Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 86 Editor's Choice: 7
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@winston on Truth, and then onto other topics...
[Read the article: Psycho Christians and the media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Winston: You say that some people just hate the fact that God came to earth as a man in the form of Jesus, and you basically say that people who do not share your beliefs hate the 'truth'. Your point seems to be that you think we non-believers are aware that the story is true but choose to reject it. That perception couldn't be further from reality. I know that that is what many fundamentalist churches teach: that nonChristians 'deny' God. I can't imagine that anyone who honestly believes the Jesus story is literally true would decide to 'hate' the story and reject it while still on some level believing it. We do not accept that christianity is true/correct and then simply decide not to follow it. It's not equivalent to understanding that eating bad food, drinking too much, not exercising, smoking, etc. will cause health problems but choosing to do these things anyway. The people who reject the Jesus story reject it because they do not believe it to be true. That's it. No hatred of truth and love of lies and deception is involved. We simply believe that there is insufficient evidence to support the claims of the Bible, and we think that blind faith is not a valid way to acquire information about reality.
On to the issue at hand...
I'm glad Kamiya wrote this article - it may not be perfect, but he stated what is on the minds of many, many people. Why was Obama slammed for Rev. Wright and Louis Farakhan while McCain seems to be getting a free pass for seeking out the endorsement and support of Hagee and Parsley (his 'spiritual advisor')? Yes, some of Rev. Wrights comments were incendiary, though some of them had more than a grain of truth. And yes, I think that Farakhan is just as looney as his right-wing counter-parts. His ideas should definitely be subject to scrutiny. But Obama has publically denounced and rejected these men's points of view, over and over and over again. Also, as far as I know, Obama did not actively seek the endorsement of either one.
McCain, on the other hand, actively sought out these radical Christian preachers, not too long after he suddenly went from identifying himself as Episcopalian (mainline protestant) to Baptist (evangelical). I don't think for a minute that McCain really agrees with the outrageous things Hagee says - even lots of evangelicals reject Hagee and Parsley's ideas. But, I do think that his pandering to these guys and his unwillingness to denounce their extreme points of views shows how low he's willing to stoop to appease the religious right wing of the party.
The bigger problem that this whole controversy brings to light is the fact that there is still a large degree of reluctance to publicly criticise conservative Christianity or to take people to task for espousing these beliefs. For some reason, it's still unacceptable to apply critical thinking and scrutiny to religious ideas when the religion in question is the one espoused by the majority. (most americans are christians, even though many are not evangelical) If a person publicly advocates or presents a wacky insulting idea that is insupportable by evidence, in any area other than religion, others are typically quick to attack the idea as ridiculous and offer evidence that exposes its fallaciousness. But as soon as the nutty idea comes from mainstream religion, attacking it somehow becomes 'being disrespectful of religious sensibilities'. We have to get beyond this.
This whole conversation is one well worth having.
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how do any of you know she chose to be a single mom?
[Read the article: I'm a mom who needs more solitude]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nowhere did LW say that she chose to be a single mom. We have absolutely no information about the set of circumstances that led to her present life. Maybe she had a partner and the relationship did not work out. Maybe she had a partner who passed away. Maybe the pregnancy was the unintended result of a one night stand or a casual relationship. Maybe she did choose to become a single mom. We just don't know. So let's refrain from passing judgement on her state of single parenthood.
That said, she needs to talk with other parents and possibly a good counselor and try to come to grips with her life as it is. Regardless of her need for alone time, she has a 6 year old bundle of energy who needs her attention. Her needs don't always get to come first now that she has a kid, and being a parent of a young child seems like an exhausting job. I can imagine that her demands as a single parent seriously take away from her ability to enjoy some much-needed time to herself. She needs help, but I'm hesitant to conclude that she's a bad mom.
I'm actually glad to see this letter printed today. My husband and I only recently got married, and because we're in our 30's, our friends and family have been pestering us constantly about the need to start having children soon. The reality is that neither of us wants kids right now, and we may never want to have kids. If we change our minds, we'll be perfectly happy to adopt later. A big part of the reason we don't want kids now is that we do not want to find ourselves feeling like LW: exhausted, sleep-deprived, going crazy from noise, never having any time to ourselves, and never having time to be alone. We're both very independent and we're both introverts - especially yours truly. Too much noise drives me nuts after a while, and I have a tendency to get over-stimulated. I also need a decent amount of sleep to function. When I read the letter today, it wasn't that hard to empathize with LW. And it reinforced in my mind that we're definitely not ready for kids.
Maybe someday, but not now.