You report: silencing religion in America

A reader, Mr. Anthony Sistrom, recently emailed me the following, which I reprint here with his permission:

Dear Philip,

In the April 23rd New Republic, literary editor Wieseltier is concerned about Muslim demands at Harvard to sound the call to prayer. Multicultural liberal that he is, he is willing to allow Chistians to 'ring the bells' at Harvard if it will ward off Muslim influence. See my letter to Wieseltier [see below].

Best, Tony

N.B. Born in 1952, Wieseltier was at Harvard for the riot of 1969.

Sistrom's letter to Wieseltier:

Friday, April 18, 2008

Dear Leon Wieseltier:

40 years ago your colleagues at Harvard were for silencing the bells. Stanley Rothman's 1982 book, The Roots of Radicalism makes it indelibly clear that the chief
motive of the majority Jewish leaders of the student protests (Michael Kazin, SDS et al) was "fear and loathing of Christianity. Your colleagues (Kinsley, Isaacson, Rich and Strossen) gathered recently at the 92nd St. Y to celebrate the Harvard riot of 1969.

In 1960 Leo Pfeffer noted that the RC Church was the most powerful political institution in America. He confided that the very sight of Catholic schoolgirls in
uniform on their way to and from school in NYC reduced him to uncontrollable anger. In 1976 the same Leo Pfeffer at a speech in Philadelphia (for the Bicentennial) would boast that the RC Church had been defeated and would henceforth play a peripheral role in public life.

Ring the bells? Too late. You successfully silenced them 40 years ago.

Kind regards, Anthony Sistrom