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Anyway, seeing the results of prayer is the greatest reward. Jesus said that the Father will reward you openly, so let him do all the publicity if he sees fit. This, of course, would make prayer studies totally irrelevant.

Larry Repass
Newnan, Georgia

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway's piece on civil religion during the Obama era ["Civil Religion's Sharper Teeth," April] was interesting, but she gets a couple of things wrong.

First, Hemingway misstates my position on employment and government funding. (She does not refer to me by name, but references the church-state experts on the council.) I do not oppose "the right of religious groups who receive federal funds to use religion as a hiring criterion." My concern is about religion-based employment decision-making in jobs receiving direct government aid. Thus, for example, I certainly do not believe that a Baptist group should be unable to hire a Baptist chaplain that works outside the government-funded program simply because the Baptist group also runs another program supported by a government grant.

Second, Hemingway is wrong when she says that "both of the church-state experts on Obama's new religious advisory council oppose the right of religious groups who receive federal funds to use religion as a hiring criterion." True, the initial release of 15 names included my name and David Saperstein's name with the notation church-state expert. But now we have two more church-state experts on the council: Nathan Diament of the Orthodox Union of Jewish Congregations in America, and Anthony Picarello of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They support, perhaps to varying degrees, religious organizations' ability to make religion-based employment decisions regarding government-funded jobs. And, for what it's worth, I have said many times that I'm pleased that many sides of the debate are represented on the council.

Melissa Rogers
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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July 2009, Vol. 53, No. 7