• Blood boiling • A lamp for my feet • A deeper understanding Blood boiling Saturday’s headline “Kaua‘i school funds to be used for O‘ahu special election” made my blood boil! Voters do not elect congressmen as a part-time position.
• Blood boiling • A lamp for my feet • A deeper understanding
Blood boiling
Saturday’s headline “Kaua‘i school funds to be used for O‘ahu special election” made my blood boil!
Voters do not elect congressmen as a part-time position. All elected politicians should serve their full term. Only allow resignation for serious personal issues, such as illness. Or, make them pay for the special election.
Abercrombie quickly implemented his gubernatorial campaign ads, stating “leadership you can trust.” Is a congressman who abandons his constituents when major policy changes come up for passage someone you can trust? Does his oath of office stop because he wants to be governor?
Does trust come to mind when Abercrombie said he would not resign early from Congress citing the expense of holding a special election? Actions speak louder than words: He resigns early and triggers a special election to fill the remainder of his congressional term, which ends January 2011.
He says he wants to focus on issues such as economic recovery. What away to show the public how he will handle this by provoking a costly special election and stealing established funds from a county that isn’t even in the first congressional district!
What a blatant misuse of monies for his personal gain. No wonder people are sick of politicians.
Jackie Peterson, Waimea
A lamp for my feet
It is with a sad smile that I read the various broadsides fired at the bible (and those who find solace in it) through letters sent in this forum.
There always have been those who have misused the magnificent saga of God’s love and pursuit of mankind for their own twisted and often evil agenda. And we know that it takes no great wisdom to wrest from this ancient collection of documents a verse (often out of context) to make the focus of ridicule or objection.
But this belies the fact that the central message of the bible, understood without difficulty by the majority of those read it, is the core motivator for an amazing amount of good done in this world.
Your readers may not know this because many of us whose worldview has been shaped by the message of the bible usually live our lives quietly and without seeking accolades.
For example, most do not know that Dr. Ken Pierce and family, whose trip back to Haiti was featured in this paper, are motivated to throw their money, time and skill towards strangers in need because they are inspired by the teaching of the bible. They take seriously the words of Jesus when he said “In as much as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me.”
Frankly, after the cameras, governments and movie stars have abandoned Haiti the helping people who will still be there and who were there in strength before the disaster overwhelmingly find their souls sustenance from pages of the bible.
On the numerous occasions I have had to sit at the sickbed of a person whose days are numbered with distinct clarity it is the words of hope from the bible that they ask me to read.
I have never had a request for Nietzsche.
No family member who has lost a loved one has clamored to hear from Darwin about the survival of the fittest but they do cling to words penned thousands of years ago that breathe the breath of God.
None of the broken lives I have seen mended have done so because of a good dose of Sartre or the acid wit of Bertrand Russell. But I know many for who the message of grace from the bible was a healing salve.
Time and time again, in culture after culture, the wisdom displayed in bible has proven itself to be a divinely designed operating manual for living a life full of mercy, grace, love, kindness and creativity.
Men and women who put their trust in the story of grace told in the bible have more often than not been lights of imagination and love; Tolkien, C.S. Lewis (no intellectual slouches these two) Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn, Mother Theresa, Wilberforce, are just a few examples among millions of unnamed points of light.
In spite of those who have made it a convenient whipping boy, I believe that after our culture has long crumbled into dust, the message of the bible will stand as the pinnacle of God’s amazing sacrificial love and His impeachable wisdom.
Disbelieve if you wish. Live contrary if you choose. But be cautious about attacking those who find their lives enriched by the good news in the bible or those hoping to shape their communities by its precepts.
You just might find yourself in the same place I did many years ago as I attempted to ridicule and block up the “fount of all wisdom” — overwhelmed as grace flooded my life.
Rick Bundschuh, Kauai Christian Fellowship, Lawa‘i
A deeper understanding
Dawn Morais Webster’s letter “Be not afraid” (Feb. 21) compliments those Roman Catholics that seek a deeper understanding of scripture informed by the continuing unfolding of knowledge in the human sciences.
Affirming her Christian faith within Catholic tradition, she is able to call into account her bishop and those in authority who would deny equal rights to those who desire recognition of a relationship in civil unions. I commend her.
Jan Rudinoff, Lihu‘e
