Letters to the Editor

It's about religion The news and debate about the "faith-based" initiatives of George W. Bush and now Barack Obama would be much more honest and informative if The Inquirer and other media did not adopt language devised to obscure its true meaning ("Matters of faith," July 6). "Faith-based" means "religious"; nothing more, nothing less.

If the media simply described these programs as "religious initiatives," the reader would better understand the policy and its implications regarding government funding of religious groups. Using "faith-based" instead of "religious" is a deliberate attempt by the policy-making propagandists to obfuscate and soften objectionable policy, to which the media should not succumb. Matthew Gordon Skippack matthewgordon@yahoo.com Wrong track in Iraq The article "Barriers make Baghdad safer, but give prison feel," about walled enclaves of Sunnis and Shiites, shows we are still on the wrong track (Inquirer, July 1). We should not have gone there because there ...