Letter: History shows us where theocracies lead | Opinion | yakimaherald.com – Yakima Herald-Republic

To the editor Sincere thanks to the YH-R for courageously editorializing about the dangers of theocracies and then publishing a letter about abortion, noting not all people of faith believe the soul begins at conception.

Jewish rabbis disagree with Evangelicals and others who make the poetic praise of Psalm 139 (You knit me together in my mothers womb) into a proof-text for legislating when life begins.

Many Jewish scholars understand both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud to teach the fetus is part of the mother until birth. The babys soul or spirit arrives only when the first breath is taken.

It should be deeply troubling to people of all faiths indeed, all Americans when one religious view seeks to become the law of the land, taking away from other people of faith the right to follow the teachings of their sacred texts.

Freedom of religion means nothing when one religion can impose its beliefs on society. When mere mortals attempt to enforce their theocratic beliefs on others, the result never proves to be righteous.

The result is, instead, sorrow and division. If history is any indication, theocracies tend to deteriorate into violence.

AARON COHEN

Yakima

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Letter: History shows us where theocracies lead | Opinion | yakimaherald.com - Yakima Herald-Republic