

Secretary

Iowa State