• I will stand by the Word of God • Shared problems, shared solutions I will stand by the Word of God In response to Jan Rudinoff’s and Bettejo Dux’s recent rebuttals of my previous comments: For Bettejo Dux: My
• I will stand by the Word of God • Shared problems, shared solutions
I will stand by the Word of God
In response to Jan Rudinoff’s and Bettejo Dux’s recent rebuttals of my previous comments:
For Bettejo Dux: My response was directed to another minister and his comments as someone claiming the Christian faith. He is a friend and I hold no malice towards him, but am simply engaged in some spiritual kickboxing that our media and country allows. It was not directed to “all of us” as you felt I was implying, but again, to another minister. And who could argue against your homosexual horse theory?
For Mr. Rudinoff: I will stand by the Word of God. It is a book that will never be outdated, because it is a story of love. Out of context, one can make the Bible support just about anything if they twist it enough.
But on the other hand, if one was to set themselves on truly studying the word of God in its entirety, they would find a story of love, of grace, of mercy, of forgiveness, of loving the sinner and hating the sin, but never find God’s acceptance of that sin.
No, Mr. Rudinoff, it is not a “cheap phrase to hide behind” but a truth that we are sinners in need of a savior. That we cannot keep the 10 Commandments, that we cannot obtain righteousness by our own means, but only through God’s intervention as a savior. And we cannot make excuses and justify our sin by our own rationale.
But Mr. Rudinoff should know this, yet his agnostic allusion to not being able to know God or the fact that the God of the Bible is outdated by suggesting that if we still followed the archaic book, we would still be stoning people, implies his own lack of grasping God’s Word in context.
Have we forgotten about the adulterous woman thrown before Jesus for His approval to stone her? It was the law? But in the Word of God, in its entirety, we see that there was no stoning approved of by Jesus. There was however a conviction of their own sins, those who picked up the stones to throw. Yet Jesus doesn’t condone her sin or tell her it was OK to be in an adulterous affair. He called it what is was: sin, and told her not to do it again. He said: “Go and sin no more.”
Love never overlooks or makes excuses for sin, but love forgives sin and encourages the end of it in a person’s life. I don’t speak frivolously or have an ax to grind, but each day I see the results of sin in people’s lives as I am asked to help in some way to restore that which is broken.
I have also lost my own brother to AIDS, who I loved very much, and I know personally the homosexual lifestyle he and his friends lived and died for. I know the lifestyle, the hurt, the pain and have heard all the justification for it, yet I support Malama Pono and YWCA’s efforts to combat the AIDS stigma and disease.
I will continue to call for loving the sinner and hating the sin. You, Mr. Rudinoff, can continue to justify the actions you feel have evolved into acceptance. We both will stand before God for our beliefs. So, I will pray for you Mr. Rudinoff and I would appreciate your prayers for me.
Tom Iannucci, ‘Ele‘ele
Shared problems, shared solutions
In his Jan. 20 letter entitled “Real issues,” former Judge Alfred Laureta criticizes the criteria used by Walter Lewis for a county manager proposal.
He says that we should not ask whether the county manager system is the better choice, but rather “whether the flaws in the current government methods are sufficient to justify any change.”
My decision on any ballot issue has always been based on whether the proposed change is the better course and I see no reason why that shouldn’t apply to a vote on a manager proposal. Whether there are flaws in the current system and, if so, how substantial they are is surely a secondary question.
Mr. Laureta persists in inquiring about the “real “ reasons provided by proponents on the manager system. Unless he has some justification for his implication that the stated reasons are not the real ones; his innuendo seems hollow.
Judge, you argue that there was no reference to any provision of our County Charter to blame for the flaws, inadequacies and inefficiencies of our county government operations. You don’t seem to understand that it is the absence of such provisions that fail to protect us from the deficiencies that have been observed.
Mr. Laureta then concludes that we should “elect the right people and get rid of the problems.” At least he understands that there are problems, but please tell us Mr. Laureta who are the right people to elect to get rid of the problems.
He is right — we have better government with better people. Under both the present system and the manager system there will be an elected council, but where among the likely candidates for mayor would we find the persons with the education and training to be a competent chief executive for our county? If, Judge, you don’t know the answer to that question what is the value of your point?
I hope we are both concerned about the problems in our present system and would like to see improvements. I believe that a manager system would make a positive change in the operation of our government, and I hope that you might agree it would address the problems that face us.
Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a
