I urge the PSO to take their politics elsewhere and give graduating students the respect they deserve. For starters, Network is basically a moderated discussion about life, the universe and everything. So when someone writes in a letter saying that she or he thinks religion is useless, Network is bound to print it because it will offend people and spark a whole bunch of replies. Individually, I agree with Giencke that religion is not all bad. Whichever light it is they have seen, these people often change their lives for the better through the help of their new beliefs.
Organized religion is another story entirely.
The idea that crime, violence and delinquency are a direct result of a lessening of the impact of religion is absolutely absurd. Whenever people group themselves according to beliefs, the hidden assumption is that everyone else is wrong. It then becomes OK to do whatever the hell you want to do to outsiders to achieve your goals because they aren't real people, they're unbelievers.