Dear SeacoastNH.com
Hello, I am writing in reference to a photograph that I saw on another web site that apparently originated from your web site. Evidently your company permitted a political group called "Presidential Prayer Team for Kids" to use a photograph of a church spire on its web site. This photograph depicts a church, apparently in New Hampshire, and the photo is inset against a photo of the Capitol building in Washington. Frankly, I think this is downright bizarre, and I'm wondering why you permitted this group to use your photograph. Does your company advocate diminishing the separation of church and state?
Chris Woodward

Dear Chris,
Thanks for your heads-up on the purloined North Church picture that appeared in Presidential Prayer Team for Kids. No, we did not authorize its use, to our knowledge, since we do not own the reprint rights. The picture is by a local artist and came to us via an email as part of a press release from the Fran Mallon Art Gallery in town. We ran it briefly in our "Top Events" section.

The picture was "borrowed", as far as we know, without permission. This happens to us a lot, although not usually from prayer groups. You’d think they would know better.

But we are impressed that the group thought to offer a credit line. That is rare. Most people simply steal images with impunity. So we have to credit this group for their honest dishonesty.

But by crediting us, as your letter shows Chris, there is an implied consent on our part. So be assured that we are not secretly members of a political propaganda group trying to push religion back into government using the Internet and the impressionable minds of children.

That raises another thorny point. Had this group come to us and asked for permission to use a picture of a church steeple from our files, would we have granted it? We don’t see why not. We have plenty of other North Church steeple pix in our archive. Heck, they shrunk it down to the size of a postage stamp (see below).

We’re certainly mindful of the power of prayer, and of the president’s great need for as much as he can muster. We are not opposed to teaching children the facts about the founding of America either. A great many of the early settlers to this nation, for example, did not come for religious freedom, and most who did, did not find it here. They certainly did not find it in 17^th century Virginia or Massachusetts, where even Christians with differing views from the governing body could be booted out of town, tortured or even killed legally. In Maryland even blacks who converted to Christianity were still legally slaves for life. Native Americans were converted then driven from their homeland. Our view of religious tolerance today is a far cry from what our forefathers called tolerance. We’ve come a long way.

The framers of our Declaration and Constitution were often not regular church goers themselves (Washington and Franklin and Jefferson, especially), but they certainly had a core of religious belief that they sought to both protect and to keep at arm’s length from government office holders. They knew full well the destruction and division that had occurred in England when the king also served as the head of the official English church.

Let’s teach our kids the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That way we can raise new generations of Americans who are wise enough to follow the spirit of our laws and not just the letter. With enough prayer, we may find ourselves in a new era of forgiveness and mutual respect. Maybe with enough spiritual guidance, we can find a kinder, safer, smarter road than the destructive path we appear to be on. And in that spirit, to those who took our steeple – hey dudes, we forgive you.