An open letter to state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe:

During testimony I was giving in 2005 on House Bill 1007, a bill that would have allowed the teaching of nonscience material in a science classroom, I testified to being an active Sunday school teacher in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. During your question period you (almost yelling) stated, “Your God and my God is different.”

Your tone was clear: You believed in the correct God and I believed in a false God. I told you I took that as an attack on my religious beliefs and gave you a chance to apologize, but you chose not to.

Last week, I read that you attacked and prevented Brian Sims (an elected representative) from speaking on the floor of the House. You justified this move by saying Sims was going to speak in open rebellion against God’s law and therefore could not speak on the House floor.

It is disturbing that you could legally use that argument to shut down free speech on the floor where Sims has equal rights to speak by virtue of his office — as you do.

What disturbs me more is your continued belief that you uniquely can speak and act for God as a new modern prophet. You present yourself as someone with this unique superpower of faith.

I don’t think you have any such superpower; rather, I think you cowardly hide behind your God and use your God to bully others (as you did me and now Sims — and many others along the way).

In doing so, you are a disgrace to the legislative body and to Christianity.