Churches: Consider millennials' opinions
My name is JuQuan Stewart, and I am a youth pastor here in Chattanooga. Over the past few years, I have seen a decline in many churches when it comes to their relationship with millennials. Various articles suggest that although there are several reasons millennials do not attend church anymore, two reasons that caught my attention were the ideas millennials felt that no one really listened to them and that they were tired of hearing about vision and mission statements.
Millennials want to see the church's orthopraxy matches their orthodoxy. Can we as the church put action to what it is we say that we are supposed to do? Perhaps that is the reason millennials feel the church is not listening to them - because the actions of various churches have become mere words.
If we desire to see our churches strive and be what they are intended to be, we must take heed to the issues millennials and younger generations find in our churches. They are the future of the church. How we invest in our youth and young adults tells how much we care about the future of the church.
JuQuan L. Stewart
East Ridge
Neonatal group unfairly targeted
About the Oct. 31 article titled "Erlanger NICU changes spark review, backlash," I see that the current climate that anyone may be accused of wrongdoing without providing the proof is alive at Erlanger Children's Hospital.
CEO Don Mueller implies that Pediatrix Medical Group made a complaint "out of spite" to the state and a national regulatory agency that oversees hospital accreditation concerning the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Yet, the opening sentence in the article states that the complaint was anonymous. Then how can Mr. Mueller point a finger at the very group that has made it its mission to provide the very best in life-saving quality care to so many neonates for the past 20 years?
The neonatologists, neonatal nurse practitioners and staff deserve more respect than this.
Amy Lombardo
Apison
Trump is protecting American sovereignty
On page B6 of Nov. 3 Chattanooga Times Free Press, a commentary titled "Mattis walks the Trump tightrope over troops," by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, shows how dumb some of these writers are.
James Mattis is the current secretary of defense and a part of President Trump's Cabinet. To not follow the president's orders, the secretary would be relieved from the Cabinet position and court-martialed.
This writer acts as if it is no big deal for caravans of people to enter our country. The United States is a sovereign nation and needs to be treated as such.
When these migrants declare they are coming to the United States to seek asylum, what they are saying, in reality, is we are going to invade your country and there is nothing you can do about it.
Thank God for President Trump.
Byron J. Hendrix
Cleveland
On abortions, God has much to say
The Bible is God-breathed. It contains the words of God, the words of man and the words of Satan.
Every word of God is truth; man's words may or may not be true; Satan's words are filled with lies, deception and hypocrisy.
God had much to say about abortion. In the Old Testament, he said, "Thou shalt not kill." He need say no more to those who are not looking for an excuse to kill their unborn.
In the New Testament, he said about an offender, "It is better for a millstone to be hanged around his neck and he be cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones." (Luke 17:2)
Jeremiah 1:5: "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." God said this to Jeremiah.
To those who have had abortions, you know it was wrong because you are haunted by your unborn child.
God will and does forgive if you ask him.
Janette Roberts