Recently in Religion Category

This is a response to the letters of Heather Smith (November 16th), suggesting that we show respect for our new president, and of William Folger (November 23rd), stating that "President elect Obama does not respect Jesus" and therefore doesn't deserve our respect. Heather shows some wisdom; Folger shows some arrogance.

Folger gives Smith a nice smack down by writing that she "in her youth," does not really understand things as well as he does. He, being a very righteous older person, I gather, finds that Obama has "convicted" himself because Obama supports abortion and stem cell research; ergo, Obama is a bad Christian and "disrespects Jesus."

Poor, young Heather, to be thus taken to task for so foolishly and ignorantly wanting us to be respectful when the righteous elders of the world know so much better!

It seems we have some "religious" people who call themselves "christian". Yet they do not follow the main tenents of the founder of this religion and his guide book. Why? Do they belong to the P and C (pick and choose) denomination? They choose to believe only certain parts of the Bible and discard the rest, or make excuses that it doesn't apply in today's world.

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I am a registered independent voter and I have a loyalty to neither side in this election. I am, however, totally appalled at the new low to which campaign tactics seemed to have sunk. Specifically, I am referring to the email smear campaign that appears to have been mounted by the McCain camp.

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The media have mistakenly compared Barack Obama to Jesus Christ, revealing our national disgraceful ignorance of the Bible.

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I am writing in regards to John Zeigler's Sept. 2 letter about single mothers. I actually had to read the letter twice, because I found it hard to believe that much hatred could be contained in so few words.

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You printed a lead article in your paper about churches dressing down. This is a serious reflection of our increasing disrespect for the house of God, regardless of denomination.

In recent years, large companies experimented with dressing down, such as casual Fridays, but found a decrease in production, a decrease in product quality, as well as a decline in self-respect. In churches we also seem to have a declining respect for God to the point where we are becoming more like social clubs than dynamic places of worship before an awesome, almighty God, the Creator and sustainer of the entire universe.

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Regarding the Daily Record's August 22, 2008 article "Hamas Aid Costly", the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) has no knowledge of or involvement with alleged donations to Hamas by Richard David Hupper. The core of ISM's mission is nonviolence. The allegations against Mr. Hupper appear to relate to the period after Mr. Hupper was expelled from the ISM.

Mr. Hupper volunteered with the ISM in the West Bank during 2004. In the fall of 2004, the ISM concluded that, despite his evident goodwill, Mr. Hupper's skills were not compatible with those required by the ISM to conduct its work. Therefore, in a meeting with him in the fall of 2004, two ISM founders expelled Mr. Hupper from the ISM.

Anyone working with the ISM is prohibited from perpetrating or aiding any form of violence. This prohibition obviously includes giving money that would be used for armed resistance. Providing funding or support to any Palestinian political party, including Hamas, would also violate ISM policies, and the ISM has never violated these policies.

The ISM has twice been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for courageously supporting Palestinian nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation. The ISM continues today to support West Bank Palestinian communities in places like Bil'in, Ni'lin and Tel Rumeida, Hebron as they nonviolently resist Israeli settlers' and soldiers' efforts to expel them from their ancestral lands.

Adam Taylor
Media Coordinator
International Solidarity Movement
Ramallah, Occupied West Bank, Palestine

This letter is in response to Anna Attig ("Speak of God in Schools," August 22). Ms. Attig asserts, "How come we dare not talk about [God] in our schools?" Normally I choose to ignore such religious fanaticism, but this is just one instance where I can not. Ms. Attig, we do not discuss God in America's public schools because our nation has the Constitutional principles of freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Thomas Jefferson himself declared in an 1814 letter, "Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law." The U.S. Constitution begins "We the people" and contains no mention whatsoever of God, Jesus Christ, or the Bible. If America was established as a "Christian nation," why does our governing document fail to mention this?

Because we do not promote God in the public schools, Ms. Attig claims that we are guilty of atheism. Nonsense! Promoting atheism in the schools would involve advocating the viewpoint that God and gods/goddesses definitively do not exist. Christian fundamentalism is, sadly, all too common in York County. This fanatical mentality is what led to the 2004-05 Dover school board saga that made York County a national embarrassment.

Justin Garcia
Lancaster

Aided by compliant mainstream media pundits and anonymous emailers endlessly repeating the same lies long circulated as part of a well-orchestrated smear campaign, Jerome Corsi's Obama Nation currently enjoys New York Times bestseller status, despite having been thoroughly discredited and debunked by fact-checkers on all sides of the political spectrum. Though the book is riddled with easily-refuted misinterpretations, half-truths and outright lies, Corsi is being accorded by many in the media the status of a serious scholar, despite a long history of championing crackpot manifestoes and and assertions so outrageous and patently false that even his fellow right-wing hatchet men have been moved to disavow him.

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Do we really need another administration whose ticket to the White House is based on lies? Are we Americans that stupid as to believe every slanderous and deceitful email, news report, or editorial? If you caught someone lying to you, wouldn't you think twice about believing them a second time? Remember the WMD story that got us into Iraq?

The so called "conservatives" have the resources to control much of the mass media such as Fox news and most of AM talk radio. We were taught that the communists use brain washing and propaganda to control the masses. That is exactly what the extreme right is doing. They count on the theory that if you hear the same lie repeated enough times, it will become your truth.

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