Proud to be a radical secularist

Newt Gingrich has given me a cool new name: radical secularist. In his May 19 Liberty University commencement address, he laid out the menace that I represent: "A growing culture of radical secularism declares that the nation cannot publicly profess the truths on which it was founded."

I recommend that people read the truths that he publicly professed and ponder the menace that he represents.

He preaches that virtue requires "true religion." According to his theory, if he didn't have his religion, he would become an uncontrolled, freethinking psychopath. Well, maybe not, but he implies that you would.

Thus, it is important to him that you "rediscover God in America" and shape up.

Mr. Gingrich says that "When someone violates the rights of another they are not merely breaking the law. They are violating God's grant of protection."

He makes it clear that we the people and our Constitution are merely quaint notions. He knows that what we really need is the truth of his religion to govern us. Under his religion our nation can vanquish those whom Jerry Falwell blamed for 9/11: the pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians.

Mr. Gingrich decries public debate on secular terms and says that "basic fairness demands that religious believers deserve a chance to be heard."

With 85 percent of the population claiming to be believers, it is absurd to claim that they aren't being heard. Mr. Gingrich is confusing being heard with being instituted. And to rectify the situation, he aims to take over the institutions. He would have our government pledge, teach, legislate and publicly profess his truth.

Many people find faith helpful in dealing with the difficult realities of life. One of those realities is that each of us has (his) own deck of divine trump cards, which makes theocracy inherently unfair. The fair option is to deal with the secular world on secular terms.

May Mr. Gingrich's God grant him the serenity to accept the existence of the world, courage to live on secular terms and wisdom to know that faith is a personal matter. Chris Habecker Thousand Oaks