LETTERS to the EDITOR

Christian Teaching

What is most disturbing about the so-called Christian Evangelicals and our “Right-Wing Republicans” is how fearful they are, and how much they mislead – and are misleading — everyone else.

The Bible is not a thick, heavy book so that it can be used to bop people over the head if they don’t believe as you do. (If that were true, we’d all be dead by now.) It’s a book, first of all, with words that tell us things. Its purpose is that we should/could know God, and that God wants us to know him.

We should see that, no matter what anyone says about God, if it can’t be confirmed by the Bible it’s their words against God’s, and God wins.

The problem is, people tend to know a little bit of it and they figure they’ve “got it.” That would be like having the appetizer and concluding that they had had the whole meal. The Bible is a banquet; it could feed anyone for a lifetime, and every crumb is important.

We’ve all probably seen the “John 3:16” signs people carry. That’s OK, as far as it goes. But that’s not all there is. How many know that there are, for example, three more “John” books as well as the Book of Revelation, by John. Hmmm. What could they possibly have to say? And those books by Paul or Peter or James? — just more examples. Anything interesting? Wouldn’t everyone who considers themselves Christian want to know what God says?

When Christ fell asleep in the boat he and his disciples were in and a storm blew upon them (Mark 4:39), what did Christ do? Freak out? No! He calmed the storm! “Peace, be still.” And it became still. Shouldn’t people in the evangelical circles understand and know, at the very least, the Gospels? Shouldn’t they also know basic Christian teachings found in all of the books of John, for example. If they don’t, it’s as easy as reading the books to learn them. One does not have to wait for a Sunday sermon.

Don’t take other people’s word for the subject. Find out for yourself. You’re not just a member of a political party. You’re an individual first. You have rights and abilities. Our basic tools of reading and writing are there. We can go so much farther and higher than any group could take us. Just go for it!

Cheryl Lovely
Presque Isle, Maine

What’s a Citizen To Do?

Here’s what I’ve lately been doing with your paper. I’m making a “to-do” list for the next president’s agenda.

While reading, an issue of importance will be well defined and I’ll make a note of it. After the election, I organize these issues into groups: trade agreements, war, banking and financial reform, school funding, agriculture, taxing the rich, universal single-payer health care, workers rights and co-ops — you get the idea. Don’t forget global warming, pollution …

Then I send the list off to the president-elect as my personal “to-do” request list. Sometimes friends and neighbors sign onto the list. And, oddly, year after year, few items get checked off and have to be re-requested.

Thank you for helping to make it easy to put the “to-do” list together.

Keep up the good work,

Kali M. Kaliche
Williams, Ariz.

Three Questions

It is literally unbelievable that the presidential election results contradict what virtually all major polls have indicated for weeks.

Is it possible that a majority of voters willingly chose the fascistic rule of plutocracy?

Or could it be that the vote counting has been hacked in a half dozen swing states?

In spite of Hillary Clinton’s concession, how can the possibility of vote-count manipulation be responsibly investigated?

Bruce Joffe
Piedmont, Calif.

Reverse the Economy

Sam Uretsky’s article, “Trickle-Down: a Rich Man’s Dream but a Poor Man’s Job Creator” [11/1/16 TPP] is spot on. It’s about time that we reverse the backward, tread-worn, misunderstood economic mantra that facilitates trickle-down imagery: It’s not “supply and demand,” it’s “demand and supply.”

Not as mellifluous, perhaps, but it sure connects the two aspects of the capitalist economy more appropriately.

Robert McAllister
Lantana, Fla.

From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2016

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