MIDDLE EAST
Obama administration needs to stand by Israel
The Obama administration’s criticism of Israel is again out of bounds and misdirected. Israel has numerous times traded peace for land, and received no peace. They have negotiated honestly and followed through on their agreements, only to find that the Palestinians not only did not keep their end of the deal but resumed terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians.
The president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have unlimited patience with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Obama bows to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. But with Israel, they have only harsh criticism.
Let me remind all that Israel has a right to exist; they are our best ally in the region, and their lives, security and even existence are constantly attacked by Muslim terrorists masquerading as politicians. The administration needs to stop loving our enemies and hating our friends — and try it the other way around for a change.
Jerry Kotyuk, Marietta
SEXUAL ABUSE
Latest church scandal troubles this priest
As a Catholic priest for 38 years, I am both sad and angry because the sexual abuse scandal in my church continues to claim more victims — now, in Germany.
My instincts tell me that this cover-up, silence and indifference toward the victims would not have happened if the Catholic Church had women priests and women bishops.
Roy Bourgeois, Columbus
POLITICS AND RELIGION
Column misses the point on Beck, social justice
Jonathan Merritt’s column on Glenn Beck’s take on social justice, typical of a left criticism of the right, purposely misses the point (“Fox’s Beck should quit preaching,” Opinion, March 18). The social justice Jesus taught was personal, and was for the purpose of saving individual souls. Governmental “social justice” imposes itself on its citizens for the purpose of controlling their lives whether they want it or not.
Jesus’ social justice is a matter of free will; government’s is by force of arms and in no way should be equated with Christianity. Governmental “social justice” is what Beck is saying we should run from. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” perfectly explains this, if you care to interpret it objectively.
David A. Paul, Sandy Springs
POLITICS AND RELIGION
Look at what was written by the popes
Jonathan Merritt’s column on Glenn Beck’s “preaching” raises a question about numerous Papal Encyclicals of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Were these documents advocating communism and /or Nazism — or were the popes who wrote these encyclicals not the intellectual equal of Beck, and not able to see the error of their ways?
Michael A. Harrington, Dunwoody