To the Editor:

Re “People Are Shedding Their Non secular Religion,” by Nicholas Kristof (column, Aug. 24):

Mr. Kristof writes that People’ lack of religion outcomes from non secular scandals and the dangerous habits of “charlatans” comparable to Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. The development is an issue, he argues, as a result of faith is central to our nation’s social capital. Whereas I usually share his analysis, I might add two factors.

First, People are additionally turning into much less non secular as a result of there may be zero proof to help any of the central claims non secular establishments make about God and the supernatural.

And second, what worries me isn’t that individuals are much less non secular, however that they switch their blind religion in faith and non secular leaders to charismatic politicians like Donald Trump.

Mark Okay. Cassell
Washington
The author is a professor of political science at Kent State College.

To the Editor:

Nicholas Kristof rightly describes how Christian church buildings are shedding members. However People aren’t shedding their underlying non secular and non secular beliefs; they’re defining and searching for connections to “larger powers” in different methods.

People are actually discovering new sources of which means, goal, hope and connections past themselves. In accordance with the Pew Analysis Middle, 68 p.c of religiously “unaffiliated” People nonetheless consider in God and 38 p.c pray at the very least month-to-month. Many be part of and type on-line communities of like-minded people.

Whereas Mr. Kristof decries the lack of advantages that faith has provided, comparable to “offering companionship, meals pantries” and “elevated happiness,” a few of these advantages are actually being accrued by means of different means.

Traditionally, Christianity and different religions have developed over time, and so they proceed to take action. We must always acknowledge, moderately than ignore, these new shifts and the advantages they’re offering.

Robert Klitzman
New York
The author is a professor of psychiatry at Columbia College and the writer of the forthcoming guide “Physician, Will You Pray for Me: Medication, Chaplains and Therapeutic the Entire Particular person.”

To the Editor:

Nicholas Kristof’s glorious column touches on a harmful development in American politics: the politicization of Christianity.

When the USA was based, references to Judeo-Christian values and quotations from the Bible littered the speeches of almost each United States politician. Thomas Jefferson edited his personal model of the Bible. However some distinguished Christians’ responses to crises such because the AIDS epidemic and Sept. 11, as Mr. Kristof identified, have left individuals disenchanted with the church.

This affiliation between the intense non secular proper and all of Christianity is what presents the actual risk to America’s spirituality. For faith to really return to the place it previously held within the hearts of the American individuals, it should change into bipartisan once more.

The hypocrisy of some politicians who feign religion to attain political factors could also be etched into the minds of many younger People. Taking off the partisan blinders and making faith about faith once more may help erase that picture.

George Willmott
Memphis

To the Editor:

Nicholas Kristof’s column “People Are Shedding Their Non secular Religion” might extra exactly be titled “Christians Are Shedding Their Non secular Religion,” because it offers virtually completely with American Christians.

Whereas it could be true that the variety of People who say that faith is “essential” to them has declined, that statistic fails to take into consideration the various methods synagogues and mosques, and lots of church buildings as nicely, nonetheless foster a way of which means and group.

As only one instance, my synagogue, Har Shalom in Fort Collins, Colo., sponsors a powerful Jewish schooling program for kids and adults, a extremely praised preschool and a volunteer program to assist homebound congregants, together with outreach packages to immigrants and minority teams in our metropolis.

There are non secular communities like mine all around the nation who welcome Jews, Christians, Muslims and even agnostics who might not see themselves as deeply non secular, however who pursue the values of affection and care which have historically been on the coronary heart of progressive American faith.

Rita Kissen
Fort Collins, Colo.

Driverless Taxis Aren’t Inclusive

To the Editor:

Re “Bumpy Journey for San Francisco’s Driverless Taxis” (California At the moment e-newsletter, nytimes.com, Aug. 22):

As a dad or mum and a Google Maps engineer, I’m hopeful that self-driving electrical taxis will imply safer, cleaner cities for future generations. However as a wheelchair person, I’m dismayed that the usual Waymo and Cruise automobiles on San Francisco’s streets don’t have the essential fold-down ramps that permit me trip alongside my children.

The gee-whiz pleasure is comprehensible, however regulators like California’s Public Utilities Fee could make this second about greater than tech wizardry by requiring each for-hire automobile to have disability-inclusive options which can be already normal in cities like London, like ramps, listening to loops and audio cues. They wouldn’t permit taxis with out headlights or seatbelts.

With a view to guarantee clever automobiles are really a step ahead, we should demand that they work for everybody.

Sasha Blair-Goldensohn
New York

Terrible Situations at Fulton County Jail

To the Editor:

The stories concerning the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, the place former President Donald Trump and his 18 alleged co-conspirators had been booked, describe it as horribly decrepit, overcrowded and harmful, with 4 fatalities in simply the previous month.

Why aren’t Fulton County officers like District Legal professional Fani Willis and Sheriff Patrick Labat, amongst others, devoting important time, expense and assets making an attempt to alleviate these terrible circumstances, as an alternative of preening for the cameras, attending political fund-raisers and different digressions?

They need to be ashamed that they’re incarcerating human beings in an setting that makes Rikers appear to be a summer time camp.

Marshall H. Tanick
Minneapolis

My Sufferers Are Good Folks

To the Editor:

As somebody who can be a psychologist/psychoanalyst, I learn Jamieson Webster’s “The Case In opposition to Being a Good Particular person” (Opinion visitor essay, Aug. 27) with some dismay. Whereas sympathetic to the writer’s argument concerning the vitality of delight, I’m troubled by the suggestion that what makes us good isn’t a central problem for remedy.

Most individuals I see care deeply about dwelling with integrity, with the potential to take care of others in ways in which matter. This seems with rising urgency with our additional descent right into a world marked by large inequality.

Folks in my observe additionally deliver a necessity for significant group in a time of atomization, and a longing to form causes for hope within the face of an unprocessable diploma of destructiveness towards each other and the planet.

The battle with what it means to be “a great particular person” needn’t crowd out the capability to expertise pleasure; however for most individuals, pleasure isn’t the only real measure of a significant life.

Rachel Kabasakalian-McKay
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
The author is a medical psychologist and psychoanalyst on the Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis of Philadelphia.