Criticism of review of “Gospel of Judas” book
According to letter-writer Chuck Stober (Aug. 27 Open Forum), Douglas Groothuis’ negative review of the book “The Gospel of Judas” reveals a severely closed mind. Based on his own reasoning, where does that leave Stober? He criticizes Groothuis for not being a historical scholar, but it’s obvious that Stober is neither a historical nor biblical expert, yet shows no reluctance to offer his “superior” judgment.
Like the mindless creationist, says Stober, Groothuis argues backwards from a literal (God forbid!) reading of the Scriptures, daring to dismiss evidence that doesn’t conform. It never seems to occur to Stober that evolutionists do the very same thing: they assume the literal truth of evolution and then interpret all evidence through it. The only difference is that they are able to dismiss and/or destroy contrary evidence with impunity. Of course, liberals love to embrace anything that contradicts the Bible – especially if it lionizes Judas as the misunderstood hero (and smartest of the disciples), instead of the betrayer of Christ presented in the historically accepted gospels. Is there some natural affinity going on here?
Finally, if Groothuis’ rejection of “Judas” represents “the cozy darkness of belief” in Stober’s logic, then isn’t Stober’s rejection of Groothuis’ analysis an equal (if less-informed) example of the same thing?
T.P. Beh, Castle Rock
Comparison of Iraq war critics to Nazi appeasers
Re: “Rumsfeld: Critics are like appeasers of Nazis,” Aug. 30 news story.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told American Legion Convention attendees that Bush critics suffer from “moral or intellectual confusion” about the nation’s security and that they’re like those who tried to appease the Nazis in the 1930s. It’s becoming increasing clear the administration is on the ropes.
Those who speak up against the administration’s “unjust war” in Iraq, as Pope John Paul II characterized it, and those who are speaking up against the administration’s attacks on civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, are more in line with the Nazi resistance than appeasers. It’s time for Rumsfeld to go and time for our troops to come home.
Larry Carnes, Trinidad
…
Donald Rumsfeld’s speech, in which he compared the Iraq debacle to the unavoidable war to defeat Hitler, was meant to frighten Americans. It led Sen. Ken Salazar to call for Rumsfeld’s resignation, and moved me to write this letter.
In a recent speech, President Bush first used the specious phrase “Islamic fascists” to describe millions of Muslims who rightly fear and increasingly despise his Middle East policies. This extreme characterization was intended to further polarize and frighten voters into supporting his failed and dangerous policies.
When you vote for Congress this November, think of the children – then vote global, not local. Sending your Republican representative back to Congress will guarantee you a tax break – and will guarantee Bush the rubber-stamp vote he needs to drag the nation and the world further towards the dark abyss of hatred and war from which there may be no return.
Tom Rutter, Denver
$9 trillion national debt
“I Want My Nine Trillion Dollars Back.” This is my non-partisan campaign motto for this fall. I think most Americans agree, no matter what party one affiliates with. Extrapolate any way you want. It ends up the same.
This country is amazingly resilient. We have borne the brunt of corporate malfeasance, terrorism, economic distress, and the looting of trillions of dollars from our government. We are finally awakening to what our current administration is motivated by – money for their cronies. It is the greatest robbery of all-time.
I want my $9 trillion back, and the ones who stole it put behind bars. It starts with changing who sits in Congress this November. If they voted for the $9 trillion federal debt, boot them out. Then investigate, prosecute and incarcerate – and reclaim what they took from us.
Mark Simmons, Broomfield
Wyoming and Colorado oil and gas reserves
I heard a negative political advertisement this past week on KOA 850-AM radio questioning the record of Bill Ritter as district attorney. The ad told listeners that “over 95 percent of the cases handled by the DA’s office were plea bargained to a lesser offense,” leading one to believe that Ritter had been soft on criminals. In fact, Ritter had achieved a 95 percent conviction rate and sent more than 12,000 felons to prison when he was DA. The radio ad was paid for by the Trailhead Group, a 527 which is sponsored by Gov. Bill Owens, Bruce Benson and Pete Coors.
I then picked up the newspaper to read that Coors had plea bargained his recent DUI conviction down to the lesser offense of driving while impaired.
I guess we now have “Both Ways Pete” supporting the Republican candidate for governor.
Janice White, Denver
Post and Rocky building
Re: “Building for the future,” Aug. 28 business news story.
Congratulations on the charming and well-designed new Denver Post/Rocky Mountain News building. It is one of those buildings that looks so right it makes you wonder why someone didn’t put it in that spot before. It stands in stark contrast to the hideous Denver Art Museum addition, which resembles an alien spacecraft that crash-landed due to inherent design flaws. Of course, there will always be people to praise the “emperor’s new clothes.” But this is Denver, not New York City, and the Denver Newspaper Agency has that one figured out.
Herb Herndon, Englewood
Job-related deaths
Re: “State job-related deaths rise in ’05,” Aug. 30 business news story.
Interesting article about worker deaths in the state in 2005. I’m still waiting for the National Organization for Women to complain that women are seriously under-represented in the totals. Only 6 percent of the deaths (8 of 125) were women. I can hear it now, this blatant discrimination against women must immediately cease, blah, blah, blah.
Maybe this is why men supposedly earn $1 against a woman’s 75 cents. In some circles, I guess this is considered a fair trade-off.
Michael R. Hudson, Pueblo
Failure of No Child Left Behind law
Is No Child Left Behind a success? According to the most recent Gallup poll on the subject, it is not. Fifty-eight percent feel that it is not helping the schools in their districts and nearly 70 percent are against using a single test to determine a public school’s effectiveness. When asked about root causes of failure, 70 percent point to societal problems rather than to the performance of their schools.
Interestingly, when these same Americans were asked a hypothetical question in which they were to picture their child in a “failing” school, 79 percent said that they would rather see efforts made to improve their present school than have their child transferred. And 82 percent worried “a great deal” or “a fair amount” about focusing on English and math to the neglect of art, music, history, and other subjects.
No Child Left Behind is not what it was cracked up to be. Let’s tell our representatives we want change.
Patricia Richard-Amato, Woodland Park
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