LETTERS

On secular hypocrisy

I recently read a letter in the newspaper in which the author decried the lawsuit by Hobby Lobby which seeks to overturn the mandatory Obamacare requirement for providing abortion coverage, which violates the owners’ religious beliefs. The letter-writer seemed to argue that permitting a private employer to decide what benefits are offered to its employees could then be extrapolated to allow the employer to force its beliefs on its employees.

Unfortunately, there is a big difference between being forced to violate your religious beliefs by a secular and repressive government and offering your employees company-paid voluntary health care.

However, I think we do not need a Supreme Court decision to see suppression of private views, as evidenced recently by the A&E network. I am sure that gentleman would have no problem with the A&E decision to punish one of the stars of the hit show Duck Dynasty for publicly expressing his belief on homosexuality. Obviously, private beliefs expressed by an employee which are politically incorrect must be suppressed. It seems the gay and lesbian community, for which I had some sympathy, has become an intolerant and hateful movement.

So is A&E’s suspension of Phil Robertson proper? Or is the real goal forcing a secular view down the throats of those religious fanatics?

DENNIS L. BOSCH Hot Springs

Mysterious creatures

Throughout human existence, there have been tales of mysterious mountain creatures, swamp creatures, sea creatures, desert creatures, forest creatures, flying creatures, and g(G)ods.

My advice to you is that if you get a knock on your door, make sure you look through your peephole before opening.

PAUL CHRIST Harrison

Free to speak, but …

I just heard on CNN that Phil Robertson’s comments against black people are really far worse than what he said about homosexual sex. Really!

I don’t want to hear what he has to say on any subject. My issues with this are twofold: that Phil Robertson is speaking as a preacher in the name of Christianity, which implies that God is on his side, and that Americans are flocking his way and are buying the Duck Dynasty goods, making him and his family multimillionaires.

It’s sad, pathetic and disturbing.

Free speech? Why aren’t we using this freedom to build people up rather than tear them down?

I know what my religion teaches me: Judge not, let God do the judging. And to treat others the way I would want to be treated.

MARIANNE BEASLEY Fayetteville

Transcends politics

Mike Jenkins, in his recent Voices letter, accused Sen. Mark Pryor of being a hypocrite because he has “a campaign ad holding and waving the Bible and claiming that he believes in God and his word.”

Jenkins continues by writing, “How can he claim to know God and his word, yet be a member of a party who supports abortion and same-sex marriage?” By his logic, apparently one can only be a Christian if one supports the Republican Party.

Funny me, I thought Christian love transcended civil and political discourse. It seems the attitude of “You can only be a Christian if you are my kind of Christian” has dealt humanity many an atrocity and no small number of wars.

It brings to mind a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” JOE JEFFERS Arkadelphia

Gift of love in hearts

As a child, I was filled with the spirit of Christmas. Who wouldn’t be excited about the prospect of a new BB gun, bike or wagon? Gifts were the extent of my young appreciation for this holiday. I was also guiltless of greed, for was this not a religious holiday based of the birth of Christ, and was I not taught to accept my gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh with humility?

As a young adult, I traded personal greed for the gift of giving, though somewhere in the back of self-conscious thought I became aware of some disparities such as the unlikelihood of a December birth for Christ and the proximity of the winter solstice, which is how you acclimate others into your religious concept.

As an older adult, I learned that the technicalities were all irrelevant, for by whatever name you have for God or whatever prophet you choose to follow, are we not all better off for the concept? And if you get right down to it, are we not all closely related in our believes?

I am not older or wiser, but now I believe the only noncommercial good of Christmas is the love of family and friends. Take this time, no matter whom you believe in, to appreciate the ones you love, for you may not be granted the chance to do so again.

And don’t let any extremist of your religion take the gift of love from your heart.

PHILLIP A. RAMBIN Bigelow

What really matters

Many Americans have become spoiled, materialistic whiners. So their Christmas packages didn’t quite get under the tree by Christmas and now they’re angry at United Parcel Service and FedEx?

Boo hoo. Give me a break.

Those companies each do a magnificent job all the time, but they don’t control the weather or the volume, and they are not responsible for the poor planning on the part of many gift-givers. So the gifts didn’t arrive-big deal! It was the time to be creative, put an IOU under the tree and have some fun with it. The world won’t end because a gift didn’t arrive.

What’s more troubling is that people have forgotten what Christmas is supposed to be about-and it’s not how many dollars’ worth of junk gets stuffed under a tree. People all over this world (and many in our own country) don’t have clean water, food, clothing, shoes nor a single gift to put under a Christmas tree even if they had one. America is the most blessed country on earth.

It’s time for people to be grateful about what we have and quit complaining about silly things that really don’t matter. So many other people would gladly wish that a late package was their biggest challenge.

JOYCE WILLIAMS North Little Rock