Letters to the editor

The voice of reason

To the editor:

I often read the online edition of the Pekin Daily Times, and my eye caught the opinion page for Aug. 22 about the theft of gasoline and the customers getting mad at the owners because they have to pay by debit or credit card.

I live in a city that is quite a bit bigger than Pekin and we have had to pay that way for several years.

When you have people who don't pay for what isn't theirs to begin with, what do you expect the owners to do?

Giving them a hard time because it inconveniences you only makes you the problem not the solution.

If it takes up your time, get your fuel after work.

It only takes a few minutes more to go inside and tell the clerk.

The more that is stolen the more the gas prices will go up.

It is like anything else: Because of thieves we all pay the price.

Lighten up! They only want to make a living just like the rest of us.

Step into the real world.

Jacqueline K. Horn

Former Pekin resident

Clarksville, Tenn.

Laws

To the editor:

Re: My letter in the Times June 13, titled, “Christians and war.”

One critic wrote that, “If David and others went to war in the Old Testament, why can't Christians today?”

Israel could “only” go to war when God gave them permission.

Who today has been given the divine right to tell Christians to do so? President Bush? The Pope? How about the World Council of Churches?

If they have, they are in violation of II Corinthians 10: 3,4.

The old covenant became obsolete, Hebrews 8:13, and was replaced by a better one. The death of Jesus nailed the old law to the cross. (Colossians 3, 14.)

Another critic brought up that John the Baptist didn't tell the soldiers in Luke 3:14, to get out of uniform. In the contest John spoke in, he was still under the old covenant. Many things weren't mentioned by John to the soldiers, but then how many of our flaws were mentioned when we heard our first sermon? It's hard for me to believe that John approved of these soldiers' profession when they wouldn't hesitate to obey Herod and behead him, later put Christians to death, including Jews.

If we can bring war over from an obsolete theocratic system, then to be consistent, we should bring over the whole apparatus. The Temple, the Levitical Priesthood (What about all the clergyman who want to keep their jobs?)

Also, if we are going to do this right we need to bring over from the old covenant 600 other laws, including Deuteronomy 21:18-21.

An area clergyman told me that he believed the Iraq War was justified because of terror brought on by an evil regime. There are different types of terror, and here are just a few:

€ Enron financially terrorized their employees.

€ The decision makers at Caterpillar Inc. have financially terrorized their past, present, and future employees. Their business philosophy has eroded this country for years while making large profits.

€ Maytag in Galesburg has done the same.

All these companies (and there have been hundreds more) should be ashamed to live and afraid to die. I asked this same clergyman mentioned above if he thought Bush (who claims to be a Christian) would be wrong if he was killing others in Iraq, and he answered “no.”

I then asked him if he thought Jesus would've been a hypocrite if he ran down the Mount after his sermon on “love thy neighbor,” yelling to everyone to fix bayonets, we are going after Rome because of years of terror - and he answered, “Yes.”

Ed Shroyer

Pekin

Blame the U.N.

To the editor:

After coming out of another war in Europe after 30 some years, WWII, you would have thought that the U.N. would have been super war conscious. Obviously, they were not.

Why didn't they place Israel in Iceland where they couldn't have been surrounded by their enemy Muslims?

The U.N. has created WWIII and their much desired New World Order. Guess the U.N. has never read Proverbs 16:18 Pride before Destruction.

Their play is approaching “the final act” in my opinion and I am half Hebrew!

J. Scott Hoffman

Pekin