Brendan Jones – 8/18/06

This page was last updated on August 19, 2006.

Constitution protects all of us; Brendan Jones; Beaver County Times; August 18, 2006.

If you’ve read Mr. Jones’ letters, you know he doesn’t believe in religion. He not only doesn’t believe in religion, he ridicules those who do. That smacks of someone not secure in his opinion.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Dan Reeping’s Tuesday letter to the editor, ‘The traitors in our midst,’ was quite fact free and fallacy ridden.

“Unfortunately for his arguments, the Constitution guarantees due process for everyone, not just for people you agree with.”

[RWC] We’re talking about terrorists, not just people we don’t agree with. Maybe it’s just me, but I believe the Constitution allows us to treat our enemies differently then we treat a common burglar. Can we assume Mr. Jones believes enemy combatants when captured should be read their Miranda “rights?” Should enemy deaths on the battlefield be subject to murder investigations?

“As much as I hate racists, I will fight for white supremacists’ right to exercise the First Amendment because equal application of the law means equal application.”

[RWC] In specifying “white supremacists,” does Mr. Jones mean to imply you can’t be a racist if you’re anything but white?

“I will fight for any terrorists’ right to a speedy and fair trial because that is what is guaranteed to him, no matter how despicable his actions were or could have been.”

[RWC] According to a previous letter, Mr. Jones will also “fight” for homosexual marriage.

Would Mr. Jones “fight for any terrorists’ right to a speedy and fair trial” when that terrorist is captured on the battlefield? Does the U.S Constitution now protect enemies of the United States? I ask only because Mr. Jones doesn’t specify terrorists who are U.S. citizens.

“This is not a country where certain citizens have the protection of the Constitution and others don’t, at least Franklin, Jefferson, Madison and Washington didn’t think so.”

[RWC] Why would Mr. Jones care what “Franklin, Jefferson, Madison and Washington” thought? After all, most of our Founding Fathers were religious men and Mr. Jones tells us below men of faith are infected with the “virus of religion.”

“It’s also ironic that Reeping thanks his God for the plot being foiled, but fails to realize it’s the same (Abrahamic) God the terrorists are obeying in their bombings. The Koran teaches to kill all the non-Muslims, just as the Bible teaches to kill all the non-Christians.”

[RWC] Where to begin.

I admit I’m not a Bible scholar and it’s been many years since my grade and high school religion classes, but I don’t recall learning “the Bible teaches to kill all the non-Christians.” I must have been out sick that day.

There’s also another problem. To which part of the Bible was Mr. Jones referring? If Mr. Jones was referring to the Old Testament, Christianity didn’t exist yet. If Mr. Jones was referring to the New Testament, where in the teachings of Jesus Christ do you find “kill all the non-Christians?”

“The virus of religious faith continues to live on in its hosts, infecting their children and society, and the victims don’t even know it.”

[RWC] If it’s possible, Mr. Jones is going further off the deep end. Religious faith is now a disease?