Letters to the Editor

September 04, 2009

Does Powell know where life goes?

To the editor:

I find Allan Powell's frequent challenges and criticisms of the Christian faith to be quite thought-provoking.

Why does he need to prove that Charles Darwin wasn't a Christian, and perhaps was even an atheist? Powell regularly refutes the concept of an intelligent designer, and sings the praises of Saint Charles, the religion of evolution and its doctrine of natural selection.

If he is correct then multiple societal issues can be easily addressed. Natural selection means the human race will grow stronger if we stop pouring resources into the weakest of our kind. Health care would "naturally " be rationed since the sanctity of life and compassion are not involved. Likewise, homeless shelters, rescue missions, food banks, free clinics and the plethora of research projects dealing with a multitude of diseases would be unnecessary. Is it not reasonable to assume that natural selection uses disease as a means of selecting and "pruning" the weaker of the species? God calls us to love weak, the poor and the unselected.

If all of what we know as life in this world is the result of some random event billions of years ago and not the design of God then what is the meaning of life? Morality and ethics do not matter if there is not the Greater One to whom we all must answer.

Curious that Powell is so certain of the origin of life. Is he equally certain of where it goes? Can't wait to read that column.

Dennis Whitmore
pastor, Hilltop Christian Fellowship
Clear Spring

200-year-old message rings true on health care

To the editor:

In 1787, at the New York Constitutional Convention, Gov. George Clinton wrote, "If you are negligent or inattentive, the ambitious and despotic will entrap you in their toils and bind you with the cord of power from which you and your posterity may never be free."

This message was to the electorate and was admonishing them to become knowledgeable and become involved in the process of adopting a new Constitution.

Most of us do not know the details of the pending health care legislation. Perhaps a message from 200 years ago could be a clarion call to us to become knowledgeable and involved in legislation "from which you and your posterity may never be free."

Ed Hawbaker
Hagerstown

Kennedy's death highlights need for reform

To the editor:

My heartfelt condolences go out to America's first family on the loss of Sen. Edward Kennedy.

His death highlights not only the (urgent) need for health care reform (his most earnest cause), but the snail's pace of that necessary change. Why 40 years of "debate"?

We must have the national courage - and conscience - to make that reform, not merely "debate" it for another four decades.

Joe Hammell
Waynesboro, Pa.

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