I learned much from the Daily Inter Lake’s “Make a joyful noise ....” series of letters and columns last Sunday. In fact, one can cut the expressions of Christian peace, love, understanding and tolerance emanating from those pages with a knife.

I was particularly moved by words and phrases such as “Gerry Stearns and Richard Wackrow need a ticket to North Korea” by Rita Boese of Bigfork; and “go jump,” “too dense to understand plain English,” “bigoted, stupid, moronic, and just plain blind” and “idiots” (used three times) by Doug Adams of Whitefish.

In reference to the involvement of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in this issue, the word “Wisconsin” was used by Michael Thoennes of Kalispell, Adams and Boese — as though the validity of a position taken on any issue is contingent on the location of the organization’s headquarters.

Also, before Sunday’s Inter Lake I didn’t realize that Flathead County was blessed with so many people with honorary degrees in constitutional law from the College of Glenn Beck. Cherry-picked quotes by the Founding Fathers aside, had Thomas Jefferson et al. intended the United States to be a Christian nation, they would have explicitly written words to that effect into the Constitution. They didn’t. But that was during the Enlightenment. This is now.

The issue for the Flathead Area Secular Humanist Association is that the participation by public schools in events at religious venues constitutes an endorsement of a particular religion or (group of religions in this case) — thereby subjecting students who refuse to participate to the wrath of those students who haven’t been taught the concept of religious tolerance by their parents or teachers. (And judging from the letters and columns Sunday, there has to be plenty of them.) In fact, several such cases have been brought to the attention of FASHA.

Thank God, at least one school official in Flathead County is clear on this concept. In a quick e-mail exchange, Whitefish School District Kate Orozco informed me that members of an after-school choir club were participating in the concert at the Mormon facility. No problem. In fact, several FASHA members have praised Orozco for her efforts in instilling a sense of cultural and religious tolerance in Whitefish school students.

So the truth is, behind those myopic “I’m saved, are you?” grins, and those lips uttering Bible verses and half-baked constitutional law are people who couldn’t care less about how non-Christians students are treated by their Christian peers.

Thank you all for conveying the true spirit of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ during this holiday season. You made my point.

Wackrow is a resident of Whitefish