LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — To grow to maturity

A recent Terry Mattingly column mentioned part of the president’s commencement address in 2009 at Notre Dame, which stated, “It is beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what he asks of us.”

The word of God and I disagree.

I would like to state Christianity is not a religion, for religion is man doing things that are thought to please God. All it takes to be a Christian is a one-shot decision to believe in Jesus Christ. However, it takes consistent Bible study to learn what God has planned for us and what he asks of us. The Bible is the textbook, for it is the inerrant word of God in the original languages. There are pastors/ teachers that teach from the languages of the Bible, and if you heard the correct translation of the first two verses of Genesis, I think you would be amazed.

All the teachers I have listened to have a financial policy of grace. No charge for any material. Believers start out spiritually just like newborn babies.

We have to learn basic doctrines and move on to other Bible doctrines to grow to spiritual maturity, which is the goal and God’s plan for our lives.

MARY A. AVERY

Texarkana

The operative word

In watching political campaigns over the years, I notice in the Republican campaigns, the candidates tend to brag of being the most conservative.

But in the Democratic campaigns, I have yet to see a candidate brag of being the most liberal. Wonder why? Are they ashamed of the old “L” word? Of course they are.They are trying to change it. To paraphrase Nancy Pelosi, you’ve got to elect me to see what you get.

I thought maybe the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette could get its liberalism professor, Dr. John Brummett, to explain why Democrats are ashamed of the old “L” word.

VERL G. SANDERS

Valley Springs

An ethical quandary

For comic relief, it was common practice for me to read Gene Lyons’ column. Now, John Brummett is supplying rare humor to us all.

In a recent column, he moaned about this dreary political season (read: He can see the coming onslaught by the Republicans in November), and tells about an oasis of hope on a bipartisan effort to improve ethics for Arkansas politicians.

He tells us how great it is that there is a bipartisan effort by an ethical committee to prohibit gifts to legislators, prohibit immediate employment of ex-legislators as lobbyists and prohibit direct political contributions to candidates by corporations and unions.

Here comes the humor. Where was this event held? At the home of ex-congressman Vic Snyder, who cannot be on the committee because he is now lobbying for Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Does Brummett not see the irony of a lobbyist, described by Brummett as an ethical paragon, opening his home for ethical purposes when the very act of so doing could be challenged as not ethical?

JERRY B. JACKSON

Heber Springs

Pre-conceived notions

So John Brummett, with his supercilious nose stuck high in the air, deigned to attend a Tea Party meeting. Whoop-de-doo!

Don’t you know that he went with an open mind, willing to learn what a large portion of America thinks of the present liberal regime now in control of our government? Of course not. He saw and heard only what his pre-conditioned mind had already determined about these simple-minded folk who truly love their country and are seeking ways to restore it to its former glory. I believe that in his mind they are closet racists with little or no understanding of the complexities of government and therefore need to stay home, keep their women barefoot and pregnant and above all, keep their collective mouths shut.

It is notable that on the same page with Brummett’s screed there appeared a letter from a physician from Hot Springs, who, one supposes, has a pretty good head on his shoulders, having made it through college and medical school-no feat for a dummy to accomplish-and guess what? He attended a Tea Party meeting and found it to be inspiring and that the goals and ambitions of the people present were his own as well.

The intellectuals of America are not confined to the halls of academia, liberal column writers, or the Democratic side of the congressional aisles. People of wisdom see through the thinly disguised plans of the liberal left to turn our nation, in my belief, into a socialist gulag.

WILLIAM R. CANARY

Flippin

Spiteful and divisive

OMG! The Republican’ts are getting ready to hunt with that dead dog again.

They are more than desperate to discredit Barack Obama and sidetrack his re-election efforts. Finding Eric Holder in contempt of Congress is building their platform to resurrect the Nazi-esque Ken Starr figure. They won’t have to look very far within their ranks to find another eager “special prosecutor” to begin another witch hunt as they did with Bill Clinton and the Whitewater episode. Ken Starr was a man with no moral or legal boundaries, in my opinion.

I appeal to my Republican brothers and sisters to look deep into your radical religious hearts and stop your spiteful, hateful and divisive behaviors that are destroying our country. Shame on you.

My prayer for you all is “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”

JIM WALKER

Conway

Where we could start

What has happened to the American people? They have let us get in a debt that we can never pay so long as we have high unemployment. Some of our foreign-held debt: China, $1.15 trillion in April; Japan, $1.07 trillion; Brazil, $246.7 billion. I hope we can pay the interest on these loans.

We could make a start in paying the interest by eliminating fat pensions paid to members of Congress. According to Arkansas’ U.S. Rep Tim Griffin of the 2nd District, the average pension for retired members was $40,140 per year in 2009.

I am 91 years old and ugly. I plowed up cotton during the 1929 Depression so we would produce less and get a better price for our cotton. Well, we made one bale on 19 acres we had left. The worms and drought made sure our production was reduced. My older brother sawed wood for 50 cents a day.

GEORGE JACKSON

North Little Rock