In response to “Am I Wrong About Trump?” (Letters, January): In the Dordrecht Confession of Faith, Conservative Mennonites confess that God has ordained authority for secular leaders, so we honor the government, whether Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal. Having said that, I do not believe the version of Christianity President Trump is promoting is an Anabaptist Christianity. We believe in separation of church and state; the Trump government seems to be promoting a return to a state where church and government have the same head. Church leaders invited to the White House have spoken about a God of war and the idea that peace comes through war. There is no element of nonresistance in this. I fear the current U.S. government is working from the German playbook of the 1930s, and the good that Trump is doing will deflect attention from less worthy intentions. There is a reason we do not vote and try to abstain from too much following of politics. And, certainly, world relief would better be done voluntarily by people of faith and others, through faith-based or humanitarian organizations, not taxpayer-funded means.

Osiah Horst, Cobden, Ont.

No doubt others have asked, as Joseph G. Wenger did, “Am I wrong in thinking Trump is on the right path?” Others also may think that funds of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which President Trump ended June 30, were “spent in non­sensical ways.” One can access many sources of reliable information about how USAID was helping people. Here’s one: “NPR recently spoke with women in Afghanistan, where over 200 healthcare facilities were closed after USAID funding was cut.” I recently met a young woman who was leading a USAID team helping pregnant women in Africa. Her whole team, including her, were fired, leaving these women without help. 

An Associated Press report offers this: “South Africa has been hit especially hard because of Trump’s baseless claims about the targeting of the country’s white Afrikaner minority. The country had been receiving about $400 million a year via USAID and HIV-focused PEPFAR [President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, established in 2003 by President George W. Bush]. Now that’s gone.” Also, “South Africa’s government has estimated that universities and science councils could lose about $107 million in U.S. research funding over the next five years due to aid cuts, which affect not only work on HIV but also tuberculosis — another disease with a high number of cases in the country.”

Nancy V. Lee, Madison, Wis.