Moral teachings equal the 'right direction'
With more than 70% of Americans believing our nation is headed in the wrong direction, the question is what is the "wrong direction" or the "right direction"?
The results of the mid-term elections imply we believe a political change alone will not get us going in the "right direction."
Evidence of the "wrong direction" can be seen in news stories like a vehicular attack on a group of police recruits, the murder of three University of Virginia football players, the murder of four college students in Idaho, a gunman attacking an LGBTQ bar in Colorado and possibly others since writing this letter. I believe the common thread in such horrors is individuals allowing themselves to be governed by evil.
The Bible teaches that we are all born with a sin nature. The first restraint on this sin nature is typically taught/caught in the family, followed by reinforcements in society. When these fail, the restraint must come from the force of the law or government.
These restraints are imperfect at governing the human inclination to evil. The best restraint, the "right direction," is believing in the good and loving God and believing and living by the moral teachings of Scripture.
Dennis Urbaniak
Signal Mountain
Let God judge people who are gay
Open letter to my Sunday school class:
There was a discussion about pastors and elected leaders needing to be openly against rights for the LGBTQ+ community. I was wrong not to speak up and ask you how does God want us to treat gays?
Does God want us to treat gays with violence or with love? I believe that they should be treated with love and respect! Only God has the right to judge someone's actions and beliefs! We need to get "our own houses" in order first.
Joel Blake
Investigations will be GOP's only plan
House Republicans straight from their overwhelming midterm majority have already made good on one of their election promises: investigation, investigation, investigation. Yet they have not put forth any plans for their other promises to tackle inflation and gas prices (not much they can do about that), the border, crime, etc. The reason? They don't have a plan for any of those. It appears they are intent on spending taxpayers' money for years of investigations that will reveal nothing.
House Republicans will also continue to push culture wars that will not improve lives of Americans but serve only to cast fear and division. So, it seems for the next two years we will be hearing a lot about Hunter's laptop and children at drag shows but not much about getting meaningful legislation passed.
Rebecca Rochat
Get to polls for Georgia runoff
To our friends in North Georgia, it appears your state government is working hard to keep you from the ballot box, again, so you are unable to vote early, on a convenient Saturday, in a runoff election.
You "give them what for" and find your way to a polling station to vote on Dec. 6.
In America, voting is our democratic right. Trying to suppress it is not an admirable, respectable way to win an election. We all know that. All of us.
Yet, it continues.
Those in power can try, but ultimately, no one can keep you from casting your ballot. Vote on Dec. 6.
Kerry Lansford
End 'Scrooge City': Help our homeless
This week I saw an old woman huddled on the ground, hugging herself against the cold outside the door of the Salvation Army. A few moments before, I had spoken with her from the warmth of the Blessings Place, a small "store" the SA offers one day a week so those in Chattanooga's growing homeless and poor population can shop free for small amounts of clothing, food, and other necessities (e.g., soap, toilet paper). As I counted and bagged the few items she had selected, the woman told me she had cancer, and I saw in her haggard face the end she faced: alone, even in death.
When I think of the 700 people -- yes, people! -- tossed out of their homes at the Budgetel hotel, I see this woman and others like her beginning this season of plenty and giving with no place to go, not knowing when they'll eat again.
I don't know where she stayed that night, yet I turned away and did nothing. "What can one person do?" I thought. I went home to my warm house that smelled only of fresh-baked cookies. But I can't "unsee" that old woman, and I don't want the end the Bible tells me I will merit if I continue to do nothing. I will turn away no more.
I want to work to end the plague on our city that homelessness has become. I want us to end it now, this winter. Until then, I will no longer think of us as the Scenic City. I will call us by the name we have earned this week: Scrooge City.
M.D. Roblyer