Madam, - Dana Rosemary Scallon's invocation of a Christian Europe (October 16th) is offensive to the millions who work and live, practising their religion or no religion, within the European Union. While European society should certainly respect and protect all religious creeds, it should favour none.
The draft constitution attempts to clarify the institutional and policy dynamic of the EU for the medium term. We should strive to ensure that the resulting legislative output has a moral and ethical underpinning, but these qualities are entirely independent of one or another form of worship.
Indeed, so much mayhem and destruction has been wrought in the name of religion - not least Christianity on the continent of Europe - that to express Europe's values in a religious context would be a retrograde and negative step. Further, as has been noted elsewhere, the actual practice of religion in Europe is much less pronounced than in it is in the Middle East or the US.
The absence of a reference to God and Christianity in the draft constitution is no threat to the European Union, as Ms Scallon claims. The inclusion of such a reference would be divisive, exclusionary and downright daft. - Yours, etc.,
GERARD ARTHURS, Lecturer in EU Affairs, Waterford Institute of Technology.
Madam, - I will not be signing Dana Rosemary Scallon MEP's petition for the inclusion of a reference to God in the European Constitution. Ethical principles do not derive from God. They derive from a belief in the value and worth of other humans as individuals with rights and responsibilities and a duty to each other.
For too long the history of Europe, and that of our own small island, was riven by internecine feuds based on hair-splitting religious differences. The authors of the US constitution wisely separated church from state, recognising the religious liberties, rights and responsibilities of those of all beliefs and of none. If we look to a new Europe built on ideals of equality, tolerance and liberty we must build it without recourse to a higher power.
People have the right to their beliefs, whatever they may be, and the responsibility to respect the beliefs of others. Europe does not need to refer to its Christian heritage to acknowledge it; it is reflected in our history, our culture and our identity, for good and for ill.
Only someone who is insecure about the value of beliefs would see the omission of a reference to God as a denial of history and Christian values. What we need is more humanity and less religiosity. - Yours, etc.,
DERMOT CASEY, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.