Regarding Religion Has No Place In Government (The Daily News, Oct. 10).

“Everyone has some sort of faith. So, there must be a kind of faith, which, of course, must have no religious foundation,” taken from Religion and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom: Private Beliefs or Public Benefit, by Iain Benson , The Place of Religion in Modern Society.

The phrase “separation of church and state” is an American concept, to express opposition to a state-sponsored and imposed religion like the Church of England.

I really doubt the writers of the U.S. constitution intended an interpretation that religion should have no place in government or influence on the role of the state.  Great Britain escaped the terror of the French Revolution. Granted the bearded (and not so bearded) men, young and old, have propensity to exemplify bad religion. Columnist Sylvie Paillard has the freedom to express her opinion with no threat of consequences.

Our laws are based on the Ten Commandments. Without a religious influence in government, where would we be in reference to standards of moral conduct, justice, what constitutes injustice, personal rights and freedoms, the dignity of the human person, the value of human life, slavery, child labour laws, the right to vote, property rights, the treatment of widows, orphans and the poor, and the standard of love yourself and love your enemy?

RAY JONES

Kamloops