Christian-Bashing?
Re: Scene & Herd, "Preaching to the Converted," by Scott Harrell (May 18-24)
Speaking for the viewpoint of a Bible-believing follower of Jesus Christ, I have to respond to Scott Harrell's article. Once again Christians are getting lumped together and bashed for the actions of a very vocal few. What concerns me here is how Catholics and Jews seem to feel they are "targeted." The Catholic Church and the Protestant Church have a lot in common, and in fact, have more in common than not. I have done PLENTY of research on my own (not being Catholic) including spending a great deal of time talking with a local Catholic church. Guess what … I have NO problem with what the Catholics believe. More Protestants should do exactly what I did and find out for yourself from a local church (not the Internet) about what the Catholic Church really believes. It would amaze you how close we really are. The Jews feeling targeted also concerns me because Jesus was a Jew. The difference between Protestants and Jews is that Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. However, there is a group called Messianic Jews that do recognize Jesus as the Messiah. It just doesn't sit well with me that Jews feel targeted.
The reality is this … nearly EVERY faith feels they are the ONLY ticket to Heaven: Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, etc. Yet all we read about are us bad, evil Christians trying to convert the world. Whenever you hear someone who wants to bring up the separation of church and state (which, by the way is NOWHERE in the U.S. Constitution) it is in relation to something that us bad, evil Christians are trying to do. Liberals love to celebrate every religion BUT Christianity. I wonder why this is?
David Meyer
Valrico
God-Fearing Nazis
Re: Letter from Rebecca Townsend re Suggblog (Letters, May 11-17)
I hope Ms. Townsend's claim that the Nazis weren't Christians isn't an example of the quality of the letter-writer's research as a lawyer. It takes very little research to discover that the Nazis did indeed consider themselves Christians, as did their leader Adolf. "I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work." [Adolph Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936] In fact, many of his followers considered Hitler a gift from god! For example, "God gave the savior to the German people. We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith, that he [Hitler] was sent to us by God to save Germany." [Hermann Goering, from Louis L. Snyder, Hitler's Elite, Shocking Profiles of the Reich's Most Notorious Henchmen, Berkley Books, 1990] Ask yourself how this differs from those blindly following Bush's lead. The answer has to be, "Not much."
Brent Yaciw
Tampa
Letter From Camp
Re: Summer Guide, Museums and Summer Camps Listings (May 11-17)
We enjoyed reading your Guilty Pleasures edition to see what's doing this summer – lots of good ideas! Thanks for including our wonderful museum in your list of places to visit; your readers should know that we're located within the pristine environment of Pinewood Cultural Park along with Heritage Village and the Florida Botanical Gardens, whose volunteers and staff landscape our beautiful outdoor sculpture gardens – a treat for any visitor! We also thank you for including our children's summer camp in your camp list, but one correction: We offer just visual art activities here at the Museum in partnership with St. Petersburg College. Their "College for Kids" summer camp program offers computers, music and other activities at other sites throughout Pinellas County, but not here. We also have studio art classes for adults – you might call them summer camp for adults!
Patt Fosnaught
Curator of Education
Gulf Coast Museum of Art
This article appears in May 25-31, 2005.