THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 4, 1994 TAG: 9406030101
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Betsy Mathews Wright
DATELINE: 940604 LENGTH: Medium
Reader John Ellis of Virginia Beach called to say: ``I really enjoyed the column (on materialism). You point out a problem which I think is everywhere today - that is, our society being too materialistic.
{REST} ``It seems that these days, people have forgotten that having more stuff than you need deprives other people of things that they need. And while I don't consider having nice things or getting more nice things necessarily bad, I do believe it to be wrong when those nice things take precedence over God in your mind and heart. . . . I wish people would stop and consider that this selfish materialism causes so many other problems in our world, such as selfishness and lack of compassion which I feel sometimes leads to resentment and hatred.
``Again, while I don't consider having nice things to be wrong, I do believe it to be wrong when having nice things is more important to you than living a Christ-like life.''
Even though there wasn't much Reader Response about the issue of materialism, the mail and phone did yield some reader's thoughts about other topics.
From Stanley J. Serxner of Virginia Beach: ``Yours is the voice of sanity in an otherwise complicated theological cross-chatter. I appreciate your column.
``Observation: Most people in most languages of the world refer to the `Old Testament' and the `New Testament,' assuming that the `New' fulfills the `Old' . . . Even considering that theory to be so, the correct designation of the books are the `Hebrew Testament' and the `Christian Testament' . . . How's that for theologically sane cross-chatter?''
There were also three responses about the issue of racism discussed two weeks ago.
From John Ziogas of Suffolk: ``I believe in God. God created all the people and also segregated them by color and language. He made women's minds 180 degrees out of sync (sic) with men. That's why men are attracted to women and women are attracted to men. A minority gone awry. Some with hate. It's that simple.''
From Kathryn O'Leary of Virginia Beach: ``In November, I attended a tele-conference at ODU called, `Healing Racism: Education's Role.' The main speaker, Nathan Rutstein describes prejudice as an `emotional commitment to ignorance' and described racism as a disease that manifests itself at many levels: blatant, unaware, institutionalized, internalized.
``The cure for the disease, Rutstein said, is the universal acceptance of the principle of the oneness of mankind as taught by the Baha'i Faith. Rutstein suggests that school teach the oneness of mankind from pre-K to college as this will help to heal our nation's disease. For more information, please read `Healing Racism in America,' by Nathan Rutstein.''
O'Leary also enclosed a flyer for the upcoming Race Unity Walk, June 11, 12:30 to 3 p.m. at Mill Point Park in Hampton. A poster contest for youth, ages 18 and under, will also be held that day. For more race information and poster contest guidelines, call the Hampton Coalition for Youth at 728-2085.
And last, from reader Mark DeMaio of Virginia Beach: ``I believe your whole column is a trivialization of faith. It makes my skin crawl. Real faith stems from a historicity. It doesn't stem from a warm fuzzy feeling that everyone is privy too. It's absurd. It's almost like you've taken faith and put it in a less-than-Dear-Abby context and you're worse than a liberal editorial board with the letters that you print, exposing various willy-nilly opinions.
``Issues of Faith? Why don't you take the time to expose the substance of faith so that people can make some real assessments about faith, about what it is . . . It's a belief that has to be based on some sort of truth or it might as well just be Icarus and Daedalus.
``I've wanted to call you so many times. It's not so much just the issue recently on racism and the blue-eyed Jesus, but there-in lies a beautiful example. If you wanted to make a point, rather than just open Pandora's box or this can of worms for everyone to expose their ill feelings about it, you could have intimated that it's most probable that because of the geographical locations, blah-blah-blah (sic) . . . (You should have gone into) the historicity of what Christ most probably looked like and also that the Scriptures never mentioned what he looked like. And that's the simple facts of it all. It's malicious of you to open a can of worms such as you have. . .
``Do something good with your column if God's given you an opportunity to do so and definitely be loving and gracious, more so than I've been. You'll have to forgive me. But do something real, not something petty like tabloid TV.
``God bless you and do forgive my negativity.''
by CNB