LETTERS: THAT WHICH COMES FROM THE HEART

To the editor:

I have always loved going to the zoo. My favorite attraction is observing the apes behind glass cages. I always denote a sense of sadness and guilt within my soul due to the expression on the apes' faces. When they look at me, I begin to discern certain emotions which they seem to be harboring that indicate a need for seclusion from the environment in which they are being exposed. Is it any wonder that they feel this way? They have been confined to a controlled area for humans to look at, laugh at and point fingers at. This makes the apes feel humiliated, embarrassed, ashamed and extremely self-conscious.

I made a short business trip to Chicago, which began with a flight out of the airport in St. Louis. As I walked to the gate, the announcement over the public address system expressing the airport's no-smoking policy was being branded on my mind. As I continued to walk, I discovered I was in front of one of those designated areas for smokers. What I observed with my eyes and perceived in my heart became a frightening revelation. The designated area was a glass cage with twice the number of people within its glass walls than it was designed to contain. The smokers were being confined for other humans to look at, laugh at and point fingers at. The nonsmokers passing by were doing all three, I assure you. As I spoke with the smoker inside, they voiced their feelings of humiliation, embarrassment, self-consciousness and shame.

The issue I am presented is not a debate as to whether or not smoking is a hazard to one's health. What I would have you consider is a matter of the heart and, I believe, the beginning of a deep spiritual problem which has existed since Jesus spoke these words to his disciples: "Hear and understand. Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man. Those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." Jesus found it necessary to relate this to his disciples because they had not washed their hands and had been accused of transgressing the tradition of the elders. It was then, as it is now, they were teaching as doctrine the commandments of men. Someone recently wrote, "Smokers have not had their right to smoke taken away from them. They have had their right not to be embarrassed by it taken away.

I would ask you to think upon these things I have mentioned. Pray about it. Do an attitude check in your heart. And ask yourself what would Jesus do?

RON E. FARROW

Cape Girardeau