LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Light children’s path

On the first day of creation, God said let there be light. Thousands of years later, the first stars began to shine, and God said that it was good. He did not create the darkness. Darkness is the absence of light.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” By this, he meant the light which enables man to see clearly with understanding.

God did not create evil. Like darkness, it is the absence of light. Mankind quickly created evil and personified it in the devil. We have struggled with the concepts of good and evil for our entire existence.

There is no such thing as evil; there is only the absence of good. When we realize this, we will find the solutions we seek.

More laws and prisons to punish the evil ones are not the solution. When we raise our children with love, compassion and intelligence, they will naturally grow up to be good people.

Stop spending money for war, and invest in our children. Every child deserves a stable, loving, compassionate and intelligent home environment in which to grow and learn. Many children do not have that. We have created hell on Earth for them to our everlasting shame. Let the light shine in.

RUUD DuVALL

Fayetteville

Belief can’t be halted

It’s humorous that atheists apparently believe Christians mindlessly follow some unseen Santa Claus.

I have a devotional written by men and women in many professions including environmental engineer, city prosecutor, mechanical engineer, attorney, medical-device research and development engineer, senior research scientist, communications director, computer programmer, science teacher, etc., who are believers in Christ.

I was a nonbeliever until I discovered that I could control only about 1 percent of what happens around me daily.

Jesus said his word would always be relevant upon the Earth. That’s a prophecy that’s withstood provocation and persecution for 2,000 years. No one and no group will stop it from taking root and growing on any continent. Amen.

STEVE HILL

Bella Vista

Toward safer schools

Concealed-carry permits could be a very effective and low-cost deterrent to deadly school violence. A program should be made available to all willing administrators and teachers to qualify for the permit and cover its best implementation for school purposes.

This program could be enormously flexible while still being exceptionally effective. The actual participants in the program could be none or many and should be unknown, while the program’s existence should be well-known. Each school board could administer this program in any way it sees fit, but it would always make students safer.

GROVER KNOLL

Clarendon

Truth being distorted

Beloved world, Al Case continues to denigrate “most” Christians.

I am a Christian talk-show host and in the distant past invited Case to allow me to interview him on my daily Internet radio program, but he declined the invitation due to an impending move to another city. I publicly invite him once again to accept my invitation.

While he states that most Christians ignore facts, I believe he, like many others who denigrate Christians, does so by distorting the facts. I am neither intimidated nor dissuaded from my Christian beliefs because of anthropocentric academic speculations that come from him or others.

Case claims that Christian creeds, rituals, devils, demons, hobgoblins and other mischievous troublemakers are fully represented and elaborately expressed in non-Christian religions and rituals of paganism. His distortion is simple. He continues to make the common mistake of classifying Christianity as a religion, as though it were just one of many religions.

True Christianity is a spiritual way of life without creeds, rituals, hobgoblins, mischievous troublemakers or devils (plural), while acknowledging the concepts of a devil, demons and the one and only personal savior, the God-man, Jesus Christ.

The door is open to Case, and I offer him a worldwide audience. He is free to believe as he desires, but he is not free to distort the facts without loving confrontation.

JAMES A. BRETTELL

Maumelle

Use facts, not feelings

Currently there are no fewer than eight gun-control measures being considered in Congress, including bans on semiautomatic rifles, bans on high-capacity magazines, background checks for ammunition sales, and others. We can debate the merits of each proposal, but we must first be focused on the facts rather than the emotion of horrible news events.

According to the 2011 FBI Uniform Crime Report, of the 8,583 gun-related murders reported, 323 were caused by rifles, accounting for only 3.8 percent of all murders in 2011; assault rifles specifically would have accounted for a lesser percentage. Mother Jones reports that there were at least 62 mass shootings between 1982-2012; of the 142 weapons used, 35 were assault weapons.

While even one death is too many, I fail to see how this data can justify the avalanche of gun-control measures being proposed against semiautomatic rifles and magazines. We should focus our efforts where we will have the greatest impact, not on a relatively rare occurrence where there will be no significant results. We should not let our desire to solve this urgent problem drive more legislation that is not effective. Instead, we should work to enforce current laws, prosecute those who purchase firearms illegally, take measures to safely lock and store firearms that aren’t in use, and provide a better system to screen mentally ill individuals from purchasing a firearm. We owe it to ourselves and to our children to be responsible and not merely reactive.

DWIGHT NEWMAN

Harrison

Vices not just for poor

Kim Seim’s recent letter seems to me to indicate a bit of arrogance and self-righteousness. Better take a look at some of those “citizens of means and honor” friends and heroes. One may find a bottle of booze and a few cigarettes, to top off the Sunday fellowship meal, in their closets, too.

And, perhaps, a look in the mirror wouldn’t hurt either.

DEL LAMPHEAR

Decatur