Re: 'Worker of the Week' [Village News, 5/4/23]

I feel compelled to write this letter in response to something that was in the May 4 Village News. I am speaking about the “Worker of the Week” given to Jesus Christ. It is unconscionable that you would put something like this in what is supposed to be an “unbiased” newspaper that has a job to report the news, not only locally, but also news of the world. This is wrong on so many levels that I almost don’t know where to begin.

First of all, the hubris of thinking that everyone in town believes the same thing and that this is ok to print in a newspaper among the regular news is mind blowing. If you print it on a page that is specifically for local religious news, then that would make sense, but to print it as a statement in what is supposed to be a factual and unbiased document is wrong. It has no place there. Are you going to also give “Worker of the Week” to Allah, Vishnu, Zeus, Superman, etc.? No? Then this is inappropriate on every level.

I don’t write this as a statement against religious beliefs, you are entitled to what you believe. This is a country based on religious freedoms. We came to this country to escape religious persecution and that type of Fascism. What is disturbing about this, is that it feels like proselytizing, as if Christian religion is being pushed on to everyone by an agenda someone at your newspaper seems to have.

It is assumed that everyone in Fallbrook agrees. I don’t agree and I’m sure there are others in town that are uncomfortable with it also. Christian religion is not the only religion, it isn’t even the oldest, or the longest lasting, and the followers represent only 30% of the world population. Those are facts. Having said that, a newspaper that is supposed to report facts, not opinions or beliefs, should avoid religious pronouncements unless it is germane to a story being reported.

There is a reason for the separation of Church and State, or belief vs fact. Belief is not fact, it is biased, and private, and should not be in the newspaper. Belief systems should not interfere with factual systems because they are biased and impossible to prove, and if they are left as the reasoning behind how society should run, and what it should believe, then we are all in trouble.

Fallbrook Village News should be embarrassed to have included something so biased toward one belief system in the midst of factual reporting.

Marian E. Seiders