Phelps owes apology
This letter is in response to an article entitled “Jesus Christ Holds a Press Conference” published in a recent edition of the Collegian.
I wish to voice my distaste with the subject matter which Dr. Phelps seems to be fascinated with, that being the obvious bashing and singling out of the Christian religion. Frankly, I feel that Dr. Phelps has stepped over the line in his articles and I feel he needs to stop. Dr. Phelps has taken every opportunity to single out the Christian religion and try to belittle those who choose to believe this way and the very one who is the center of the whole Christian religion: Jesus Christ.
I would like to take this opportunity to make a plea to Dr. Phelps. First, I ask him to stop writing articles of this nature. I, personally as a Christian, find them very offensive. This is not to mention how my Lord feels about the slander he seems to deem necessary to print. Second, I plead for an apology from him. I feel it is the least he can do to take responsibility for, if nothing else, his beliefs.
Dr. Phelps is highly respected as a member of the faculty of SDSU. It is my opinion that he can profess anything he wishes in the confines of the classroom, as that is his job.
However, there is no reason to continually try to drag Christians down in an attempt to get a message across. I wonder how Dr. Phelps would feel if someone constantly bashed agnostics because they need personal experience to believe in something. How different is this belief than faith in something you cannot see?
I do not see the reason for this article or others asking people to constantly question their beliefs in an effort to change them.
In conclusion, my plea to Dr. Phelps stands as previously outlined.
Please write an apology and take some responsibility for your actions.
Please, save the “satire” for those who truly appreciate it.
Matthew GilbertGeneral agricultureDoland
Abstinence is needed
I am writing in response to a letter by Ben Nesson (in the Feb. 25 issue) and I must address first the summarization to Andy VanZee’s letter (in the Feb. 18 issue) by Mr. Nesson.
Though apparently Mr. VanZee may not have stated his ideas clearly enough for Mr. Nesson, Mr. VanZee at least brings up a significant point: that safe-sex teaching does not help the problem of consequences of unsafe-sex but perpetuates it. Mr. Nesson says to the contrary that safe-sex teaching solves the problem, but what kind of response is that? I see no problem solved.
Forgetting abstinence teaching is a defeatist attitude first of all, which says that “they will do it anyway, might as well teach them the right way.” But I say this to Mr. Nesson: giving kids a crash course in safe sex and then hoping that they get it right is idiotic!
Do you remember the general attitude of most students in high school concerning any scholastic endeavor?
True, many students worked hard for As and got them, but the majority of us fell somewhere in the middle of the Bell Curve.
A student getting Cs or even Bs in other classes will do no better in safe-sex class, and when messing with the “instruments,” Cs and Bs aren’t enough to prevent kids from eventually making music.
When dealing with an issue that has such high consequences, “responsibility” would say we ought to tell them first and foremost to stay away from sex until they are ready to handle the load.
I conclude with this. Mr. Nesson sums up his letter saying that the only argument which can oppose one’s supreme ability to decide that sex “is okay, when responsibly had” (that it may be against God’s commands) is an invalid one because “not all of us are religious people.”
To that, I say this: if the God of the Bible does not exist, then Mr. Nesson, you are correct-we can simply choose or not choose to believe in such a God and His morality; it’s up to us.
But, if He does exist, then our choice to believe in Him or not has no bearing on the truth of His rules.
In that case, whether you believe or not, His rules are still the same and you are still breaking them. Simple non-belief on our part does not exempt us from His reality or His sovereignty.
Chris Bos History and GeographyBrookings
Satire unneeded
In a recent “Faculty Corner” satire, Dr. Brady Phelps takes advantage of the constitutional freedom of speech and press given by our founding fathers.
Many of these founding fathers professed a faith in Jesus Christ that can be learned by reading their journals and personal letters.
According to Webster’s collegiate dictionary, satire is a literary work holding up human vices and folly to ridicule or scorn.
I am thankful for that open comment in “Faculty Corner” that prepared this reader’s mind for the following insults by Dr. Phelps using artistic license to present an idea based on truth from scripture.
The topic choice demonstrates Dr. Phelps’s low opinion of the modern Christian church. His use of current topics, like the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the United States and President George W. Bush’s profession to be a Christian, demonstrate absurdities perceived by Phelps, a scholar supposedly dedicated to studying and healing the mind.
He pokes fun at popular Christian culture creating hurt rather healing. Many will get riled up and park in their anger.
Only by the Lord’s grace and peace, am I able to move past anger to love. It’s like the love a parent shows to a child when telling them not to play in the street or to touch a burner on a stove.
I don’t know Dr. Phelps or his beliefs, but the Jesus in his satirical article is misrepresented truth.
The Jesus I know is the son of a loving creator bent on developing a personal relationship with His creation leading to eventual eternal life with Him in heaven. All of His thoughts and plans for His creation are good.
Those who choose not to develop a personal relationship with this creator via Jesus will spend eternity in damnation. The choice is ours.
If I am wrong, all will be safe as you are, and I will have lost nothing by living my life dedicated to bringing good into my own life and the lives of other people.
But, if I am right, a day will come when all mankind will bow their knee before Jesus Christ.
Those who have previously chosen him will enter heaven, and those who did not choose him will enter damnation.
Are you willing to take the risk of being wrong?
I am.
Lowell Haag SDSU graduate Brookings
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