Letters to the Editor
O.C.L.T.D.100%
Published Letters: 5
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Here's looking at you, Kid
[Read the article: Here's looking at you, "Kid"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is more about modern art than anything else. Most people focus on her age. Not the art. Someone said, "She isn't drawing stick figures." No, she isn't drawing any figures. Nor portraits. Nor still lifes. You see, it has to be "modern art," otherwise the jig would be up. The figures would be stick figures, if she tried to do realistic art...plain old four year old stick figures.
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Fellowship
[Read the article: My Christian daughter says I'm going to hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A church is as real as a football stadium. The people in the church are as real as the players in a football game, or the fans. People worry about religion too much. They are afraid to go to church. Why? Because they would have to hold hands with "strangers" in their own community. And sing together. They could just sit at home and watch television. Not worry/pray/meditate for those who are sick or in hospital, or afflicted with addictions.
So they rationalize. There is no God. Because I cannot see him. Believers would say, you can see God all around you. Just open your eyes. Open your heart.
Somehow matter came to exist. A universe and a world were formed. The athiest says it happened, "Just because." It strikes me as more credible that a Creator was involved. If not, all matter in the universe, came from a single spot to form the "Big Bang?" Why?
To Cary and others God is real. As the football game is real. There are many bad Christians. They are wrong and annoying. They turn people away from God. Athiests cannot see the forest for the trees. There are bad trees, therefore there is no forest. That's athiesm.
No serious Christian believes that Jews or Muslims go to Hell. They have their own religion. The message of Hell is for those who reject God, their Creator. No serious Christian rejects homosexuals. The beliefs of Jesus are hard for anyone ot believe or practice. "Above all else, love each other." Very difficult, but we can at least try.
From any Christian viewpoint, the father will go to Hell. More than likely cold, not hot...the absence of God's love. This worries the daughter. But so little is asked for salvation. We are told that we are all sinners. True. But that Christ died for our sins, in order to provide us with eternal salvation. All that is required is belief, and maybe a little gratitude.
LW won't take his daughter to church because he "knows" there is no God. How arrogant. Go outside and look up at the stars tonight. Are you sure?
No one has mentioned what might happen, in fact is likely to happen, if LW goes to church with his daughter with an open mind and heart. He will enjoy himself. And he will meet other people in his community that he has never spoken with before. Hold their hands. Offer them words of peace and encouragement. Learn about their problems. Yes, that is scary, when you could be home by yourself reading the New York Times. Isolation is easy and comfortable. You see it is really just fear. Fear of fellowship.
Confront your fear and join the party.
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Come on!
[Read the article: My Christian daughter says I'm going to hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why mention Ted Haggard? If there is a bad psychiatrist, do you throw out the field of psychiatry? If you do not like what is going on with Brittney Spears, do you stop listening to music? No serious Christian argues that Ghandi is in Hell. There are many wells, but the water comes from the same source.
It more like those who reject God in this life, will be rejected by God in the afterlife. Fair is fair. Athiests want to claim Ghandifor their side. But Ghandi wasn't an athiest.
Nice try but Ghandi was on our team, not your team. Same as Anne Frank. List athiests, not people who believed in God.
I just looked at a list of athiests...not too many beloved figures.
Well, you got Woody Allen, who married his adopted daughter. Why not?
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Focus
[Read the article: My Christian daughter says I'm going to hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There are probably 150 million plus Christians in America. Maybe 200 million. Yet you choose to focus on the words of five or six? Maybe fifteen or twenty? Maybe a few hundred. And ignore the beliefs of a hundred and fifty million or so. You cannot see the forrest for the trees.
And where is all the hate and anger coming from? All the local churchs in your town? Are they really filled with haters? Really? Or is there more hate coming from the people on this message board?
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Willful Delusion
[Read the article: My Christian daughter says I'm going to hell]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Never in 35 years have I heard the word, "Hell," mentioned in Church. (Episcopalian/Protestant) Never have I heard any anti-homosexual themes mentioned. An overwhelming majority of Democrats are Christian. And a majority of liberals as well. Get it? You are tarring 85% of the population over the negative actions of a tiny, tiny minority.
Think about it. The hundreds of people you meet and see every day are not facist haters. Most Christians never think about or mention Hell. They just try to live a moral life and be kind to others.
What do you expect Cary to say? He believes in God. He believes in a soul. And that we are here for a reason. He is not an nihilist. He believes God saved him from addiction and has a place for him in Heaven. He believes his life has a greater purpose.
So LW went to the wrong place for advice if he wanted to hear how stupid and pointless is the belief in God, because he asked a believer. And the overwhelming majority of people are believers.
So to the minority, the athiests, who believe in no God, no soul, no afterlife, nothing at all. You are welcome to your views...that you will just be wormfood eventually, with no soul, no purpose, and no higher meaning, the believers will always feel sorry for you and one way or another try to convert you, so that you can share in the positive message. Our answers will never change. But maybe you will.