Letters

Your reader survey (March) does not give orthodox members a place to mark their views on Scripture. I believe, to quote the Basis of Union, the Scriptures are “given by inspiration of God . . . a faithful record of God’s gracious revelations and as the sure witness of Christ.” Your survey does not give me that option, and therefore I am sure the results will not reflect accurately the views of the church.

David Dawson
Hamilton

In every unbeliever-believer debate (Cover story, February), we see the parable of the building of the biblical Tower of Babel, in which God “confounded” the language. In this debate, there is misunderstanding as to what the other side means. The “confounder” is the two-letter word “is,” which implies factuality and universality.

The concept of God or no God is an expression of the human desire to find meaning in a chaotic world. It is unbecoming to engage in a meaningless debate over the “isness” of God.

Michael Mowchenko
Saskatoon

The article quotes Chris Hedges, “The question is not whether God exists. It is whether we contemplate or are utterly indifferent to the transcendent . . .” Well, no. The question is whether the concept of the transcendent is just a mental abstraction serving as an anchor that gives comfort to that other key mental abstraction, self. Pretending the self is part of something beyond its isolated, temporal corporeal container enables belief that the self can finesse physical death, thereby sating the fundamental drive of self-preservation. Anthropomorphizing the abstraction of transcendence into a personal God is just anthropocentric pandering to human presumption and vanity.



Marc LaChapelle
Twickenham, England

It was easy to predict the atheist ad campaign would prompt the United Church to react — and get it wrong. Our moderator calls the church to action over this tempest in a teacup, giving atheists a legitimacy they would not have achieved had they been ignored. What is our reaction? Enlist the help of the same people who gave us the bobblehead Jesus. We are encouraged to use WonderCafe as a forum to open dialogue. It’s like watching children in a sandbox fighting over who will play with the bucket and spade.

For years, we have been constructing a God that is too small. We have provided venues to people in high places who sideline Jesus and trash the New Testament, all in the name of diversity of belief. The United Church needs to get its act together and stop worrying about what protesters think. Their campaign is like being stoned with marshmallows.



Alfred Clay
Calgary