Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 30, 1993 TAG: 9310150361
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
According to the article, this study "applied the traditional Baptist view that Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and members of other non-Christian religions are not saved."
There are several possible responses to a study like this. We can take a cue from the article and smirk at those narrow-minded Baptists who call other people "unsaved," and pat ourselves on the back because we are so much more broadminded.
Or we can take what I believe is a more prudent approach and ask ourselves: What if the Baptists are right?
After all, this is more than a question of what Southern Baptist doctrine says. It's a question of what the Bible says - the same Bible which has been accepted as truth by Western Civilization for 1,000 years; which inspired our concepts of liberty, rule of law and sanctity of life; and on which our president lays his hand when he takes the oath of office.
The Bible reveals the purpose of Jesus Christ's death was to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind. And now, justice having been satisfied, God can offer free forgiveness to all who will receive it.
What a strange thing that the stark, logical implications of such wonderful news can put Christians in the awkward position of sounding narrow-minded (even bigoted) when we maintain there is only one way of salvation.
But if it was necessary for God to die to provide this salvation, can we logically think there may be any f+iothero way? Jesus did not give that option. "I am the way, the truth, and the life," he said.
I'm not at all inclined to laugh at the Baptist Mission Board, but to thank them for caring and acting on the truth.
TOM TAYLOR
ROANOKE
Let's get with it globally
THE EDITORIAL cartoon in the Sept. 23 Roanoke Times & World-News was offensive and had explicit racist overtones.
First, of the scare tactics being used to attempt to tell American workers that the North American Free Trade Agreement would affect their job status, just look at all the products sold that are being made in the Orient, which means not made in the United States!
There was a point in time when "made in Japan" was the biggest joke. Now, they have succeeded in surpassing many of our manufacturing jobs. Look at consumer electronics, auto sales - beginning in the '70s and until very recently - and clothing that Japan, Inc. has farmed out for production outside of Japan.
The Pacific Rim and the European Common Market are uniting to form an economic power. We in America have to realize that we exist in a global society. Mexico does have a labor-cost difference from us, but so does China. It takes longer for goods to arrive from the Orient than from across the border. In Mexico, which is a huge market for American-made goods, the people want quality goods. No one said Japan had to open business facilities here and in Mexico. Other countries have manufacturing operations in Mexico. All this means is that American quality, engineering and management techniques will be utilized with Mexican labor for Mexico, and exported to the rest of the world.
The American worker should wake up to be globally competitive, so that owners do not move their jobs to other parts of this country (with no unions), Mexico or other countries.
Is H. Ross going to be homeless, hungry and bankrupt when NAFTA passes? Just ke ep on sending him your money. Get real!
GEORGE P. EWEN
ROANOKE
No exemptions for other retirees
REGARDING the situation concerning the return of tax money taken from the pensions of federal employees:
Why shouldn't they pay taxes on their pensions the same as other people do? I'm retired from a big company and get a nice pension, and I pay the same taxes as I did while working. Why should federal retirees be exempt? I'm sure they made more money than most people.
RUTH G. CUNNINGHAM
ROANOKE
Save the comics that have bite
THE REMOVAL of "Mother Goose and Grimm" from the daily comic strips and "Andy Capp" from the Sunday strips is the biggest blunder since the introduction of "new Coke." The same old cliches, such as "change for the sake of change" and "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," apply.
The strip "Cathy" uses basically the same stupid and boring joke daily - of Cathy overdoing food, clothes, boyfriends, etc. I suggest you return "Mother Goose and Grimm" and "Andy Capp." If this results in "Cathy" being eliminated, so be it.
Other comic strips with dry wit that I like are "Calvin and Hobbs," "Dennis the Menace," "The Far Side," "Doonesbury," "Peanuts, "For Better or Worse," "Garfield," "Funky Winkerbean," "Beatle Bailey" and "Shoe."
To be entertaining, comedy has to have a bite to it. The bottom line is that intelligent humor is really very funny.
CHARLES L. HANNA
COVINGTON
Administrators aren't angels
PRESIDENT Clinton's health-care message before Congress was a masterpiece of persuasion, painting a picture of a benevolent government tenderly ministering to Americans' health needs.
Those old enough recall the way FDR charmed the populace, starting 60 years ago, leading to the greatest burgeoning of central government and to a welfare state generating debts and monetary debasement beyond the imaginings of at least three generations!
At an increasing rate, we've seen agencies demonstrating abysmal failure in effectiveness. To mention just a few: public housing, welfare entitlements, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the savings-and-loan fiasco, public education and the post office.
And now we're expected to believe that Clinton's utopian picture of ideal health care can be administered by morally dedicated public servants, industriously motivated, singularly competent and free of temptation to "feather their own nests" as they perform their duties down through the years. Why should there now be a sudden upgrading of human nature?
Were the authors of the federalist papers wrong about their assessment of human nature, urging the adoption of the Bill of Rights in order to rein in the excessive powers of the new federal central government? Has the term "checks and balances" lost its meaning?
If the Clintons have their way, our health needs will be looked after by a new, humongous administering agency staffed by human beings who have the same frailties of behavior known to exist within us since time immemorial. No matter how idyllic a picture painted by Clinton, the gigantic and powerful mechanism will not be run by angels!
With all the evidence of 60 years (New Deal, Great Society, Fair Deal, etc.) plus the ultimate example of just a few years ago - the utter failure of managed society (communism) - have we still not learned any lessons in what works and what doesn't as humans try to manage others' lives?
Let's look down the road when the bloom of initial success in health management has worn off and the inevitable corruption and inept bungling has burgeoned. How can it be reined in, short of violent revolution?
A wise person, back when our Constitution was new, opined that after 20 years the people will learn they can vote themselves benefits out of the public treasury. That's when the newfound freedoms will be lost!
Ominously, is that not where we seem to be today?
PAUL W. NORDT JR.
SALEM
In search of middle ground
REGARDING Cody Lowe's Sept. 19 column entitled "Jew believes agreement is essentially defeat for Palestinians":
When Marc H. Ellis, a Jewish author and theologian, claimed that Israelis used the Holocaust to "justify brutality," he failed to state that Israel gained control of the Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan when the Arab nations attacked Israel in 1967, and that the so-called acts of "brutality" have been security measures in response to the Intifada in the Gaza strip and stepped-up terrorist attacks by Hamas and the Hezbollah on Israeli soldiers and civilians.
If Jews insist on the perpetuation of the facts of the Holocaust, of its being burned into our collective memories, it is with the prayer that it will never happen again, and to thwart efforts of revisionists who say it never happened - not to "continue to be Jewish."
Evidently, Ellis neglected to expand the concept of the peace agreement which will, if terrorist acts on both sides are controlled, lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state. If Israelis are cautious about initiating a peace treaty, it's because of the fundamentalist Hamas organizations' strength in Gaza, the Hezbollah camped in Lebanon, Syria north of the Golan, Jordan bordering the West Bank, and the West Bank, which is 10 miles from Tel Aviv.
Hamas, which claims all of Israel, sees the plan as a defeat for the Palestinians; the Hezbollah, which claims all of Israel, sees it as a defeat for the Palestinians. Why does Ellis?
Let's pray that there is a middle ground where these two nations, Jews and Palestinians, and all countries in the region can live together in peace.
NATALIE R. SHEFFLER
ROANOKE
Memo: ***CORRECTION***