No guarantee of result

The recent story in the Religion section on the afterlife seems to offer great promise for everyone as we face death. Dr. Jeffrey Long, a physician and author of Evidence of the Afterlife, was said to comfort his cancer patients with the reassurance that there’s “a wonderful life after death.”

Dr. Long’s implication is that everyone will experience that wonderful life. That is not the biblical Christian perspective. Jesus said that not everyone will go to heaven, that some will go to hell. He said that he is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes to the father except through him, that only through faith in Christ as one’s savior and lord can one experience a wonderful life in heaven.

Dr. Long wants to comfort his dying patients and others about death. That is commendable. But his promise of a wonderful life for all after death implies that there is no hell and no need for faith in Christ. Dr. Long may not realize this, but it should be a warning to non-Christians who have near-death experiences that seem to indicate a wonderful life ahead of them. Satan can and will deceive.

STEPHEN L. CLARK

Little Rock

Veterans still waiting

Re Frank Oliver’s letter: I, too, have received excellent care at VA medical centers, where I see dedicated doctors and staff.

I also was a “boots on the ground” veteran in Vietnam and have filed a claim for service-connected benefits. Both U.S. senators and my U.S. congressman have been recipients of my correspondence and have likewise responded on occasion. I met with a traveling board judge from Washington, D.C., over three years ago, and still yet, I have had a claim pending for over six years now.

ROBERT JINES

Pea Ridge

Solution to problem

Re the Buffalo River hog problem: I have two ways to solve it and any future problems.

One, interested folks should form an association, solicit funds, buy the land/hog contract and end it. Two, have the Legislature (in two years) pass legislation to prohibit similar problems on Arkansas waterways.

Problem solved.

ORVILLE CLIFT

Tontitown

Fearing the skeptics

If Lonnie Craig of Greenbrier would seek the aid of a dictionary, he would discover that mental freedom and mental capacity are two different concepts. I did not question Mr. Craig’s intellectual capacity, only his refusal to use it. The moment one admits that any book or religion is too sacred to be even reasoned about, that individual becomes a mental serf to it.

A generous number of sincere and humble Christians like him are highly offended when freethinkers question their religion and suggest there are many serious flaws in their pious beliefs. When this occurs, the freethinkers are denounced as social outcasts.

Craig is baffled by the possibility that Rick Burry and I could actually have family and friends who speak to us. How condescending and presumptuous. Of course, throughout history, skeptics have been subjected to such half-baked absurdities.

I am quite certain that those who have great disdain for the skeptic do not fear them because they are a detriment to human welfare, but because they are a perceived threat to the Christian institution whose only concern is not mankind but the care and maintenance of their mythical god.

AL CASE

Enola

Self-wrought damage

Christians today seem to be getting a bum rap from the news media. Disparaging things are said about the one we consider our lord and about our application of what we consider the word of God found in our Bible. Christians should be able to deal with that. After all, Jesus told us that we would be hated by the world because the sharp contrast between what he taught and how the world lives would be evident.

However, as a Christian of over 40 years, I am of the opinion that Christians themselves often do more harm to their savior than anything said or written about him. Christianity means adhering to the teachings of a man who claimed that through his sacrifice, man would have access to God.

Following Jesus was never proposed as a political agenda to be forced upon others. Morality cannot be legislated. A person’s relationship with God is a personal matter. I do not approve of same-sex marriage because I believe the Bible specifically, in the New Testament, prohibits such relationships.

We should never attempt to force our understanding of the Bible on others. We are Christians, not the Taliban. As a Christian, I am commanded to love and treat everyone with the love God has shown to me. We are to pray for those who disagree with us, and to love them in spite of our differences of opinion.

Christians would do well to practice what they preach when dealing with others.

DANNY DRAPER

Little Rock

Meaning of the word

I have read that voters who consider themselves social conservatives are more zealous than regular people, often voting for or against a candidate based on a single issue. This makes officeholders easy pickings for forces such as the gun industry. I’m sure any Arkansas politician would be toast if he or she voted for anything opposed by the gun industry or against anything that helps them sell more products.

Single-issue zealotry is not at all “conservative,” which regular people understand as meaning careful, not given to excess, the opposite of reckless. Taking prudent measures to regulate gun ownership is conservative behavior.

I have decided to vote against any politician who does not support common-sense regulation of gun ownership. It makes me feel stupid and kind of sick to even think about being a one-issue zealot, and I don’t even believe the recent bill in Congress would make much difference after it was so watered down, but I am so disgusted with gun-industry bullying that I feel compelled to act recklessly about it.

HOWELL MEDDERS

Fayetteville

Editorial, Pages 17 on 04/27/2013