Letters on prayer breakfast comments, Brownback fairy tale, police
Don’t give religious title to terrorists
Regarding the uproar by some about President Obama’s comments during the National Prayer Breakfast about the Crusades, etc.: I believe the point is that almost all religions, including Christianity, have had factions claim the name in order to commit atrocities against humankind.
To call ISIS an “Islamic” or “Muslim” terrorist group is a misnomer at best and simply untrue at worse. No less untrue would it be if we identified all Christians with terrorists who claim that name. For example, we do not refer to the Crusaders, the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads or Scott Roeder as “Christian terrorists.” We need to call them all simply what they are: terrorists.
Hanging a religious title on them simply because they claim to represent a religion only fuels the flames of hatred and bigotry, driving a wedge between good, faithful, peace-seeking people of all stripes – Christian, Muslim, Jew, as well as the nonreligious. Instead, we should find common ground with our sisters and brothers of other religious and nonreligious traditions in order to present a unified front and voice crying, “Enough!”
Rev. KENT H. LITTLE
Lead pastor
College Hill United Methodist Church
Wichita
Focus on light
President Obama’s remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast got me thinking back to about five years ago, when I couldn’t watch the news anymore.
Why? Well, I was angry. I couldn’t believe the way Congress was forcing through legislation that large sections of the population were very vocal about not wanting.
So I took that anger to confession one day. The priest’s counsel will stay with me forever.
When you are in a dark room, he said, and someone lights a candle, what happens? Your eyes go to the light. They can’t help but go to the light. Christ is the light. When everything else goes dark, keep your eyes on the light.
His counsel, while so simple, made a lasting impression of how a leader should act and speak.
I couldn’t help but think back to that confession last week. How might my faith have been affected if the priest had responded differently? What if he had shamed my anger?
Recasting what Obama said about past atrocities done in the name of Christ: “Well, lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that people committed terrible deeds in the name of politics.”
I would’ve wondered if he had adequately discerned his vocation.
ANGELA RIGGS
Wichita
Fiscal fairy tale
Has anyone, besides me, noticed the uncanny similarity between Gov. Sam Brownback’s scheme for financing state government and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”?
CHARLES WATSON
Wellington
Mocking officers
The recent widespread disparagement of police officers brought to mind a line from Rudyard Kipling: “Makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep.”
WILLIAM L. HAYES
Wichita
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This story was originally published February 9, 2015 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Letters on prayer breakfast comments, Brownback fairy tale, police."