@rickaroo... You are right about Job.. @annisisbell... You are the most intersting person I have encountered in Chattanooga's local media. I am not sure if you are real or pretending. I will say this... Whichever it is, keep it up. We all need to remember that hatred against groups of people can amount to more than vitriol.

It is still hard for me to believe something as horrible as the Holocaust didn't happen in the mid-ages but in the time of our grandparents. You remind me that the mentality that drives that sort of abomination still exists.

I have, too, read Job for comfort. How one man could be assaulted so. I have found meaning, truly. That is a personal story, between a tortured father being tested by Satan and God holding out rescue. Not sure that either the Devil or God was being the nicest but so our protagonist must learn for himself. We all try to make reason out of the hardships that come our way. I was guided to the story of Job several years ago when I was going through dark times but the Book taught me a different lesson. We persevere. We don't wait for rescue; we sort it out. Otherwise we just blame everyone else for our own situation. We can learn much from Job.

I agree, Ikeithlu. It is hard to get how people, in our day and age, would still support hatred. . But, let's go back to the origins of this article. Should governement bodies institute a procedure of Christian prayer before deciding on matters like... Your driveway is actually across the neighbors property line so needs to be moved back 3 feet...that sort of thing. Could there be a conflict of interest? Or... Can I build a hotel on Dayton Blvd... No reason, in my thinking, for a prayer to any god, to oversee decisions of this matter.

Hey, annisisbell, I don't doubt there was some mistakes, big mistakes, so don't mistake me, after WW2. Our great-grandparents did what they thought was right at the time. We are in a new age now. We either learn from history or our civilization repeats it. Jewish people make up our ancestry, yours, mine, and... You don't want to abandon a distant relative, I know. Even here in the South. We forgive not because we will go to hell if we don't but because it is time to move on.

Well, both anti-Jew and anti-Christian battles have gone on too long; Chattanooga, TN should be better. Our politicians, as representatives of us all, should understand this is the 21st Century, not the 14th, and voters know that too.. There are those of us who would just prefer we realize we have more important problems as, supposedly, the most intellectual and reasoned society on the planet. Feel free to worship as you please, we have a country that allows that for a reason. But we can never let government plan for one one to represent us all. A moment of silence, before the Commissioners' meetings, surely, but anything other than that just doesn't represent the total of our people.

I am rather proud of this young journalist and proud of the Times for letting him publish this unique op, especially in this part of the South. I know all of the Times readers would, hopefully, want to keep an open mind to politics and religion, but this was a sweet story about one of our own local gals looking for truth herself and not being afraid to do so. For those who don't doubt and accept the truth of a deity you have never seen... I am not sure what to say. I figured it out at 14 and can't imagine how hard it must be to be to question that later. And like our heroine in this story, we don't need damnation to do right by our people.