Christians focus on grace, not race
President Obama acknowledged tremendous progress toward racial equality. During February’s Black History Month the media should recognize Christianity’s role in this tremendous progress in racial relations.
Large Christians churches have increased their membership of all races. Christians do most adoptions, including cross-race adoptions as seen in the movie “The Blind Side.”
Liberals said racism could be ended by education. However, racism isn’t due to ignorance, it’s due to sin. Dr. Martin Luther King said racism was at its foundation a moral issue and had to be confronted as such by the churches and people of faith. Few people know Dr. King was a Baptist preacher because the media rarely gives Christianity any credit.
Sin can only be overcome by knowing Jesus and His amazing grace. Christians focus on grace, not race. In Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, black nor white. We are all one, but we don’t lose our identity in Jesus, we find it.
Booker T. Washington said God brought good out of the evil of slavery.
Booker said, “We went into slavery in this country pagans; we came out as Christians.” Booker saw Christianity, not the government, as the remedy for racism and for all social evils.
DANIEL NAVE
Elizabethton, Tenn.
Research shows treatment safety
“The most recent research (Neck Pain Task Force Report for Bone and Joint Decade 2000-2010, a study sanctioned by the United Nations and the World Health Organization) indicates neck manipulation is a safe and effective form of health care,” according to Matt Pagano, D.C., chiropractic profession spokesperson.
The study, which analyzed nine years’ worth of data from a population of 110-million person years, concluded that vertebrobasilar artery (VBA) stroke is a very rare event and that the risk of VBA stroke following a visit to a chiropractor’s office appears to be no different than the risk of VBA stroke following a visit to the office of a primary care medical physician (PCP).
Contact the American Chiropractic Association for more information (703) 276-8800 or call this office (423) 364-7165.
JOHN W. ROSS, D.C
Good people in God’s world
Goodness plus kindness equals honesty.
Last week I left for several errands. I cashed a check and received several large bills. At Soup’s On, I sat at a small table by the door. I foolishly put three large bills in the pocket of my slacks and when I pulled out a bill to pay Cissy for my take-out, one of the remaining bills fell to the floor, under the table. I was unaware where I lost the bill.
A few days later I returned to Soup’s On and Cissy (who makes the wheels turn) asked me if I had lost a large bill. Her well-trained daughter, Taylor, had found it and turned it in to Cissy, who in turn returned it to me. There are indeed good people in God’s world!
BEA MCGEE
It’s obscene to tax estates
What does it matter if your estate is worth $1 or $1 billion? If it was all made honestly in the “pursuit of happiness,” and honest taxes were already paid on it, it is obscene to tax it again just because the estate owner and the inheritors may already be “rich.”
“The rich” have paid the most taxes already, and many have heavily supported charitable works. Many of them include charities in their wills and trusts.
This reminds me of the latest eminent domain fiascoes in Connecticut and New York. What gives us the right to take private property from unwilling sellers for other private interests, just because it will create more tax revenue for the local government?
All you folks out there who honor what our forefathers did for us and who believe we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we will have a revolt soon in this country if the politicians don’t stop diminishing the gift of this wonderful nation.
SHERRY KITTS
Hixson
NASA experiment costly, not needed
President Obama is ending NASA’s mission to the moon and turning to private companies to launch astronauts — but there’s another way he could help NASA cut costs.
NASA recently announced a $1.75 million experiment to irradiate squirrel monkeys to try to understand what might happen to humans on long-term space flights, such as a trip to Mars. This experiment is clearly cruel, and as a physician, I know it will not help us protect humans. Genetic, anatomical, and physiological differences between humans and monkeys dramatically limit the conclusions that can be drawn.
In addition to ethical and scientific concerns, this experiment is completely unnecessary. From decades of data on human spaceflight and from ongoing nonanimal studies, we already know long-term space travel is dangerous. And long-term space voyages are highly unlikely given NASA’s new policy and budget considerations. President Obama vowed a line-by-line budget review to eliminate programs that don’t make sense, but this experiment shows that the administration must have skipped a few lines.
HOPE FERDOWSIAN, M.D.
Director of
Research Policy
Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine
Washington, D.C.
Bid Laden changing tactics
It seems that Bin Laden has changed his tactics in appealing to Muslims to support his crusade and al-Qaida against the West and, in particular, the United States.
His latest appeal is for the world, and especially those of Islamic persuasion, to boycott the United States and other industrial nations because of their alleged contributions to the climate change and the greenhouse effects raising the world temperatures.
I suppose the next tactic will be an appeal and opening of dialogue with that other world leading “authority” on climate changes and the warming world, non other than our own Mr. Al Gore.
Who knows? That austere citadel of compassion and science in Sweden just might award Bin Laden the Nobel Peace Prize if his efforts succeed. It looks like any agenda will qualify one for that coveted prize.
On the other hand, why in the world would one living in a dank and frigid cave in Pakistan with a camel for a partner want the temperature to fall?
CHARLES DAVID
SLIGER
Shelbyville, Tenn.
New heating unit doesn’t cut bill
A few years ago, I wrote you a letter in reference to an increase in our electric bill every January. Well, it did us one better this year.
Two years ago, our homeowner’s insurance company advised us that we had to get rid of the wall heaters. (Remember when Chattanooga called itself “Electric capital of the world”?) Everybody electrified their houses (almost everybody) in the 1960s. Well, after 40 some years of use, the wall heaters had to go.
In January of 2008, we had an air conditioning and heating system installed — a little under $8,000. In 2008, we used 3,506 KWH and this January only 5,150 KWH. This is only 1,644 KWH more than 2008.
Someone told us “This system should reduce your electric bill at least by 25 percent or more.” Didn’t happen. No use complaining as we will be advised that everything is working properly.
EDWARD TINNEY