Letters to the editor
Let’s drop hyphens, focus energy on being Christians
I applaud Terrence Hayes and Michael Lowry for their “My view” articles in the Jan. 12 Witness (“We must reach out, speak out, act out against injustices in society” and “God calls us to attack root structures of racial division”).
Both men have made a great point on an issue that many find uncomfortable to deal with. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus calls us, as Christians, to be the light of the world and to shine for all to see. The problem, as I see it, is that our light is dangerously close to flickering out.
Tragically, we have allowed hyphens to keep us separated. Why not focus on loosing the hyphens?
Let’s focus our energies on being Christians who practice our faith in the Methodist tradition, as we live in America (or wherever we may live) until that day, by the grace of God, we are called home to be with him in eternity.
Dave Richey
Pearsall
‘My view’ column makes timely point about racism
I wrote in an e-mail message to Mike Lowry stating that I thought his “My view” (“God calls us to attack root structures of racial division,” Jan. 12) was timely and well-written. I also said I think the race issue is still a salient one.
Over the past week commentators and writers have waxed eloquently about Martin Luther King and the powerful legacy he has left. Most of us long for the fulfillment of his dream. And church people are still apologizing publicly about past injustices toward black people.
Sometimes, however, all this talk still has a hollow ring to me. I imagine some point in the future when so many of us will be apologizing to homosexuals and other marginalized people for treatment just as mean.
Dan Adams
San Antonio
Southwest Texans deserve thanks for helping library
My daughter, Sonia, wrote a summary of her attendance at the 100th anniversary of Bolivian Methodism (“Bolivian Methodists mark 100 years’ service to nation,” Dec. 8).
During the same trip she went to the American Institute (Methodist school) library in Cochabamba that bears her grandfather’s name. Moises Merubia was one of the founders of Bolivian Methodism.
Southwest Texas United Methodists have been helping modernize this Moises Merubia Library through proceeds from the continuing sale of my autobiography, In the Line of No Resistance: God’s Will. Sonia saw how well the Southwest Texas money had been used so far.
At a special tea, Sonia received a framed bronze scroll thanking me for financial assistance to improve the school library.
Frankly, Southwest Texas United Methodists deserve the thanks. The school’s gratitude and mine are for you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Alberto Merubia
Austin
Austin’s Montopolis center now does have Web site
In the Mission Possible supplement in the Dec. 22 Witness, the information on Montopolis Friend-ship Community Center contained an error. MFCC does have a Web site: http://www.gbgm-umc.org/austinumw/MFCC-broch.html
Anne B. Ader
Austin
Culture colors our views of what’s right, wrong
In recent years students of biblical translation have noted an interesting trend. Jewish names are being restored to
their proper places in the English text.
For example, “Yeshua” or “Yeho-shua” for “Jesus,” “Yohanin” for “John,” “Judas” for “Jude” and “Yaacov” or “Jacob” for “James.” All these Jewish names appear in the Old Testament and now in some recent English translations of the New Testament.
Like the gender neutral trend a few years ago, these name changes can engender cognitive dissonance. Some people attempt to overcome this dissonance by making the politically correct observation that early English translations, such as the King James Version, were colored by the anti-Semitic, anti-feminine bias of the translators’ culture.
Further, the gospel writers are perceived to have been overwhelmed by desire to “sanitize” the story to make it more palatable to evangelical prospects such as the Romans and did so by portraying Jewish political parties and client rulers, such as Herod, as primarily responsible for the death of Yeshua.
I tend to agree more with the first theory than the second.
The account of Yeshua in Revelation, also written by a Yohanin, excoriates the empire Babylon, not the Jews (“Babylon” being another euphemism for either Domitian or Nero, both of whom did persecute Christians, both Jews and gentiles, most ferociously).
Persecuted people tend to blame most the ones who should have known better and attempt to hold persecutors to their own standards. See Stephen’s speech to the San-hedrin as recorded in Acts and its consequence or former President Carter’s latest literary effort analyzing Israel’s land use policies.
Ellen Berky
San Antonio
Let’s drop hyphens, focus energy on being Christians
I applaud Terrence Hayes and Michael Lowry for their “My view” articles in the Jan. 12 Witness (“We must reach out, speak out, act out against injustices in society” and “God calls us to attack root structures of racial division”).
Both men have made a great point on an issue that many find uncomfortable to deal with. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus calls us, as Christians, to be the light of the world and to shine for all to see. The problem, as I see it, is that our light is dangerously close to flickering out.
Tragically, we have allowed hyphens to keep us separated. Why not focus on loosing the hyphens?
Let’s focus our energies on being Christians who practice our faith in the Methodist tradition, as we live in America (or wherever we may live) until that day, by the grace of God, we are called home to be with him in eternity.
Dave Richey
Pearsall
‘My view’ column makes timely point about racism
I wrote in an e-mail message to Mike Lowry stating that I thought his “My view” (“God calls us to attack root structures of racial division,” Jan. 12) was timely and well-written. I also said I think the race issue is still a salient one.
Over the past week commentators and writers have waxed eloquently about Martin Luther King and the powerful legacy he has left. Most of us long for the fulfillment of his dream. And church people are still apologizing publicly about past injustices toward black people.
Sometimes, however, all this talk still has a hollow ring to me. I imagine some point in the future when so many of us will be apologizing to homosexuals and other marginalized people for treatment just as mean.
Dan Adams
San Antonio
Southwest Texans deserve thanks for helping library
My daughter, Sonia, wrote a summary of her attendance at the 100th anniversary of Bolivian Methodism (“Bolivian Methodists mark 100 years’ service to nation,” Dec. 8).
During the same trip she went to the American Institute (Methodist school) library in Cochabamba that bears her grandfather’s name. Moises Merubia was one of the founders of Bolivian Methodism.
Southwest Texas United Methodists have been helping modernize this Moises Merubia Library through proceeds from the continuing sale of my autobiography, In the Line of No Resistance: God’s Will. Sonia saw how well the Southwest Texas money had been used so far.
At a special tea, Sonia received a framed bronze scroll thanking me for financial assistance to improve the school library.
Frankly, Southwest Texas United Methodists deserve the thanks. The school’s gratitude and mine are for you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Alberto Merubia
Austin
Austin’s Montopolis center now does have Web site
In the Mission Possible supplement in the Dec. 22 Witness, the information on Montopolis Friend-ship Community Center contained an error. MFCC does have a Web site: http://www.gbgm-umc.org/austinumw/MFCC-broch.html
Anne B. Ader
Austin
Culture colors our views of what’s right, wrong
In recent years students of biblical translation have noted an interesting trend. Jewish names are being restored to
their proper places in the English text.
For example, “Yeshua” or “Yeho-shua” for “Jesus,” “Yohanin” for “John,” “Judas” for “Jude” and “Yaacov” or “Jacob” for “James.” All these Jewish names appear in the Old Testament and now in some recent English translations of the New Testament.
Like the gender neutral trend a few years ago, these name changes can engender cognitive dissonance. Some people attempt to overcome this dissonance by making the politically correct observation that early English translations, such as the King James Version, were colored by the anti-Semitic, anti-feminine bias of the translators’ culture.
Further, the gospel writers are perceived to have been overwhelmed by desire to “sanitize” the story to make it more palatable to evangelical prospects such as the Romans and did so by portraying Jewish political parties and client rulers, such as Herod, as primarily responsible for the death of Yeshua.
I tend to agree more with the first theory than the second.
The account of Yeshua in Revelation, also written by a Yohanin, excoriates the empire Babylon, not the Jews (“Babylon” being another euphemism for either Domitian or Nero, both of whom did persecute Christians, both Jews and gentiles, most ferociously).
Persecuted people tend to blame most the ones who should have known better and attempt to hold persecutors to their own standards. See Stephen’s speech to the San-hedrin as recorded in Acts and its consequence or former President Carter’s latest literary effort analyzing Israel’s land use policies.
Ellen Berky
San Antonio