Letters to the editor: God did not send us to judge others, but find Him in others
Published: February 1, 2010
Updated: February 1, 2010
God did not send us to judge others, but find Him in others
Every day I thank God for Jim Evans. He is the highlight of the Opelika-Auburn News. People are always welcomed to respond and today is my turn.
He has often been characterized as a liberal. So what? Does that somehow render him incapable of being a pastor? It’s wonderful to hear another voice, one that says there is room for all in God’s Kingdom.
I am always leery of any person that espouses a viewpoint that their religion is the only one that matters. “In my house there are many mansions,” leaving me to ponder if those many rooms may be for people who might have a different point of view than my own. God did not send us to judge others, but to find Him in whatever way we can. Other views, other races and other religions are welcome by God.
Throw out your preconceived notions; try hard. Open your heart to other people and love God. If we stop arguing about the ways we are different and think about the ways God makes us the same, we might open our eyes to a different world.
Evans is constant in his beliefs, he loves God; God loves us.
Cindy Gillenwaters
Dadeville
Americans stuck behind poor government because of apathy
My rant is aimed at Alabama’s government and citizens, but it could apply to all Americans and our federal government.
Day after day I read about, and hear, people saying government should do this or that. Some of their suggestions make sense, but they expend energy like hamsters on a treadmill and go nowhere because those in power don’t seem to hear them.
They could be more productive if they assumed their rightful place as owners of their government and told their hired public servants what to do, and that if they don’t do it then they and every other constituent of that lawmaker that they can influence will work to defeat them if they ever run for office again. If enough voters do that to an office holder it will surely get their attention and they may well comply. If they don’t, follow up and work to vote them out of office. In other words stop talking the talk and walk the walk.
I rant because I’ve preached that sermon for about five years on my Web site (http://www.doctoriq.com/) but I haven’t heard a choir singing behind me and we still are stuck with the government we deserve because of our apathy and inactivity.
Don Seibold
Wetumpka
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Reader Reactions
Right on, Cindy.
I find it much more important to trust those who confess their love for Christ as earnest. If someone professes to be a Christian, then that is that person’s personal relationship with Christ, and not something that is for me to decipher. My relationship with Christ is my own, and not for anyone else to critique. If someone is tempted to point a finger at another’s relationship and call it into question, then I am wondering if they are ignoring the plank in their own eye.
Ms. Gillenwaters and Rev. Evans are certainly entitled to their opinions. The real issue is not the opinion, but whether it is Christian as purported and the claim “God did not send us to judge others, but to find Him in whatever way we can. Other views, other races and other religions are welcome by God.“ is clearly not Christian in anyway.
The opinion rendered is clearly Universalist, not a teaching of Jesus. You may hold to the opinion, but then please have the courage of your convictions and start calling yourselves Bapto-Universalists or whatever.
Judge not was a teaching about us not judging outside the church and if you wish to actually claim to be Christian, then at least understand the whole thing and do not take some verse completely out of context. We may not all live up to those teachings, but at least we ought be able to express them without obvious mistake or in the case of Rev. Evans, possible fraud, because he ought know better.
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