Letters to the editor


Denying Jesus as only way will drive people from UMC
George Ricker has a problem with John 14:6 (“John 14:6 doesn’t limit God’s ways to offer salvation,” July 27).
He says: “For Christians who are pluralistic or universalistic in their thinking, the passage must have another interpretation.”
He then paints a much broader meaning; in other words: “Don’t take this verse too seriously.”
He adds John 10:16, where Jesus is quoted as saying, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.”
I interpret “this fold” as obviously meaning the Jews he is talking to. The “other sheep” are gentiles who
will come into this fold in the future.
Mr. Ricker says: “The concept opens the way to a pluralism that enables us to embrace the integrity of other religions and their way to wholeness of life or salvation.”
What he is saying is that salvation is available with any other religion. Wow! Didn’t Peter say in Acts 4:12: “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
In 40 years the membership of The United Methodist Church has dropped from 12 million to 8 million. Mr. Ricker, keep it up, and you will witness the loss of another million or so.
H.K. Rahlfs
Fredericksburg


Let’s stop worrying about diversity, start saving souls
I heard at our annual conference session about how we needed to elect this or that person in the name of diversity. I read with surprise and pain Carol Loeb’s statement of shame for being an Anglo person (“We didn’t offer Christ to all during our conference,” July 13).
Diversity is a wonderful thing. I remember celebrating Chinese New Year, San Genaro and other holidays when I was growing up in New York City. I grew up in a neighborhood that had Italians, blacks, Irish and Germans all living, working and playing together.
As kids, we never thought about “diversity.” We were friends. Our families were friends. One could almost say we were like a big family.
When Jesus came to live among us, he did so as one of us. When the church began, it was a diverse group, people from every race and nation known at that time. They became a cohesive whole, not by worrying about ethnicity but by following Christ.
They became the family of God.
So I disagree with all these calls for “diversity.” We in the church need to remember who we are and whose we are.
If we claim the name of Christ, there can be no strife among us.
Let’s stop all the political nonsense and be about what John Wesley set this church on so long ago. We are to “save souls.” We can’t do that when we are fighting among ourselves, trying to gain the upper hand because we are women, black or Hispanic.
John C. Quigley II
Castell