Speak Out A 05/15/03

Read the Bible

I KNOW this is controversial, but how can pastors or bishops who are openly gay stand before a congregation and claim to be preaching the Word of God? The members better start reading the Bible for themselves.

Eyesore car

I THOUGHT landlords were supposed to keep cars with no license plates off their parking lots. On Sycamore, there's a nice apartment with ratty old car without any license plates. It will not run. It looks like the landlord would do something about for the sake of the neighbors.

Cheapskate father

WE HAVE a grandson who lives with us. His dad makes $75,000 a year. He only pays $200 a month child support. Next year our grandson will be going to college. The payments will stop next summer. What do you do with a father who tries not to give him extra money? He has at times, but he keeps cutting him so short. What can we do?

Biblical scholarship

AS AN Episcopalian, I find it rather annoying that so many non-Episcopalians are criticizing the church for its recent approval of a gay bishop. Episcopalians are not fundamentalists, nor do the passages in the Bible so often used to condemn homosexuals seem all that clear-cut. The reference to St. Paul in I Corinthians refers to temple prostitutes, not homosexuals. And the reference in Leviticus is amidst a lot of other now-forgotten laws such as making eating pork as well as sleeping with your wife during menstruation abominations. Christians ought to learn more about the book they claim they so revere. The Bible needs to be approached critically and contextually. Awareness of biblical scholarship is possible if you do desire to know the truth. Otherwise, you are lying about the meaning.

Pulling weeds

DOWNTOWN improvement associations do not exist for the purpose of pulling unsightly weeds, as a Speak Out caller seemed to say. However, one of the main reasons they do exist is to recruit people (preferably volunteers) to do it for them.